MAJOR SPOILER WARNING
This time the production numbers made the movie for me. After
writing
some lousy songs in the past, Menken and Schwarz came up with some clever
ones
for this movie.
The opening animated sequence, "True Love's Kiss", totally absorbed
me.
The song was played sincerely enough to establish that this Andalasian
world
was a completely different world from our own, one where life operates to
the
rhythm of musical sentences. I then thought back to the Disney "Snow
White",
whose makers very convincingly established the otherworldliness of their
movie's setting. The song's lyrics stress that in this dimension destiny
determines that a prince and princess fall in love. That was true in
"Snow
White", "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty" as well; how else can you make
a
plot work where two people fall in love after just meeting. :-) Also, as a
furry fan, I laughed a lot at Giselle's own group of animal followers.
That
scene where the animals, a huge variety of species, respond to her call,
was
one of the film's funniest moments. They all obey her wishes, for no
apparent
reason whatsoever. :-D
The real world? Actually, no problem for Giselle, as she seems to
have
the ability to bend reality to her well. For instance, she appears to
have a
magic ability to compell animals into acting out her production numbers.
That
ability even extends to to humans; I think Giselle was psychickly
controlling
all those people in the park to act out her "How Does She Know?" scene.
:-)
However she was able to pull the numbers off, I didn't mind, as I thought
the
songs were catchy and the scenes were well choreographed. I've
particularly
become a big fan of the "Happy Working Song" number. A detail about
"Cinderella" that's been bothering the back of my mind was how in real
life an
infestation of that many rodents would be a disaster for a house. So here
they
do a brilliant take of that issue. :-D Looks like the makers of "Joe's
Apartment" were ahead of their time. :-)
Actually, the aliens from Andalasia dominate the air time in the real
world. So we don't really get to see much of reality in this real world.
Fortunately, I liked the Andalasian characters so much the movie stayed
entertaining for me. Most reviews have already fawned over Amy Adams's
performance, where indeed she infused so much charisma in Giselle that I
stayed
involved throughout the film. I'd say that all the actors playing
Anadalasians
in the movie put as much enthusiasm in their roles as Adams did. These
aliens
dominated my attention so much that New York came off more like a live
action
cartoon world than a real-life world. Sometimes that worked for the
better;
director Kevin Lima staged the scene where Prince Eric has to knock on all
those doors just like a cartoon scene, and it's hilarious. :-D
Now I had a lot of fun following the Andalasians and their unreal
perspectives on life. But I have to concede that the plot had some
significant
problems. Everyone's already noted that in real life Robert would've
called
the police to re****t another NYC crazy, instead of opened his house to
her. It
looked like the writers couldn't come up with a less convoluted way to
pair
Giselle off with a divorce lawyer/single parent character. And to tell
the
truth, I didn't get convinced that Robert and Giselle would fall in love.
I
didn't really see what the attraction would be between them: Robert spent
most
of the time baffled by Giselle's bizarre behavior while Giselle was too
absorbed with Eric. There's a specific scene in the middle where Phillip
and
Giselle suddenly starting thinking romantically about each other. I
wondered
where such a jarring attitude change came from. Oh, well, at least it led
to
a helluva "love's first kiss" scene at the climax. Even with my
reservations
about the romance, that scene still worked for me.
MISCELLANEOUS
A few scenes were duds:
- Everyone already knows about the busdriver scene. In real life,
African
American women don't act like Eddie Murphy in drag. :-) We've seen so many
loudmouth slob black female characters that we desparately need a
moratorium,
and I don't care if that kills Wanda Sykes's career.
- Now I liked Pip the chipmunk; his plight was a funny sendup of the
obnoxious motormouth sidekick cliche. But the pantomine scenes fell flat,
because Prince Eric's misunderstandings didn't make any sense.
- I really hated the shopping scene. No consequences about misusing
the
credit card and ringing up a high bill. That's not real life.
I wished Nancy Tremaine had a lot more airtime for character
development.
A major plotpoint depended on her turning out to have a passion for the
Disney
Princess style of romance. I really liked the pairing of her with Edward
at
the end, more than the pairing of Giselle and Robert even. More scenes of
her
showing how much she loves the Princess lifestyle would've been
entertaining,
but we just get a few brief scenes where she came off as *****y instead.
At
least her role in the last animated sequence was fun to watch. For her
sake
though, I hope she likes animals and doesn't mind them talking back to
her. :-)
I said that Giselle's transformation seemed abrupt. Nathaniel's
change of
attitude actually seemed better paced. It was fun seeing him reconsider
his
infatuation with the queen. I didn't expect to like this character as
much as
I did.
In her animated form, Queen Narissa looked exactly like what Yzma
would
look like if she were younger and drop dead gorgeous. :-) But the makeup
artists did Susan Sarandon a disservice, making the live action Narissa
look a
lot more haggard than her cartoon form. At least that point became moot
once
she transformed to dragon mode, where the scriptwriters provided Sarandon
with
some witty dialogue. Not to mention how Sarandon's voice coming from a
giant
dragon's mouth made for a great sight gag. I still haven't seen "Beowulf"
yet
and so I want to see which movie has the better looking CGI dragon. :-)
If Pip could write a book, how come he didn't just write everything
he
wanted to say when he couldn't talk? It could be that he didn't know how
to
write beforehand, and that the mute experience compelled him to learn to
write
once he got back home. That actually would be a cool plotpoint.
Why would New Yorkers get as upset as they did about a chipmunk?
Chipmunks and squirrels are rodents with good PR. I would've expected to
go,
"ah, cute", whenever they saw Pip, before they run him out of the indoors.
The
degree people got upset, you'd think Pip was a rat instead of a chipmunk.
Other websites have made laundry lists of Disney and non-Disney
references
worked into the movie. Indeed I did have a lot of fun catching these
easter
eggs. My favorite was Jodi Benson's cameo as Robert's personal assistant.
She
spent most of her scene stressed out from dealing with Giselle, before
catching
me by surprise with a sudden lapse into Ariel mode. :-D A couple of refs
I
haven't seen anyone catch: The green troll who's actually a nice guy deep
down
just might be Disney homage to "Shrek". And I think Pip was reenacting
"The
Passion of the Christ" with that coat hanger. :-)
---------------
So the movie had plot problems that stand out when you think about
them.
But even with those problems, I still enjoyed "Enchanted" immensely. In
fact,
I'm torn as to whether "Ratatouille", which had its own plot problems as
great
as that movie was, or "Enchanted" is my favorite movie of 2007.
- Juan F. Lara
"...And that's the reason we need lips so much
For lips are the only things that touch.."
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