Enchanted
Rated PG for some scary images and mild innuendo.
reviewed by Steven Harrell
The first time we saw the trailer for "Enchanted," my fiancé and I were totally fooled. She almost went into hysterics. "Could it be true? Is old school Disney animation back?" The twist came, and we realized that the movie wasn't going to try to be a throwback to 2-D animation. Instead, those old 2-D characters were going to come bursting into the real world. At first she was disappointed that Walt D. bringing the heir to Cinderella and Ariel out of his magic vault, but "Enchanted" is a hilariously worthy substitute.
The Story
Giselle (Amy Adams) is your standard fairy tale princess. She's pretty; she sings all the time; and fuzzy forest critters follow her every command. “Once upon a time,” while she is hanging out in the forest a handsome gentleman named Prince Edward (James Marsden) rescues her from an evil ogre. After a short duet, the two decide to be married at once. Edward's evil step-mother has other plans, however. On the day of the wedding, the Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) pushes Giselle through some sort of haunted fountain to her doom . . . in modern day live-action New York City.
The clueless princess is terrified of this new world. She is helped by a kind single parent named Robert (Patrick Dempsey), who takes pity on the girl he assumes has lost her mind. Back in toon-land, Edward learns of his bride's fate and leaps into the portal after her. Narissa sends her bumbling crony after him to ensure that he doesn't succeed in rescuing Giselle, but eventually the queen decides to take matters into her own hands and take on the city herself. These zany characters wander around causing havoc in New York City with the skeptical Robert stuck in the middle trying to save a girl he finds more and more intriguing. Will the Prince find his Princess before Narissa does? Will Robert discover true love? And is the fairy tale world really all that far removed from our own?
The Verdict
"Enchanted" really is a lot of fun. I was most impressed with the balance the filmmakers are able to keep between showing respect for the classic Disney flicks and making witty cuts against them. This is not a Disney version of the "Scary Movie" atrocities that assume dressing up like a character then pretending to be gay and making poop jokes is comedy gold. Director Kevin Lima is a Disney vet. He directed "Tarzan;" worked in the art/animation departments on such classics as "The Little Mermaid" and "Beauty and the Beast;" and helped to write "Aladdin" and "Oliver and Company." With the help of writer Bill Kelly's ("Blast from the Past") spot-on script, Lima creates a legitimate Disney universe in a real flesh-and-blood world.
The movie is consistently funny, but one scene in particular makes it well worth the $8 ticket and even the $20 DVD that will inevitably come out next year. In Central Park, Amy Adams ("Talladega Nights") begins to sing to poor Patrick Dempsey. He tries to silence her by saying, "We don't sing here," but a few Rastafarians, a cowboy, and a mariachi band all pick up the tune and a classic Disney musical montage breaks out. Dancers enter from every direction; the scene randomly changes; and you just won't be able to get the melody out of your head.
This sort of thing happens often in "Enchanted," and holding it all together is the awesome performance of Amy Adams as Giselle. She never once gives the audience a look or smile to let us know that she's in on this joke. In every single frame, she is completely charming and naïve to the world around her.
James Marsden ("X-Men") is also good as Prince Edward, though he doesn't seem to have Adams’ confidence to let himself be quite as silly. He hesitates a bit before he puts a sword to a construction worker's throat or slays the bus.
I’m confident almost everyone will like this movie. Let me break it down into demographic recommendations. Kids under 10: It has songs and a talking squirrel. Guys: Your date will love it, and you'll be able to dig it too because it actually makes fun of those corny movies you like to make fun of. Girls: If you've ever dressed as Cinderella for Halloween, owned a Disney soundtrack, or imagined the day your prince would come, you just need to see this film.
The PG rating is due to the explosive climax when Queen Narissa gets her villain on and a bit of very subtle and/or quite mild innuendo.
Worldview
This movie is meant to be light-hearted family fun. It doesn’t delve too deeply into any great moral issues -- not even the standard “Be True to Yourself” or “Put Others First” messages often found in kid flicks.
Still, the interactions between the naïve princess and the divorce lawyer are interesting. It’s the ultimate clash of the super-cynic convinced that nothing in the world can ever be perfect against the ever-optimistic-glass-half-full type who can’t even really comprehend the notion that everything isn’t wonderful.
It’s an issue theologians, philosophers, poets, and regular Joes have been pondering for millennia. Is the world we live in a tough, evil place offering only the merest survival to those who keep their heads down, do their work, and wait for the worst? Robert seems to think so. As a divorce lawyer who has experienced the tragedy of being abandoned, he’s understandably dismissive of the notion that love is all about beauty and simplicity. Giselle, on the other hand, decides in about 30 seconds that she and Edward will be in love, and there is no doubt in her mind that they will live happily ever after.
So who’s right? The first chapter of Genesis seems to lean toward Giselle’s position. After each day of creation, God looks over His work and sees that “it is good.” At the end, after humans have been created, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning -- the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:31)
Just a few chapters later, though, things start shifting towards Robert’s position. Adam and Eve both eat of the forbidden tree and sin enters the world. Work and toil become a part of life (Gen. 3:19), childbirth becomes painful (v. 16), and death becomes inevitable. Giselle’s point of view seems crushed.
In verse 15 of that chapter, God makes a promise. He tells the serpent that some day a man will be born who will crush it’s head. This looks forward to the coming of Christ, who defeated sin through his own death and made Eden possible for us again. The thing is, neither view is necessarily wrong. The world was originally made good and beautiful, but evil has gotten in the way. However, in true fairy tale fashion, Christ has come and defeated evil. We’re promised He will come again and rid the world of evil once and for all. His love for us, His bride, will overcome the sin and darkness in the world and we will truly get to live with Him happily ever after. How’s that for a fairy tale ending?
Questions:
• As a kid, did you ever watch the classic Disney toons? Which was your favorite? Which could you absolutely not stand?
• Were you as fooled by the preview trailer as I was?
• How do the old 2-D adventures compare to the more recent digital 3-D “classics” (“Toy Story,” “Shrek,” etc)?
• Do you believe in love at first sight as Giselle does?
• Between Robert and Giselle, which view do you usually lean towards? Why do you think that is?