Enchanted
(2007/DVD + Blu-ray/Disney)
Picture:
B-/A- Sound: B-/A- Extras: B/B+ Film: B-
Has it
been a while since you whistled while you worked? Have you had a heart to heart with your
favorite forest critters recently? Did
you even send your fairy godmother a Christmas card? Well, take a trip down the rabbit hole with a
unique and lighthearted musical comedy about a princess who is having the
strangest time of her life. You would
think talking to chipmunks, being chased by ogres and busting out into random
song was odd enough, but you have obviously never been to Manhattan. Enchanted
stars Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, and Susan Sarandon in a
classic ‘fish out of water’ tale about a princess that learns that life is more
than just kissing frogs and making wishes.
Enchanted starts as an animated feature
with Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) singing and dancing in her forest cottage as
she tries to create her ideal prince out of brooms, string and of course
diamonds (a nod to Snow White). As
Giselle dances the morning away, Prince Edward (James Marsden) is out slaying
ogres, but ogres are just an obvious distraction form his true, deep down goal
of finding the girl of his dreams. While
on an ogre slaying mission Prince Edward suddenly hears the song of a fair
maiden and goes off to pursue her. Soon
after saving her from the same ogre that he just captured (odd eh?), Giselle
and Prince Edward are set to be wed; by soon I mean the next day, isn’t it
great to be in the magical land of Andalasia?
But as much as the prince and Giselle want to be wed, Prince Edward’s
evil step mother Narissa (Susan Sarandon) wants to hold onto her precious
kingdom. If Giselle and Prince Edward
are wed, Narissa will lose her kingdom; and she is not about to have that
happen. Narissa, disguised as an old
hag, banishes Giselle to a land where there are ‘no happy endings,’ and after
falling down a magic well, pops out of a manhole cover in the center of
Manhattan. At this point the film turns
to live action. Giselle soon after
arriving in this new and scary land is robbed and left wandering the streets
utterly confused; what is this unhappy place?
Patrick Dempsey as Robert Phillip enters the film with his little girl,
Morgan, (who proclaims Giselle is a princess) and they take it upon themselves
to take care of this scared and lost woman; who most obviously is insane.
The film
shifts from a typical one layer fairy tale into a tale of several individuals
who must learn that life can be more than what it is set in front of them. James Marsden arrives in Manhattan through
the same magic well (accompanied by his chipmunk pal) that Giselle was banished
through, in order to find his bride-to-be.
As soon as Prince Edward arrives he begins causing princely mischief
attacking buses, city workers, and acting like an utter dimwit. Susan Sarandon as Narissa also arrives in
Manhattan (looking like a total drag queen) to ensure that her kingdom stays
her kingdom, since the other cronies she sent can’t get the job done. As she says ‘What do you think Poison Apples
just grow on trees!’ The film is a story
of love, magic, music and growth. Enchanted is fun from beginning to end
with a very light hearted vibe that entwines musical scores that hark back to
the classic Disney era when music and art matter more than CGI.
There is
a thin line between spoof and satire and Enchanted
danced that line quite well. If Enchanted was a nonsense spoof on
princesses (something along the lines of the recent and awful Scary Movie sequels) the film would have been a miserable failure,
but with just the right amount of comedy, plot, and heart Enchanted managed to follow through with what audiences were
expecting; a classic Disney film updated to 2008 expectations. Amy Adams is beautiful and talented and after
the success of Enchanted, as well as
other recent films, she is sure to be a new headliner in Hollywood (though she
has surprising already been around a while).
Patrick Dempsey once again played Patrick Dempsey just like he does on Grey’s Anatomy and everything else he
has done in recent years. Dempsey may be
a ‘new’ sex symbol, with many young girls forgetting how old he actually is and
the cliché ‘nerd’ he was in the 1980s in such films as Can’t Buy Me Love or even Loverboy,
but who am I to judge? He does a good
job (though unwittingly) playing the empty and faceless prince. Where as Amy Adam’s character (Giselle)
evolved from her generic ‘vanilla’ princess life to discover new emotions and
experiences, Dempsey’s character was stagnant for most of the film and devolved
to prehistoric or princely instincts of nothingness. Whereas this reviewer thinks the writers were
trying to push the fact that Giselle needed more reality in her life and
Dempsey’s character needed more magic in his, Dempsey did not bring anything to
the role that was outstanding or memorable.
James Marsden played the prince to Amy Adam’s princess quite well, he
was funny and unflatteringly dense; unlike Dempsey’s character that was the
point of Marsden’s prince, he had no need to grow…he was a prince damn it and
his sole job was to get a princess . In
the end, this reviewer thought the film was a cute satire on the Disney
‘princess empire’ itself and whereas it will not go down as a classic like the
originals it satired, it is fun and lighthearted.
The
magical features on both the Blu-ray and DVD are nicely presented. The picture on the Blu-ray is presented as a
1.85 X 1 Wide Screen that has a rich quality, while demonstrating a wide
variety of bright colors. The picture
quality is crisp throughout, the initial animation sequence of the film looks
especially amazing with bright and fluid colors that not many other films today
could compete with. The picture quality
on the DVD release of Enchanted is
not quite as good as the Blu-ray release, but nevertheless is nicely presented
in an anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image that is good for the format, but
no match for the 1080p digital High Definition 2.35 X 1 Widescreen performance
on the Blu-ray. The sound quality on the
Blu-ray version of the film is once again much better in its English Dolby
TrueHD (48 kHz/ 24-bit) and lesser 5.1 Dolby Digital Surrounds on both versions. The sound remains crisp and clean from
beginning to end and the several musical sequences that are intertwined in the
film project amazingly well. All extras
that are on the standard DVD version are on the Blu-ray release, with the
Blu-ray Disc having one exclusive feature that allows the viewer to discover
all of the hidden references to classic Disney films that are dispersed
throughout Enchanted.
This
feature was quite fun and even though this reviewer was quite good at spotting
the Disney references on his first viewing, this extended feature can enlighten
even the biggest Disney fan. Other extra
features included on both DVD and Blu-ray are Deleted Scenes, Bloopers, ‘Fantasy Comes to Life’ featurette that
allows the viewer to see how the music and the magic of the film came to life,
a Carrie Underwood ‘Ever Ever After’ music video, and a fun little pop-up game
called ‘Pip’s Predicament.’ This reviewer actually enjoyed all of the
extra features, Carrie Underwood proves to have a good set of pipes (among
other features) and even the kid oriented ‘Pop-up game’ was well made. Enchanted
on both Blu-ray and DVD proves to be a solid release that Disney obviously put
some time into and will be a good addition to any Disney fans Blu-ray or DVD
collection.
- Michael P Dougherty II
