Enchanted (2007) Revisit: An Underrated Disney Princess Parody from Gen Z's Disney
Copyright © Walt Disney Pictures
Title: Enchanted
Director: Kevin Lima
Release Date: November 21, 2007
Sure, Disney's live-action IP nowadays is a ruckus. All they want to do is make a bunch of soulless remakes of their animated classics in order to generate money. That brings us to a good question. What about Disney's live-action films that are original stories? Unlike most of these remakes in the current decade, their originals can give us astounding results. Since I did review Teen Beach Movie last year, it is time to review Enchanted, a live-action and animation hybrid that is Disney's most underlooked princess flick! Marking the return of the company's traditional animation, it serves as a parody of Disney's past films, most presumably their Disney Princess films in their many various eras. Going back to 2007, with a fair budget of $85 million, the movie performed successfully as it smashed with $340.5 million at the box office. To match, the movie was well-received by both critics and audiences, along with being nominated for many and winning several awards. As this story pokes fun at the famous Disney princess films, Enchanted is sure to be an "enchanted" tale with a happily ever after.
Summary
Stereotypical Disney Princess, Giselle (Amy Adams), is about to be wed in the animated land of Andalasia. However, when the Evil Queen (Susan Sarandon) banishes her to New York City, she is sent to the real world. Over there, she falls in love with lawyer, Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey), and other characters from the magical land go into this world as well.
Reasons
The most magical strengths for Enchanted are the classic references, charming story, and self-aware humor. As said earlier, this movie is a parody of the Disney Princess films, which was well done in a way that the audience can understand it. Most notably, it has recognizable references to the past princess films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella. This actually helps not only for those who grew up with Disney but for those who enjoy fairy tales and the like. Speaking of which, the story makes up as a fun homage to those films as well. The writers made up of a great concept of animated fairy tale characters entering into real life and getting used to the ups and downs of what happens there. Frankly enough, other kids movies have done this before where fantastical beings enter into the human world, and this makes the story double times more fun. In addition, the self-aware humor of the movie is what makes this princess movie its own thing. Unlike many other Disney animated movies, this one jokes about things from their previous film from way back then. This makes for a way to have the audience laugh at how the company jokes about their own clichés and tropes from their past library.
Some extra strengths from Enchanted that are magic are the entertaining characters, clean animation, and beautiful production. Most of them are cliched but that was done on purpose in a good way. Here are two examples. The main lead, Giselle, is the usual Disney Princess who tries to get used to what reality has to offer. Even though her chemistry with Robert can seem kind of cheesy at first, it gets more interesting as they go on this journey together to help her find her prince. On the other hand, Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey) is the lawyer who gets annoyed by Giselle's antics at first, but develops when he tries to help her throughout. The writers had a good idea to contrast Robert's serious demeanor to Prince Edward's outrageous demeanor. Putting that aside, the animation still looks clean and classic, even after Disney has moved to computer animation (thanks to Toy Story) years before this film came out. For a modern princess movie, the color palette looks like something seen from the Renaissance era, which is the most recognizable Disney era. Notably, the art style looks iconic enough for people to call it a movie made by that company. Finally, the production is lovely and well made. The animated characters translate well into live-action because of how much the costumes and looks were ensured to be as accurate as possible. Even almost all of the CGI aged pretty well like wine.
Even if this is close to receiving a perfect score, Enchanted has some flaws, like the CGI in the final act and the need for more varied references. However, these are not much of big nitpicks. The first example is meant to be a spoiler, so this will not be explained as much. Honestly, the CGI did not fully blend in with the real world, but it is not that bad. It is fine just the way it is! Also, the movie would have had more room for more different princess references. All it just pokes fun at are Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella, and that is just about it. However, we do not want the movie to be spoonfed with too much references, so probably just replace some and have them make sense.
Conclusion
Being a self-parody of the Disney Princess category, Enchanted is an underrated gem that is wrapped with a happily ever after! On one hand, there comes the cash-grab remakes, and on the other, there are the original live-action treasures. The references and humor poke fun at the old films of the company from back then. That way, people, especially Disney fans, can have a good laugh. As two kinds of stories cross together, the fairy tale and real-world problems equal into an entertaining story for all ages to love. If you are bothered by how Disney does nostalgia pandering to print their money, then take a look at what they did from the past. It shows what they should get back to doing!
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