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Title: Enchanted
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Can a mediocre movie be saved by a great performance? In the case of "Enchanted," I’d yes in a heartbeat. Especially if that actress is Amy Adams, a talented girl that has you charmed from beginning to end. I don’t know if she has a boyfriend yet, but whether she does or doesn’t is besides the point. No, the point is that this lovely girl is likely to break many hearts in her life. While that may eventually come true, right now she charms up the screen in Disney’s new animated/live action mix “Enchanted.” That said, the movie itself gets weird on more then one occasion. The story: An evil queen (Susan Sarandon) is jealous of a pretty girl named Giselle (Adams), who has long red hair, sings beautifully, and can manipulate all the living creatures to do her bidding through the power of song. This includes birds, chipmunks, and cockroaches. Yes, I said cockroaches, and yes, there is a moment of temporary discomfort when you get to see them.
Anyway, since most evil queens don’t know jack squat about getting rid of princesses, the evil queen simply dumps Giselle down a well that brings her to New York City. This solution doesn’t entirely work about because Prince Edward (James Marsden) and her chipmunk friend Pip simply jump down the well to save her. At this point you’d think someone in the real world would realize that there are people walking around the city acting like sixties Disney cartoons, but then, hey, that’s New York for you right? Anyway, Giselle meets a divorce lawyer named Phillip and his daughter Morgan, who end up letting her stay with them. As you can probably guess Giselle spends her entire time singing songs and acting like she’s still in Disneyland, which constantly gives Phillip a chance to try and bring her back to reality. Ah, but if a fairy tale princess was brought to reality, wouldn’t that betray the whole point of a fairy tale?
Would you even want to go in that direction in the first place? Forgive me, I wasn’t going to talk about this, but I feel I must if I am to complete this opinion properly. Just be warned that there may be spoilers ahead. At one point the movie does make Giselle more modern and wise. She starts learning about things like dates, how to be angry, and how the toll booth works. Sadly, the second Giselle learned to be angry my heart broke, and my interest in the movie dropped like a brick. It’s not that I have a problem with exploring the possibility of an innocent person discovering knowledge. “The Last Unicorn” (which has been hovering between two and three stars for me) was about this same subject, and took the situation seriously. Basically, once something pure loses it’s innocence, then much of the charm is lost. From that point on the person is very different from before.
Can Giselle learn to be angry for the first time ever, and still have a pure enough heart to be friends with animals and every living thing? I highly doubt it, though the screenplay seems to insist its still possible. In fact, once Giselle loses her purity, the movies logic holes become more troublesome. At one point Giselles innocent personality and view on life saves a couple from divorce. Once she discovers knowledge though, I wonder if she could still save that couples marriage in the future. The movie even suggests that Giselle will save Phillips struggling relationship with his current girlfriend, Nancy, but, alas, the screenplay decides to take the most predictable route possible. Never before have I wanted to read the very first draft of a screenplay so much, as this can’t be the direction the movie was always supposed to take.
On a final note, I want to point out that the relationship between Giselle and Phillip makes little sense. I can understand what he sees in her, as she’s a doll. But what does she see in him? All he does is try to bring her down to reality, yells at her for being unrealistic, and doesn’t ever seem to truly believe that she’s the person who she claims to be. Why does Giselle fall for Phillip? Oh yeah, forgot; the screenplay needed her to. It should be noted that Disney is using this movie as a way to slowly re-enter 2D animation, and it’s nice to see pure, wonderful, hand drawn animation once again. CGI is nice, but nothing beats the look of a wonderful hand drawn film. Watching the (very pointless) climax that imvolves Giselle fighting off a CGI dragon, I wanted to view the fight in luscious hand drawn animation as opposed to the murky CGI I was forced to view it with. The Disney Company originally had plans to include Giselle in their Disney Princess line, but decided against it because they would have to pay Amy Adams lifetime royalties. Based on this movie alone though, Disney would be wise to re-think that choice, as Giselle is easily the best female protagonist Disney's created since Belle from "Beauty & the Beast."
- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -
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