Satirical fairytales are painfully in vogue lately. After the excellent Shrek came Hoodwinked, Happily N’Ever After, then the Shrek sequels, all hellbent on tearing apart the childhood Disney fantasies of princesses, poisoned apples, and magic mirrors.
Disney appears to have joined the club of ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’, and has delivered Enchanted, a film with more heart and truth than all the others strung together.
Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) is a happy little lass. Flitting about her tree-top home with her animal friends, she hopes and wishes that one day her prince (James Marsden) will come to her side, whisk her off to his castle, and make her a bona-fide princess. Of course she doesn’t bet on his evil step-mother (Susan Sarandon) wanting to keep the throne for herself…
Pushed through a magical portal into modern-day New York, its here that the fairytale takes a brisk turn away from the formula. But while the story plays out as the usual riff on fairytale conventions, it does so with a light-hearted, adoring respect for its source material. Rather than tear it down, it holds the myth up against real-life and proclaims ‘yes, it’s fantasy, but isn’t it fun?’
The cast are excellent. Amy Adams sashays and warbles her way through every scene, her naivety delightful rather than grating. Marsden, likewise, plays without a dash of personal irony, and his stalking, proclaiming Prince Edward provides some of the films best comedy moments. Susan Sarandon and sidekick Timothy Spall are delightfully evil, though she seems to be less her own character than a lazy rip-off of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White’s villains. The CGI is fantastic, not trying for perfection, but rather a cartoonish approximation that other studios should take note of.
Overall, it’s a story applicable for everyone. Children are its target audience of course, but even parents will get a wry giggle out of Giselle’s adventures in the Big Apple. There are some nice, if unmemorable, songs, and the film itself radiates a joy and respect that has long been missing from children’s films.
Enchanted is old-school Disney animation at its best, and finally proves that its studio can function in an increasingly media-savvy world.
Disney appears to have joined the club of ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’, and has delivered Enchanted, a film with more heart and truth than all the others strung together.
Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) is a happy little lass. Flitting about her tree-top home with her animal friends, she hopes and wishes that one day her prince (James Marsden) will come to her side, whisk her off to his castle, and make her a bona-fide princess. Of course she doesn’t bet on his evil step-mother (Susan Sarandon) wanting to keep the throne for herself…
Pushed through a magical portal into modern-day New York, its here that the fairytale takes a brisk turn away from the formula. But while the story plays out as the usual riff on fairytale conventions, it does so with a light-hearted, adoring respect for its source material. Rather than tear it down, it holds the myth up against real-life and proclaims ‘yes, it’s fantasy, but isn’t it fun?’
The cast are excellent. Amy Adams sashays and warbles her way through every scene, her naivety delightful rather than grating. Marsden, likewise, plays without a dash of personal irony, and his stalking, proclaiming Prince Edward provides some of the films best comedy moments. Susan Sarandon and sidekick Timothy Spall are delightfully evil, though she seems to be less her own character than a lazy rip-off of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White’s villains. The CGI is fantastic, not trying for perfection, but rather a cartoonish approximation that other studios should take note of.
Overall, it’s a story applicable for everyone. Children are its target audience of course, but even parents will get a wry giggle out of Giselle’s adventures in the Big Apple. There are some nice, if unmemorable, songs, and the film itself radiates a joy and respect that has long been missing from children’s films.
Enchanted is old-school Disney animation at its best, and finally proves that its studio can function in an increasingly media-savvy world.
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