By Darragh Doiron
The Port Arthur News
November 20, 2007 06:24 pm
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“Enchanted”
Buena Vista Pictures
Directed by Kevin Lima
Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, Susan Sarandon, James Marsden, Idina Mendzel, Timothy Spall and Rachel Covey
Rated PG
3 Stars
I hope that you don’t think that I’m a complete pushover for Disney’s marketing department, but I have to admit that their new film “Enchanted” is, well, enchanting.
I know, I know, I’m a bit surprised myself at how much I enjoyed this strictly-for-the-kiddies tale of an animated fairytale princess come to life on the mean streets of New York City. It’s silly and sweet, but never cloyingly so; and while the film’s villains are a bit disappointing, the main characters are adorable and the chipmunk sidekick character is funny enough to warrant his own feature film.
“Enchanted” seems to sum it all up nicely.
The film’s once upon a time happens in the animated kingdom of Andalasia, where the princess Giselle (Amy Adams) is hanging out with her woodland creatures friends, waiting for her Prince Charming to arrive. Prince Edward (James Marsden) shows up, sings a duet, and it’s love at first sight (sound?), but Andalasia’s evil queen (Susan Sarandon) has plans to quash this romance before they can get to happily ever after. She pushes the animated Giselle into a magical wishing well that is connected at the bottom with the live action streets of a modern day New York City.
Sweet and naďve Giselle, struggling to understand her new corporeal body, is completely out of her element. Fortunately a handsome divorce attorney (Patrick Dempsey) rescues the princess, despite suspecting that she might be an escaped mental institution patient. It doesn’t take long he realizes that this crazy lady is something very special, and he starts to fall for the princess, which creates quite a romantic tangle when Prince Edward and his sidekick Pip (the chipmunk) also travel to our 3D world to try and save Giselle.
“Enchanted” scores major points due primarily to the lead performance of Amy Adams, who channels every Disney princess ever drawn and somehow doesn’t make her into an annoyingly cheerful stereotype. The supporting cast is also quite fun, particularly the aforementioned chipmunk Pip, who steals the show in a few of his scenes.
The film is also quite funny, both in a Disney, slapstick sort of way that will appeal to the young ones, and some wonderful adult-level humor, that will put a big smile on mom’s face. My favorite being the scene where Giselle sings for her woodland creature friends to help her clean the house, but since there are no forest creatures in Manhattan, an army of cockroaches, rats and pigeons show up to do the chores instead. Credit the filmmakers for a film that stays true to the Disney spirit, but isn’t afraid to poke gentle fun at their studio’s sugary reputation.
Throw in a couple of catchy musical numbers from composers Alan Menkin and Stephen Schwartz and you have a magical fairytale come to life. Only a poorly realized dragon fight scene at the end keeps this from being a new classic, but there’s certainly no denying that “Enchanted” is enchanting.
Movie reviews by Sean, “The Movie Guy,” are published bi-weekly in “The Port Arthur News.” Sean welcomes your comments via email at smcbride@kavutv.com.
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