Stream On! ‘Enchanted’ is the Disney princess movie you want to see
Disney princess movies aren’t my thing—except for Disney’s 2007 ‘Enchanted,’ another one of my favorite films.
Globally, Disney’s new Snow White still hasn't passed the coveted $100 million mark after playing in theaters for just under a week. Not every movie needs to make that much, but those that cost $270 million do. Like most other Disney remakes, Snow White didn't come cheap. Going by the rule of thumb, the movie needs to generate around $600 million worldwide in order to break even.
I’m not watching it, but only because Disney princess movies aren’t my thing, bless their hearts! Except for Disney’s 2007 Enchanted, another one of my favorite films, most of which push the envelope of cinema storytelling.
/Streaming /Amazon /🍅93% 🍿80% /Trailer /2007 /PG
“It’s like you escaped from a Hallmark card or something.” (Robert Philip, to Princess Giselle)
Right away, Enchanted drew my attention to its animation/cinematography with an impressive transition; after showing the Disney logo screen, finishing with the castle in the distance, the camera zooms way in to a window of the castle where a fold-out “book of the movie” is on a stand, leading us into the animated action with a princess, Giselle (Amy Adams) and her friends, animated forest creatures, who all perform charming musical numbers.
Meanwhile, a handsome animated Prince Edward (James Marsden) is out on his horse, likely towards some princess somewhere, hmm? Darkly drawn Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon, Who Am I This Time?), whose reign will end if her stepson, that’s right, Prince Edward, ever gets married.
Now Giselle lives in a forest with her animated animal pals and dreams of meeting a prince and having a “happily ever after.” Prince Edward hears Giselle singing and sets off to find her. She and Edward are instantly attracted to each other and plan to be married the following day.
Narissa disguises herself as a crusty hag, intercepts Giselle on her way to the wedding, and pushes her into a well. Giselle is transformed into a live-action version of herself and transported to a live-action New York City, Times Square—emerging in the flesh from a grungy manhole.
There, in gritty Manhattan, Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey, who does exasperated well) is a cynical divorce attorney at Churchill, Harline & Smith LLP who does not believe in true love, happily-ever-after, or fairy tales since his wife left him and their daughter—until he meets Giselle. Giselle is wondering where her forest glen has gotten to, while she dodges herds of Manhattan pedestrians and drivers, who only briefly wonder, who’s the pretty girl who crawled out of the sewer already?
Out of Enchanted’s 107 minutes of running time, ten of the 13 minutes of animation are at the beginning of the film. Director Kevin Lima tried to “cram every single piece of Disney iconic imagery” that he could into the first ten minutes, which were done in traditional cel animation (in contrast to computer-generated imagery 3-D animation, to which Disney had switched exclusively in 2004) as a tribute to past Disney fairy-tale films such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and the 1937 original of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
To see Amy Adams, who is great in the part, in a princess’ gown in the rain in New York City is easily worth the price of admission—but that’s not nearly all the fun. (Adams was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress—Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, and the role is credited with establishing her as a leading lady in Hollywood.) There are mostly romantic complications among the animated and live-action communities, and odd notions arise. For instance, Giselle is friends with Pip, an animated talking chipmunk; in New York, Pip can’t talk, only squeak, like some … rodent. A great bit of business ensues when Giselle summons Manhattan’s wildlife (mostly pigeons and rats, and yes, cockroaches) to clean up Robert’s apartment. It’s extremely entertaining, including the musical numbers!
There’s a 2022 sequel, Disenchanted, that I haven’t seen yet, with the same stars, but I might. (Or not: on Rotten Tomatoes it only scored 38% favorable professional reviews and 50% favorable audience reviews.) It’s streaming here.
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Sources include Wikipedia (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License); Collider
Pete Hummers is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to earn fees by linking Amazon.com and affiliate sites. This adds nothing to Amazon's prices. This column originally appeared on The Outer Banks Voice.