Last week, when I normally would fill my evening with an AFI movie, I elected to watch Enchanted instantly on Netflix instead. A) I was in the mood for something light and frothy and, most importantly, short. 2) The next AFI movie on the list is Doctor Zhivago, which is better than 3 hours long. And D) I've been wanting to see this movie since its release, I never had the chance to, and it was available instantly. It's a musical fantasy (two of my favorite things!), it was nominated for Oscars (another of my favorite things!), it's a Disney film (that too!). Really, this movie had possibilities and potential written all over it...and to that end, I probably expected too much and was bound to be a little disappointed...
Enchanted tells the story of Giselle (Amy Adams), a princess in the making who sings, in animated form, to her animal friends about finding her true love. Luckily for her, Prince Edward (James Marsden - can you believe this guy was Cyclops?) happens to be riding along on his horse and hears her melodious merry-making. Unluckily for her, Edward's evil stepmother, Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon), covets her queenly rule, which she would have to give up if Edward married a beautiful princess. So, she contrives to kill sweet Giselle on their wedding day but, instead, settles for accidentally pushing her down a seemingly bottomless well. Giselle then magically pops up through a Manhattan sewer, very much three-dimensional, and a stranger in a strange world. While she tries to find her way back, or, at least, another handsome prince to rescue her, a divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey - aka McDreamy) and his young daughter find her. Cynical about love as a divorcee himself, though engaged to another woman (Idina Menzel), McDreamy (since I can't remember his character name) doesn't understand Giselle's bubbly views on love and her uncanny ability to sing about everything and command animals such as rats and cockroaches to clean up his apartment. He also tries to convince his daughter that fairy tales aren't real, though Giselle's very existence validates her dreams. Yet, McDreamy tries to help Giselle against his better wishes while Edward follows the path of the well, looking for his true love, and Narissa sends her covetous henchman (Timothy Spall, aka, Wormtail) to finish the job she started.
Like I said, Enchanted had potential for me; the whole movie should have been right up my alley in every way possible. The trouble is, I was more than a little bored.
The least boring part was Amy Adams, whose characterization of Giselle brought many smiles to my face. She plays and overplays the princess type very well, and there probably could not have been a more perfect casting choice. She made me believe, even while my mind sort of numbed over. I liked James Marsden too, who was so crazy over-the-top, it was hard to not to find him a hoot.
I also enjoyed the songs, three of which were nominated for Oscars that weren't ultimately won. Alan Menken (long-time Disney composer) and Stephen Schwartz (Wicked, anyone?) constructed some toe-tapping little numbers and some schmaltzy tunes that worked very well for this clever little send-up.
I also appreciated the fact that Disney was mocking itself most of the movie, complete with cameos and roles filled by some actresses that voiced other Disney princesses (Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel the Little Mermaid, for example, was the secretary, Sam). That shows the studio's maturity under its current administration, for this kind of send-up would never have been produced under Eisner's Disney. Furthermore, we got to see some 2-D animation again, which I really sort of miss under the current barrage of CGI animated flicks. Don't get me wrong, I love my Pixar to pieces, but I pull out my favorite Disney movies that were made long before computers too. I think it's an art form that could use a Renaissance.
Also, some of the production elements were outstanding. I particularly dug the costume design, from Giselle's many dresses made from curtains to Edward's Prince Charming motif to Narissa's Maleficent-like attire.
Like I said, though, I was kind of bored. McDreamy was out of his element playing a mostly humorless straight man and was written and sounded, frankly, a little too much like McDreamy (as in the actual character). The plot was largely predictable - even moreso than standard Disney fare, and the animation wasn't wonderful even though the fact of it was a pleasure to see again. The plot was also a bit contrived in spots (such as the ending) if not nonsensical (the divorcing couple falling in love again just because Giselle called the woman beautiful and stuff). I just couldn't get into the movie with any firm hold, and the comedy was mostly limited to slapstick mixed with a little farce, which is funny but not, you know, deep into clever territory, even if the hundreds of Disney references and visual nods were.
That's not to say that the movie wasn't cute, and that I didn't have fun. I enjoyed spotting the Disney references, for example, and those other elements I described above left me entertained. A few people who recommended the film to me called it a "hoot," and I think that's a fair description. I enjoyed it; I liked it. It was like vanilla cake to me. I like vanilla cake, I'll eat it, but it's not my favorite because it's not as flavorful and delicious as chocolate cake. Enchanted is vanilla cake, see? Anyways, I rate Enchanted a 7 for being shaky but entertaining because there were more than some minor flaws, but I could still snap along to the songs (the one in Central Park was my favorite) and laugh at the silliness for a good portion of the film. As for the test - well, meh, I don't know. Maybe if I watched it again I could make a better decision, but for right now, it's not quite a test passer for me. As the title of this entry says, Enchanted left me less enchanted than I'd hoped.