Disenchanted

7.5

In this sequel to Enchanted, Giselle (played by Amy Adams), originally from the magical and animated kingdom of Andalasia, and her husband Robert (Grey's Anatomy's Patrick Dempsey) move from New York City to the suburb of Monroeville. Dealing with the stresses of a new baby, the move, and her now teenaged stepdaughter Morgan's resentment of said move, Giselle ends up making a wish that turns the suburb into a fairy tale land. Unfortunately, since Giselle is a stepmother, the spell starts turning her into a traditional fairy tale "evil stepmother."

So, yeah, this isn't on the same level as the first film. The more adult humor and moments are gone and the dialogue and emotional tone isn't quite as on point. The musical numbers aren't as lavish or as well-shot. The animation is kinda shabby for Disney and doesn't compare to the animation from fifteen flippin' years ago. However, the issues are mainly that the movie can't quite recreate the feel of the first. By itself, it's still a fun film and does a lot better than expected for a sequel that came out over a decade since the original. (Think of this like the more light-hearted TMNT II: Secret of the Ooze when compared to the first TMNT film.) 

I think the idea of Giselle dealing with the long term difficulties of living in the real world is an admittedly predictable idea of where to take the story. However, the route the movie goes down feels fresh. The idea of Giselle turning bad is really the best part. Amy Adams was already great at playing an upbeat Disney princess, but she proves how good an actress she is as she knocks the other identity out of the park. I was a little worried about how the villain (besides evil Giselle) would turn out as I thought the weakest part of Enchanted was Susan Sarandon's rather one-dimensional evil queen. I'm pleased to say I'm relieved. Though Maya Rudolph's evil queen Malvina isn't the most complex character, she is enjoyable and has a lot more screen time in which to get to know her. One of the best parts of the film is evil Giselle and Malvina fighting against each other for dominance.

The relationship between Giselle and Morgan (Gabriella Baldacchino) is the emotional backbone of the film and it's done really well delivering a very satisfying climax. The whole final act itself is really good and a lot more satisfying with the action, stakes, and visual spectacle.

Too bad the movie doesn't really know what to do with Robert, who's sidelined Kristoff in Frozen II-style, and King Edward (James Marsden), who's still funny whenever he's onscreen but isn't in this much because the story just doesn't have much room for him.

The songs are done by the king of Disney songs Alan Menken with lyrics by Wicked/King of Egypt's Stephen Schwartz. The songs mostly aren't on the same par as the original film, but they aren't bad and I appreciate they're ability to mimic the old school Disney-fairy tale style (though there's an I-have-a-dream song that is a little too on the nose if you ask me). The biggest issue people bring up about Enchanted is that it has Wicked/Frozen's Idina Menzel, but she doesn't sing a word (in fairness, from what I've heard, she did have a song but it got cut.) Disney has clearly made the effort to remedy this as she gets two songs, including one that really shows off her pipes (too bad it doesn't compare to her songs from both Frozen films). Now, back when I said the songs mostly weren't on the same tier, this "mostly" is referring to the exeption of the song Badder which is both entertaining and a real earworm. (I've been listening to this online on repeat since yesterday.) The last film never got a villain song (heck we haven't had a true Disney villain song for a while), and this movie makes up for it. It's a duet between Adams and Rudolph and they both kill it, especially Rudolph who I didn't realize was musically talented. It's really too bad that the audio is off in the film and the music is loud enough that it's hard to hear the lyrics. I recommend you turn on the subtitles or listen to the song in the end credits where the audio is correct.

Recommended. Again, this isn't the perfection of the first film (with the exception of the one weird out-of-nowhere poop gag; what was with that?), but it is enjoyable and one that's good for family night.