Enchanted (2007)

Enchanted is a pleasant, silly, and occasionally subversive fractured fairy tale for those who like a little parody with their romance. A Disney product, it takes a if-you-can’t-beat-em-join-em approach to the endless send-ups of “Disney movies” and turns the usual someday-her-prince-will-come genre upside down. Along the way, it takes shots at a number of familiar mouse-eared clichés, as well as at some live-action romantic comedy standards.

The movie begins like countless other Disney animated films. A voiced-over storybook narrator (Julie Andrews) introduces us to Giselle (voiced by Amy Adams), a sweet, plucky young woman who lives in the fairy tale kingdom of Andalasia. Giselle is the sort who lives in a Tudor-inspired treehouse in the woods surrounded by friendly singing animals (including a wiseguy-sounding chipmunk named Pip), and who just knows a charming prince will show up to be her One True Love. Sure enough, he does, in the form of the dashing (if a little dim) Prince Edward (voice of James Marsden). After Edward rescues Giselle from becoming troll food, the two decide to be married the next day. Unfortunately, the match runs afoul of Edward’s jealous stepmother (of course), the witchy Queen Narissa (voiced by Susan Sarandon). Narissa conspires to push Giselle down an enchanted well, banishing her to a place “where there are no happily ever afters.” That place? Times Square. Our Times Square.

And here the lunacy truly begins. The movie switches to live-action, with Adams now playing and not just voicing Giselle—who, though flesh and blood, still behaves exactly like an animated movie princess. Needless to say, she is utterly lost in rude, rainy NYC. Fortunately for her, she is discovered by divorce lawyer Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey), a single dad bringing his daughter home from karate practice. Of course the little girl, Morgan (Rachel Covey) is immediately smitten with the “real, live princess.” Robert isn’t so sure—-especially when he realizes it means explaining to his fiancée Nancy (Idina Menzel) why he has taken in an additional cute girl. The love-minded princess also plays a bit of havoc with Robert’s divorce law practice. Meanwhile, Edward (still Marsden) comes through the well to rescue Giselle with double-agent manservant Nathaniel (Timothy Spall) and Pip the chipmunk in tow.

As it moves along, the plot mixes fairy tale rescue with real-world romantic comedy, all played largely for laughs. Giselle retains her woodland-princess aura in the “real world,” and can still bond with animals. There’s a priceless scene where she enlists—-with a jaunty song—-standard New York vermin (think rats and roaches) to clean Robert’s apartment. The sight of a bona fide Disney princess chirping merrily about “scrubbing down the toilet” to a crowd of helpful house pests is pretty much worth the price of a DVD rental on this one. There’s also a huge song-and-dance number in Central Park that’s as infectious as anything from The Little Mermaid (Disney musical veterans Alan Menken and Steven Schwartz penned the songs, for added authenticity, and they seem to be having great fun spoofing themselves). Robert and Giselle also begin to affect each other, with him questioning her too-easy version of romance (“You never even went on a date??”) and her pointing out his too-dreary skepticism (“Every word out of your mouth is ‘no’!”) and giving him hints on how to romance Nancy. But they may be learning something else about themselves as well…

For all the dancing, singing, and winky jokes, however, this movie belongs lock, stock, and barrel to Amy Adams. With her soul in her eyes and her heart on her sleeve, Adams is note-perfect as a fairy-tale princess brought to life, down to every twitter, tremble, and twinkle. I particularly enjoyed the way that, when upset, she basically sighs “Oh, NO” with her entire body. But of course, Giselle is hardly ever upset. The role could easily slide into insufferable caricature, but Adams (to whom appeal seems to come effortlessly) finds just the right balance of silly and sincere to make Giselle’s transformation to physical (and eventually emotional) three-dimensionality enjoyable and actually, in its own way, believable. Giselle is a classic lovable eccentric, and the role gave Adams well-earned exposure and a Golden Globe nod.

The other “fantasy” characters are also well-drawn (if you will), and well-acted. Marsden gets his share of laughs as the relentlessly heroic though slow on the uptake Edward (he’s allowed to be much more amusing here than in his thankless, second-banana X-men role). Spall, as the shifty manservant, is in territory familiar from his Harry Potter appearances. But Nathaniel dons various daffy disguises on his search for Giselle, which allows Spall to play some silliness along with the sneak. We remember that he’s actually a rather pleasant chap under all that weasely typecasting. Sarandon also gets her live-action time in, gleefully munching scenery as selfish, nasty witch-queen Narissa. The movie pulls off a neat bit of reverse engineering: we’re used to animated characters being drawn to suggest the famous names who voice them. Here, real actors were cast who actually make credible cartoons, whether it’s Sarandon with her big eyes and queenly cheekbones, or Spall with his round, variously expressive face. Pip becomes a CGI chipmunk in the “real world” sections, and, while he no longer talks, I’d swear he squeaks in an appropriate New York accent.

The New York characters fare slightly worse. Morgan is a standard-issue cute kid. Poor Nancy is essentially around only to provide plot complications for Robert (and, ironically, accomplished Broadway star Menzel gets no songs). She doesn’t register, and it tips the story’s romantic hand too far too early. If there’s a weak link, unfortunately, it’s Dempsey, who looks the cute-lawyer-cum-nice-guy-dad part just fine, but can’t seem to make Robert a real New York Prince Charming. It’s hard to say exactly what goes wrong. Part of the blame has to go to the screenplay—-Robert is a bit underwritten—-though Dempsey’s approach to the role is also a little too laid back. He should have a repressed sparkle, but he too often seems to be only a nice but bland guy. Really, though, Dempsey is simply overmatched; Adams just plain steamrolls him in their scenes together.

The movie itself stumbles a bit by resorting to a conventional ending (although, depending on your movie viewing history, it may not be the convention you expect), but by that time I’d grown to have enough affection for the characters (especially Giselle) to pull me through. And if some of the visual effects toward the end look a little cheesy, it’s best to pause and reflect that, well, this is a film that started with singing bunnies. Overall, this is a fun bit of filmmaking: a genre parody that is also a quality example of the genres it spoofs, and a family film that doesn’t insult the intelligence of any age groups concerned. After all, what are romantic comedies but fairy tales for adults? As an attempt to get the best of both those worlds, Enchanted manages to be (you guessed it) rather enchanting.