At the Movies: Enchanted

A couple of weeks ago, on the very day of the release, my husband bought Enchanted for my daughter. Well, actually he bought it for me. But now my daughter has appropriated it.

Enchanted is about Giselle (Amy Adams of Junebug), a maiden from the animated magic kingdom of Andalasia, and her adventures in New York City. It starts with a super-sappy beginning similar to The Little Mermaid's statue scene, where Giselle has made a statue of her dream prince out of various odds and ends. All she lacks are lips. Therefore, she summons her animal friends with the power of her voice, and they all come help her solve the Lip Dilemma.

If it sounds sappy, you're right. It's sappy syrup poured on as thick as liquid concrete. And it's supposed to be that way.

All the while, she's singing about finding her true love. Cut to Prince Edward (James Marsden of the X-Men movies), who has just captured a giant troll. He hears her voice (a la Sleeping Beauty) and he goes off in search of her. So does the troll. At length, Giselle falls into Edward's arms and it's instantaneous love.

Or so they think.

After the evil granny from Snow White--who is actually the evil queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon)--pushes Giselle down a well, Giselle clambers out of a manhole in New York City. And the adventure begins when she meets divorce lawyer Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his young daughter, Morgan (Rachael Covey).

The highlights of the film are the over-the-top songs. Disney spoofs itself throughout the entire film. Since I have a young daughter, I'm quite familiar with all the Disney movies. Readily identifiable were spoofs on Snow White (the Happy Working Song), Cinderella (the bubble scene), and Beauty and the Beast (Giselle running through a grassy field). And those are just the spoofs from the musical numbers. However, these scenes are like Easter eggs. I think you could enjoy the movie just fine without an encyclopedic knowledge of Disney flicks.

For me, Marsden stole the show from Dempsey. I watched him during the X-Men movies, where he played Scott Summers, a tightly-controlled character. In Enchanted, he flung off all restraint. Who knew he could sing? He leaps, he prances, he slays a bus. The best scene is where Nathaniel (Timothy Spall, who played Peter Pettigrew in the Harry Potter movies), a gardner back in Andalasia and a not-so-typical evil henchman, ask Prince Edward if he likes himself. Edward merely smiles and says, "What's not to like?" And he's right. Edward is somewhat dense and full of himself, but thoroughly likable.

Dempsey plays an understated character next to all these animations-come-to-life. His best scene is when Edward asks him if he has any last words while brandishing a sword at his throat. Robert says, "You have GOT to be kidding." Edward is perplexed and says, "Strange words." Well, maybe that wasn't his best scene, but I don't want to give it all away.

My daughter has watched this movie over and over, and my husband sat down and watched it with her yesterday. Even he liked it, and horror movies like 28 Days are usually more to his taste. It has a lot of humor that grown-ups can enjoy, and the syrupy sappy parts are so ridiculous that they will make you burst out laughing.

Go out and rent it, or buy it like we did. It's great fun.