Review | Disney's 'Disenchanted' is the opposite of happily ever after
The sequel to the 2007 fantasy film was released on Disney+ on Nov. 16 and falls flat with poorly constructed songs and a tired storyline. Photo collage by SIMRAH AHMAD, staff photographer
With an obsession of anything Disney related and memories of spending every Halloween dressed in a princess costume, it was no surprise that I would love the 2007 film "Enchanted."
I sat in the theater inhaling my kid's popcorn bucket and slurping down my cherry ICEE while glued to every moment of the film. To this day I am reminded of the film's message that fairy tales may not contain talking animals and poofy dresses, but these happily ever afters are still possible — making it the ultimate revamp of the classic fairy tale.
You can imagine my excitement when Disney announced the release of "Disenchanted," the sequel to the 2007 film. "Disenchanted," which was released to Disney+ on Nov. 16, continues to tell the story of Giselle (Amy Adams) and her family, answering the question: "What comes after 'Happily Ever After'?'"
The original film focused on Giselle, a young girl from an animated fantasy land of Andalsia, who fell in love with a prince but was sent away to New York City by the prince's evil stepmother. Through her adventures in the city, Giselle meets a divorce lawyer Robert Phillip (Patrick Dempsey) and finds true love in an unexpected way.
Now in the sequel, Giselle returns but has become tired of the hostile environment of New York City, so she decides to move her family to the suburb of Monroeville. When Giselle realizes her stepdaughter Morgan is struggling to fit into this new town, Giselle uses magic to transform their world into the ultimate fairy tale — where everyone sings their troubles away and the only despair is finding the right dress to wear. But, a consequence to this spell results in Giselle turning into an evil stepmother and losing her bubbly persona.
Despite the film's well-loved predecessor, "Disenchanted" struggles with its use of song composition. In the original film, the music served as a perfect crescendo of emotion representative of the storyline — with the lighthearted melody of "Happy Working Song" in the beginning to the bittersweet emotion of finding love that may be slipping away at the fingertips in "So Close."
But the new film lacks any meaningful development in the music, with each song sounding surface-level and worse than any amateur theater production.
The fact that in one song they described a fairy tale world as "when you have a life that's truly Brothers Grimms-y" and allowing Idina Menzel to sing "Let it grow" to mimic her iconic "Let it Go" from "Frozen" proves there was only carelessness present when writing these lyrics.
Another low point of this film was the performance of Patrick Dempsey as Robert. What's unfortunate is that he played the perfect sarcastic yet lovable character in the first film, but this time around he falls flat with no arc whatsoever.
Even though he ventures into singing for some music numbers — which was an unfortunate sight — his character falls into the shadows. Giselle has always been the shining light in these films, but the trajectory of Robert and Giselle becoming a united family should have been incorporated more — instead of him just trotting off to the commuter train or leaving to fight a dragon.
Even though there were hiccups in some of the performances, Adams' depiction of Giselle keeps the audience wanting to watch. Along with her natural musicality, Adams makes it very difficult not to fall in love with Giselle — even through every despicable smirk and cackle.
Adams is also joined alongside Maya Rudolph, who plays the wicked Queen Malvina Monroe. While their interactions allow malevolence to brew, it felt as though Rudolph was holding back compared to her normal wittiness in other genres.
The favorite part of the film for many fans was the return of Prince Edward, played by James Marsden. Many online joke that Marsden never ages, even though he is approaching 50 years old. On the movie-reviewing app Letterboxd, users wrote that "James Marsden slayed his two minutes of screentime" and "I know James Marsden is on his way to save cinema."
I could not agree more, with Marsden proving once again that even 15 years after the first film, he still is the perfect prince.
Overall, the very foundation of the original "Enchanted" was that it was a fish-out-of-water modern spin on a fairy tale, but "Disenchanted" seems completely tired and overdone. "Enchanted" felt fresh and exciting for its time, but "Disenchanted" feels like laziness at its worst with a typical fantasy storyline.
Sure, if I was seven years old again, I'm sure I would like this movie — but for those who grew up on the original film, this is a disappointing letdown. When I was first watching "Enchanted," I loved that Giselle met Robert in a full princess gown while sitting at the top of a billboard in Manhattan and how she taught him about finding love while on a boat ride in Central Park.
"Disenchanted" went too far on the fantasy spectrum, making it difficult to relate to the story. I will never dislike the magical awe in fairy tales, but there needs to be some limitations. Even Tinkerbell had a cutoff on the amount of pixie dust too.
