Enchanted

Enchanted

I saw ENCHANTED when it first came out while on a date. And that sums it up well: it's a perfect first date movie. But it doesn't have much else to it.

The film's entire gimmick is that it's Disney doing a self-parody. It's about a Disney Princess (Amy Adams), an ingenue with a heart of gold, who leaves her fairytale cartoon-world and enters a harsh and jaded reality, but despite all the fish-out-of-water hijinks, the song in her heart brings out the goodwill in everyone. And it's all told with a self-aware tone.

Die-hard Disney fans will enjoy seeing many references to the older animated movies. There's a lot of homaging the tropes, the songs are pastiches of the 1940's-style Disney songs, and there's even cameos by Jodi Benson (the voice of Ariel), Paige O'Hara (the voice of Belle), and Judy Kuhn (the singing voice of Pocahontas). The whole film can be viewed as Disney tooting its own horn.

All of this is very cute and very feel-good, but never really has much to say. It just reaches the shallow conclusion "Yes, it's funny how the real world is so different than the fairytales. But maybe it should be more like the fairytales."

For all the spoofing it does, it never feels like ENCHANTED goes the extra mile and truly deconstructs its genre, or makes a commentary on fairytales. It's just a cutesy plot that plays off its tropes, subverts them at times, and then just ends happily ever after. And while Prince Edward (James Marsden) is very funny, it always struck me as odd that his character doesn't get an arc, nor seems to be affected by the real world at all the way Giselle is. Also, how the heck do you cast Idina Menzel in a movie musical and never have her sing?

Ironically, the SHREK movies, despite being animated, do a better job spoofing the fairytale genre and the "wholesome Disney brand" (likely because they weren't made by Disney). I think ENCHANTED could have been a lot funnier if it had gone for a darker edge in the SHREK-style and really gone after fairytale tropes instead of just celebrated them. Still, it's definitely entertaining, has a good lead performance by Amy Adams, and some good songs by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. Again, a good first date movie.

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