Disenchanted, the direct-to-Disney+ sequel for the most efficient Disney live-action fairy story movie, is held in combination by way of the magic this is Amy Adams. The tale, sadly, lacks sufficient of its personal magic to really feel utterly gratifying.
Within the earlier movie, Enchanted, her Giselle used to be a pleasant princess-to-be trope that got here to existence and located herself in modern day New York Town. She came upon there’s extra to existence than “real love’s kiss” and ended up with Robert (Patrick Dempsey), a hotshot legal professional, reasonably than absolute best himbo prince Edward (James Marsden). The primary movie captured the sincerity of striving to stay the most efficient of fairytale beliefs in a global that might use a bit magic—whilst breaking the tropes that had to be damaged in actual existence thru track and climactic motion (shout out to Susan Sarandon for being a scrumptious dragon villain).
In Disenchanted, we discover Giselle looking for tactics to recapture magic in her existence. Her circle of relatives has outgrown their NYC rental, her stepdaughter Morgan (now performed by way of Gabriella Baldacchino) is a teenager, and their circle of relatives has welcomed a brand new child, Sofia. In order that they make a decision to uproot to suburbia, Monroeville—a not-so-idyllic position, regardless of outward appearances, the place mean-girl mother Malvina Monroe (Maya Rudolph) and her two minions (Jayme Mays and Yvette Nicole Brown) run the display.
Seeing that suburbia isn’t all that it’s cracked as much as be and with a teenager who misses her outdated existence within the town, Giselle takes issues in her personal fingers when the chance gifts itself. It does so within the type of Edward and Nancy (Idina Menzel), who as Sofia’s magical godparents present the kid a wishing wand, since she’s a daughter of Andalasia. The set-up is suave; after a battle with Morgan, who calls her “step-mother” out of anger regardless of the shut dating that they had within the first movie, Giselle makes use of the wand to summon such a fairytale existence that drew Morgan to her once they first met.
When Giselle wakes up, Monroeville is a kingdom, no longer in contrast to those we’ve observed in collection like Galavant and As soon as Upon a Time. And that’s the place the film roughly misplaced me. It briefly falls into an excessively equivalent international we’ve observed carried out greater than as soon as by way of Disney, however with the Fairytale Core filter out grew to become up and populated by way of significantly better actors (Disappointed does them a disservice, actually). That stated, the costumes on “excellent” Giselle and Morgan are immaculate and really feel like fashionable delusion model space Selkie meets Disney.
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Speaking of “good” Giselle, Adams doesn’t miss a step in recreating the optimistic, wide-eyed spirit from the first film. When the crux of the plot is introduced—her wish makes her a wicked step-mother by the hour—it’s presented as a fantastic twist, but the idea becomes disjointed as the film goes on. There are too many plot threads, between Giselle’s relationship with Morgan that tries to be the main focus, but then there’s also Giselle versus Malvina for the crown. Nevertheless, Adams relishes in being “bad” Giselle in an astounding way and totally nails having two different and perfect contrasting energies.
The B-plots also get messy with lots of characters you normally would have wanted more of. Dempsey is given two-dimensional arc as Robert trying to find a purpose in a fairytale world as a hapless hero, which makes no sense to who he was before. Morgan also has a love story that could have been more prominent to sell us on it. And then there’s Nancy and Edward who just come to save the day, be saved, and save the day again; Nancy gets the full Fairy Godmother treatment with the film’s main musical numbers. At least Menzel finally gets to sing! Rudolph also elevates every scene and musical number she’s in as the perfect foil to “bad” Giselle.
Overall, it’s great to see all these characters back and riffing on various fairytale tropes surrounding queens and daughters; it mostly works, in large part because of the cast’s commitment to their roles. It’s a shame the story doesn’t live up to the first film—maybe it should have been a mini-series instead, to better serve the various threads and relationships that writer Brigitte Hales and director Adam Shankman clearly wanted to explore. I do hope it’s not the last we see of the characters and there’s more chapters in the world of Enchanted to see.
Disenchanted is now streaming on Disney+.
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