Enchanted

An animated fairy tale hottie is banished into the “real world” (aka New York City) by her evil stepmother because she doesn’t want her to marry her Prince of a son. The son quickly joins his beloved in our “live action” world where they are both confused by our modern ways, but also somewhat smitten by some of it, at the same time. The hottie meets Dr. McDreamy and his movie-daughter in the city, and soon finds herself trading definitions of love with him. So who do you think she’ll end up with? One thing’s for sure, it won’t be my sorry ass. Much enchantedness ensues…

God knows I didn’t think I was gonna like this movie one bit, but every now and again, even I get bamboozled into viewing something flighty, girlie or just plain childish…and end up enjoying it!! But before I get into my review, let me preface my words by saying that I generally dislike most “Disney films” and by that I mean the cookie-cutter junk they “create” every year, most of which aims for the lowest common denominator (EIGHT BELOW, WILD HOGS, ANNAPOLIS, STEP 2 THE STREETS…), which is highly ironic considering that the man behind the Mouse, Walt Disney himself, was probably one of the most creative men to ever reside on the planet Earth! Nowadays, we have folks regurgitating crap straight-to-video, animated classics losing their “prestige” due to poor shitty sequels and all-around genericism at its worst. Needless to say, with that in mind, I expected to turn ENCHANTED off after about 4 ½ minutes, but lo and behold, the film held my interest the whole way through, and yes…even made me chuckle here and there, smile there and here, and even give half a crap about its leads? Wow.

And speaking of which, allow me to focus directly on half of that lead couple right now in Amy Adams. I fell for Adams after she guest-starred in a few episodes of TV’s “The Office”, and solidified that infatuation with her small role in TALLADEGA NIGHTS, but it’s with this film that the world will get to know her as the adorable, bubbly and lovely actress that she is, taking the role of the princess-to-be in this film and really making you like her…like a lot! Patrick Dempsey also has to be commended for taking a straight-man role and adding a little emotion to it. I appreciated the cutesy romance between the two, especially all of those kooky “fish out of water” stuff, which both of them made work very well. Add that to a very creative way of integrating an animated fairy tale into a modern day New York City (and a powerful diss against all of the day-to-day cynicism that many people have adopted), some fun secondary characters and a handful of catchy tunes, and by golly, the film zips by with a breezy sense of delight and cheer. Sure, nobody is gonna win an Oscar for this movie (although 3 of its songs were actually nominated for some), but if your girlfriend is sick of you forcing her to watch the STAR WARS trilogy all over again – or anything with the name Scorsese or Tarantino on it – I honestly think this is a fun enough movie to consider for an “Okay, it’s your turn to pick a movie that we watch tonight” evening.

Sure, not all of it works perfectly, with a scene featuring a ton of New Yorkites singing/dancing along with Adams in Central Park seeming a little “weird” and a massive CGI dragon also not gelling too well with the rest of the film’s construction, but there is a lot of cuteness in the movie and I think that for anyone who is a fan of the classic Disney animated gems, there are also plenty of winks, nods and cameos to entertain you, even if you don’t think the romance or “Amy Adams being adorable” is enough for you to rent this fluff-piece. Sadly though, if I know “modern day Disney” well (and I think I do), they’re gonna milk the shit out of the success of this movie to the point that all follow-ups will become as mediocre as much of their other recent crap (Pixar stuff excluded, of course). That said, I actually wouldn’t mind another “live action animated” flick which plays with the old classics and mixes them into our modern day world, but I think we all know that the big bad studio is gonna bang them out like cheap whores, to the point that we’ll all be wondering what we liked about them in the first place. Yes, I’m cynical vis-à-vis Disney…ironic, no? Hopefully, I’m wrong. But until all that goes down, rent this flick with your chick or your kids (or both!!) and be prepared to reap the rewards of that very choice.

(c) 2021 Berge Garabedian