I have to say, I wasn’t all that excited to see Enchanted when it was released, but after seeing it I must admit it is a rather enjoyable and charming movie that really does bring back some of Disney’s lost magic.

Enchanted takes what could have been a horrible mess of a concept (bringing classic Disney style characters into the real world) and actually makes it work (for the most part). The first scene of the film is an all (traditionally) animated segment that is both reminiscent of the Disney of old and humorous in its self parody (not to mention well animated).

The movie centers around a fairy tale princess named Giselle who finds herself banished from her magical world of Andalasia by an evil queen and lost in the relatively unfriendly real world of Manhattan just before her marriage to the rather dashing Prince Edward (the aforementioned evil queen’s stepson). While in the real world Giselle meets a divorce lawyer named Robert who thinks her naivete of the world around her is some kind of mental illness and decides to let her stay with him and his daughter until she can get the “proper help” she needs, all while Prince Edward searches high and low for his bride to be with the “help” of his friend Nathaniel (who is really working for the queen and trying to prevent Edward from marrying Giselle as to secure his queen keeps her throne).

It all sounds weird, but its all good fun. Nearly every character works well for the story, Giselle is your stereotypical fairytale princess confused by the real world around her, Robert is an average joe who is dumbfounded by the strange behaviors of the “animated” characters, and Prince Edward (my favorite character) is a self loving Dudley-do-right who literally seems like he jumped right out of an old Disney film (which is obviously a good thing since this is what the movie was shooting for).

The thing that really drags this movie down though, is the “third act”, which I would best describe as “jumping the shark” (or nuking the fridge if you prefer that term). Once the evil queen comes to the real world it gets kind of ridiculous, especially once she transforms into a dragon…Yes, she transforms into a dragon. I know they were going for a Sleeping Beauty thing, but for this kind of movie it just seems unnecessary and forced for the sake of the reference. It is a true shame, because I really like this movie and I almost feel bad that it has to end up the way it does.

All in all, I find Enchanted to be a very enjoyable movie, but it would be even better had the ending not been so ridiculous. But I still highly recommend it for its uniqueness, its great acting and its wonderful sense of that old style Disney “magic”

Prince Edward FTW!

(1 votes, average: 7.00 out of 10, rated)

 Loading ...