Enchanted was quite possibly the Disney live action movie that led the way for the nonstop slew of live action remakes of the Disney classic animated movies.
Enchanted is a love letter to Disney’s animated classics and has a story that both pokes fun at some of the tropes of the likes of Cinderella and Snow White, but also lovingly embraces them. Modern Disney films would do well to learn from this as the current trend of subverting and disowning its own history has proved divisive. Enchanted represents a time when Disney gif the balance right.
Starting off in an animated storybook world, Enchanted tells the story of Giselle, played by Amy Adams, a would be princess waiting for her Prince. She seemingly finds one in Prince Edward played by James Marsden. Having saved Giselle from a big troll, they are but a day away from their happily ever after when Edward’s step mother, Queen Narissa, a wicked step mother for clarity plots to get rid of Giselle.
Narissa throws Giselle into a well which transports her into the live action world of New York City. From here it’s a fish out of water story with various characters from the animated world heading into New York and their naivety about how the “real world” works being the source of much of the fun.
Compared to modern Disney films where everything from the past is poked at as being outdated, and stupid, Enchanted has fun with how innocent the characters are,
but doesn’t ridicule or mock them for it. I appreciate this more with my recent viewing as not everything has to be so cynical. Disney’s classic films are all about simple ideas such as good overcoming evil, love at first sight and being brave, honest and seeing the best in people.
This has been mostly lost in recent years and it’s like Disney have forgot that first and foremost their movies are for children, and that it’s ok to let somethings still be simple,
happy and magical.
Enchanted puts a few twists on the classic Disney formula with Prince Edward not being the true love interest of Giselle, and whilst in New York being helped by Derek from Grey’s Anatomy and his daughter.
These characters are much more grounded in the reality of the real world and act to highlight the differences between the Disney Princess reaction and how people would actually react.
There are great songs in the film, and it’s so fun to see how Robert (Patrick Dempsey) doesn’t understand how everyone would break out into song and dance around Giselle.
She also has a fun happy working song where she enlists the rats, flies,
pidgins and cockroaches of New York to tidy Robert’s flat in the same way that old Disney films would have fluffy bunnies, and song birds all understand and interact with the princesses.
It also wouldn’t be a Disney classic without the needed sidekick characters.
Timothy Spall plays Nathaniel, who is the bungling henchman to the evil queen and then there is Pip, a wise talking squirrel who is best friends with Giselle, but when arriving in the real world he finds he cannot speak English and can only squeak like a real world squirrel.
Conclusion
Despite being a few years old it still feels fresh to watch, although by the modern Disney standard, could itself be due a remake of its own! That would be weird as the film is primarily already live action with a few 2D animated sequences. Maybe a remake would invert these.
I hope not as this is a film that doesn’t need a remake, and didn’t need the really bad sequel it got.
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