The Disney brand was built on the happily-ever-after fairy tales of 6-year-old birthday parties. Lately though, it seems Disney has forgotten this ““ the last princess musical being 1998’s “Mulan.”
Disney’s latest film, though, brings the magic back.
“Enchanted” starts in the animated kingdom of Andalasia, ruled by the evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon), who will keep the throne as long as her stepson, Prince Edward (James Marsden), never marries.
The opening animated scene, introducing main character Giselle and her many animal friends, pokes fun at the conventions of Disney’s classic films while still embracing their jubilance. Watching Giselle sing the beginning musical number “True Love’s Kiss” is what I imagine watching “Once Upon a Dream” from “Sleeping Beauty” for the first time was like (something I can’t remember), only funnier. Alan Menken, who wrote for “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid,” cowrote the songs for “Enchanted” with Stephen Schwartz.
Edward hears Giselle’s song and instantly knows it is his true love singing. The two fall into each other’s arms and decide to marry in the morning.
To prevent the wedding, Queen Narissa pushes Giselle down a magic well and Giselle pops out of a New York sewer in the form of actress Amy Adams, still in her puffy white wedding dress.
Amy Adams is lovely as Giselle. She is wide-eyed and eager in a truly earnest way. Her performance does not mock the genre, which is crucial ““ for if the princess were disenchanted, then what has the world really come to?
Giselle refuses to believe she is in a different world, and so she isn’t. She opens the window of a New York apartment and melodically calls out to the creatures of the urban jungle as if she were back in Andalasia.
Pigeons, rats and beetles flock in to do the dishes ““ a sight far less appetizing when the creatures aren’t animated with wide grins and big eyes.
The unusualness of Disney’s stories is made apparent in a live-action form, yet it is the real-world characters who seem out of place for not believing.
Disney simultaneously acknowledges the unrealistic fantasies of its films while delivering a happy tune that makes the viewer just go with it.
Patrick Dempsey manages to shed his whiny scrubs-wearing “Grey’s Anatomy” persona to become the reluctant prince. Sarandon cackles and shouts with no shame in emulating the cartooned Maleficent and the old hag from “Snow White.”
Giselle’s character must expand beyond a princess, though. In the three-dimensional world, she gains interests and opinions, feels anger and passion. To go back to Andalasia would reverse every girl power movement from Ariel standing up to King Triton to Mulan climbing up the training pole. Interestingly, her Manhattan counterpart, Nancy (Idina Menzel), begins as the realist ““ the woman who has given up on the fairy tale ““ but in the end gushes of hidden romanticized hope.
The film truly believes this fairy tale. It is more than willing to poke fun at the conventions of the genre but not to undermine its legitimacy.
Disney, it seems, is back.
““ Amy Crocker