ENCHANTED: Blu-ray (Walt Disney Pictures 2007) Disney Home Video

A ditzy, glitzy and thoroughly daft re-imagining of the classic fairy tale, badly bungled, and manhandled as pure camp, despite clever marketing to the contrary, Kevin Lima’s Enchanted (2007) is not so much “an instant Disney classic” as it remains a regurgitation of far too many clichés from Disney’s warehouse of bona fide classics; its fish-out-of-water musical/comedy – part-inspired homage to every fairy tale ever seen/part-outlandish lampoon in total overdrive on the verge of some neurotic self-parody. Bill Kelly’s screenplay pickpockets every truism from the Disney vaults for this rather sumptuously-mounted ‘one hit wonder’. Once the audience realizes they have been had with a potpourri of snippets and sound bites pilfered from the Disney pantheon – rather haphazardly stitched back together – the amusement comes abruptly to an end. Deriving its inspiration from a long history of 'too good to be true' heroines, Enchanted incorporates traditional and computer animation to tell the story of an archetypal fairy tale princess, Giselle (Amy Adams) ousted from her two-dimensional enclave of Andalasia and thrust into the all too real New York City, circa now. Giselle, a commoner cut from the cloth of a Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty (1959) is sent down the proverbial rabbit hole {Alice in Wonderland, 1951} by a wicked hag, a la Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs (1938). The hag turns out to be Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon), the mother of Prince Edward (James Marsden) – Giselle’s husband-to-be.

Emerging disheveled and disillusioned in Time Square, Giselle meets divorce attorney, Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey) – his last name the first name of the Prince in Sleeping Beauty and Robert’s young daughter, Morgan (Rachel Covey). At first Robert takes pity on Giselle. In his eyes, she is clearly a nut – a suspicion confirmed the next morning when Giselle is discovered making clothes from the drapes that hang in his apartment {The Sound of Music…not a Disney classic but nevertheless an obvious rip off} and performing household chores with a choral of rats, roaches and pigeons {in a scene lifted almost verbatim from Cinderella, 1950}. After Edward follows Giselle to New York, Narissa sends her henchman, Nathaniel (Timothy Spall) as a safeguard against Edward learning the whereabouts of his vanished true love. However, while hold up in a seedy apartment, Edward accidentally sees Giselle on the seven o’clock news in a sound byte produced by reporter, Mary Ilene Caselotti (Cathleen Trigg) – an amalgam of the names Mary Costa, Ilene Wood and Adrianna Caselotti; the vocal talents for Princess Aurora, Cinderella and Snow White respectively.

At first, Giselle is content to await Edward’s return – something Robert believes will never happen. After several mishaps, Edward arrives. But by then, Giselle has fallen hopelessly in love with Robert who is engaged to Nancy Tremaine (Idina Menzel) – her character’s last name the same as that of Cinderella’s adopted stepmother and stepsisters, though Nancy shares none of their mean spiritedness. The whole mess degenerates into a showdown – predictably enough, at a ball - between Robert and Narissa. She poisons Giselle with an apple {Snow White – again!}, then transforming herself into a fire-breathing dragon {Sleeping Beauty – again!} and escapes with Robert in tow. The ‘big twist’ trumpeted in Disney’s publicity is actually a minor feminist revision on the classic Disney fairy tale narrative. Giselle rescues Robert from the dragon instead of the other way around. Ho-hum. Composer, Alan Menken and lyricist, Stephen Schwartz contribute a snappy score and several fun songs to an otherwise flat and uninspired mishmash of hyperbole ladled on top of pure hokum. Amy Adams is a featherweight as the peasant girl with stardust in her heart until she accidentally caresses Robert’s chest and realizes the subtle meaning of more erotic passion. However, it must be noted both Dempsey and Marsden are ill-suited here – the former, a leaden counterpart to Adam’s overtly plucky peach of a gal, the latter, playing wide-eyed optimism to its extreme and disbelieving farce. Sarandon is wasted as the bitchy Queen/step-mama…whatever!

In their overzealous attempt to rubber stamp a ‘cute’ moment of camp into every recollection from every Disney movie ever made, Lima and Kelly seem to have forgotten that the most immortal of Disney classics never relied on self-parody to remind the audience how memorable they were. Instead of originality or clever in-jokes we are subjected to an entire narrative restructured around the very premise, that past Disney successes deserve to be dismantled and poked fun at until nothing by an ‘oh please!’ remains. As such, Enchanted falls short of its inspired title. Disney’s Blu-ray of Enchanted represents a bizarre framing issue. The film is photographed in 2:35.1, and yet, immediately following its opening animated credits, the entire animated sequence preceding Giselle’s arrival in New York, is picture-boxed at approximate 1:78.1. The 2:35.1 is restored for the live-action that follows. Otherwise, this is a mostly satisfying affair, with colors that are bold, rich and vibrant. Occasionally, flesh tones can appear a tad flat and pasty. But contrast is superb and a light smattering of film grain looking very indigenous to its source is also quite pleasingly rendered herein. The audio is 5.1 Dolby Digital with a very engaging sonic spread. Extras are limited to several deleted scenes, a picture book pop-up game and several ‘fantasy come to life’ featurettes.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

2

VIDEO/AUDIO

4.5

EXTRAS

2