Disenchanted | Disney+ Original Review
It’s been more than fifteen years since Giselle left the fairy tale world of Andalasia, and finally found her Prince Charming in New York City, in the hybrid live-action/animated film, “Enchanted”.
Having lived in the city all these years, Giselle and her family decide it’s time to move out to the suburbs for a fairy-tale life. However, this move doesn’t quite go to plan, as Giselle’s teenage stepdaughter, Morgan, hates the small town after being embarrassed by Giselle. Meanwhile, Robert, played by Patrick Dempsey) He isn’t so keen on commuting daily to the city on the train.
When Prince Edward and Princess Nancy arrive from the fantasy world to check out the new house, they present a magic wish wand to Patrick and Giselle’s baby daughter, which, unfortunately, leads to Giselle making a wish to make their lives more like a fairy tale.
And as you might expect, things don’t quite go as planned; as a new evil queen is created, Robert becomes a pretty useless knight, Morgan becomes the stereotypical stepdaughter, banished to a life of chores, and Giselle slowly becomes eviler each hour. This leads to a race against time to reverse the magic and return everyone’s lives to normal.
One of the things I loved about the story in this film is that, much like with the original movie, they take the idea of a classic fairy tale story and flip it on its head. Taking a princess and turning her into an evil villain, who’s in conflict with herself is really compelling. It’s even better as her little squirrel friend also becomes eviler and eviler, adding some comedy moments to it. The addition of Maya Rudolph, who plays Giselle’s natural villain, along with her own comedic sidekicks, helps this film from becoming too simplistic.
It is noticeable that this film does have a smaller budget than the original film; most of the filming was done outside in a lovely town in Ireland; it’s very noticeable that some of these scenes were done like that, to allow more freedom due to covid procedures indoors. Also, the animation in the film, just doesn’t look as good as it was in the original movie, but it still gets the job done. There are some other “budget” issues, such as you only see the giant’s feet or a shadow of a dragon, which are all very noticeable that they couldn’t spend big money on CGI, which you might have expected, had it been a theatrical release. But I doubt most people will have thought of that when they see these scenes, and even this, I feel like I’m nitpicking at since. Generally, I didn’t have any significant issues with this film, other than this.
As you might expect with a classic fairy tale story, this film is full of fantastic musical numbers by Alan Menkin, who has previously worked on “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Little Mermaid”, and the original “Enchanted”. I’m not sure some of the songs will become as popular as those from the first film, but these are still full of that typical lovely Disney music, that usually takes me back to visiting the Disney Theme Parks. Having a whole town out, dancing in the street, all in classic fairy tale costumes, just brought a smile to my face.
Overall, “Disenchanted” is a charming family film, full of great music, lovely dance numbers and an adorable tale of good overcoming evil. It was far better than I expected, and really enjoyed it. It’s not as good as the original, but it’s a really great film to watch over the Thanksgiving weekend. It’s a bit cheesy in places, but that’s all part of the charm. “Disenchanted” is a perfect example of how Disney+ can provide us all with movies, that, honestly, just probably would never be released in cinemas nowadays. Grab the snacks, pull over the throw, snuggle in and enjoy some classic Disney magic!
Rating – 4 Out Of 5
“Disenchanted” is available to stream on Disney+ from Friday, 18th November 2022.
Roger Palmer
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