Pizza & a Movie #45: "Enchanted"
An apple a day keeps the succession away.
“Enchanted”
2007 • 1hr 47mins • PG • Stream on Disney+ • Watch the trailer
Disenchanted hits Disney+ today. But, and this is a big “but” (I like big “buts” (and I cannot lie)), you probably haven’t thought much about the original since it came out in ’07. So tonight we’re going back through the manhole cover-slash-dimensional portal to the land of puffy dresses and hand-drawn animation. It’s Part 1 of a Double Feature: Enchanted.
Here’s the plot. We’re in cell-drawn Andalasia where wicked stepmother queen (is there any other kind) Narissa (Susan Sarandon) wants to keep the throne. But once her stepson, Prince Edward (James Marsden), marries, she’ll be replaced like an old iPhone. Uh-oh, Edward meets cabincore Giselle (Amy Adams), who’s singing about true love in the forrest. He swipes right—they’ll be married tomorrow. Incognito as a hag, Narissa pushes Giselle down a well, which is a Stargate to present-day NYC. Giselle emerges in Times Square, understandably ruffled. Soon she’s in the arms of divorce lawyer Robert (Patrick Dempsey) after falling off a casino billboard she misjudged for a castle. We’ve all been there. Robert is figuring out how to propose to girlfriend Nancy (Idina Menzel) and break the news to his six-year-old daughter. He lets homeless Giselle stay in their apartment, which is curtains for his drapes. Meanwhile, Narissa’s minion Nathaniel (Timothy Spall), indomitable Edward, and talking chipmunk Pip portal-jump into NYC after Giselle like so many Mario Bros. But having gotten a taste of the real world, will Giselle want to go back? And can Edward overcome herculean obstacles like homophobic New Yawkahs, city busses and TV remotes to even see her again? And, really, is your house clean if who cleans it is roaches?
This is a Disney movie, but it didn’t start out like one. Disney-owned Touchstone Pictures bought the script back in ’97 when it was aimed at sex-aware teens and grownups. It had the fish-out-of-water dynamic, but included details like locals mistaking Giselle for a stripper. It sounds a lot like badly-aged cable TV classic Blast from the Past. Which is because the same guy wrote both scripts: Bill Kelly. The project would burn through rewrites, directors, and concept swaps for the next seven years. Disney was figuring out its relevance again, spinning up other projects like Pirates of the Caribbean (’03) and National Treasure (’04). In ’05, Disney brought Kelly back and paired him with Kevin Lima. Lima directed A Goofy Movie (’95), Tarzan (’99) and 102 Dalmations (’00), the last of which critically translated a Disney animated classic to zany live action. Lima’s own animation background seems to have saved Enchanted. He storyboarded the entire movie, covering a building floor with the sheets. At last, Disney greenlit it for $85M.
This is kind of a fashion movie. Follow the dresses. Giselle’s initial wedding dress is a hooped behemoth with twenty layers of ruffles and fabric. It weighed, I kid you not, forty pounds. Give Adams an Oscar for looking graceful while basically doing crossfit. As her dresses progress, each is less princess-like than the last. She’s modern by the ball. It’s a case of costume conveying character progression. But Prince Edward? One costume for that guy. The whole time. They gave his sleeves gravity-defying puff, padded out his rearview to be more convex, and made sure his handsome mug was always on display. While Giselle adapts to the real world, Edward’s costume shows us he’ll never belong here. Incompatible threads, man. You hate to see it.
Where were the cast’s careers at then? Amy Adams had just broken through with an Oscar nom for Junebug in ’05. Before that she’d been in Drop Dead Gorgeous (cult classic, seen it, did not enjoy) and Catch Me If You Can. When I say “Patrick Dempsey”, your brain just says “McDreamy”. He’d been on Grey’s Anatomy since ’05. James Marsden was already a leading man, known for Cyclops from the X-Men flicks. That’s on top of an early career as a model and network TV actor. US audiences knew Timothy Spall as Wormtail from Harry Potter starting in ’04. Susan Sarandon hadn’t made anything big since Stepmom in ’98, but she’s got nothing to prove. Idina Menzel is the most interesting to me. She was a Broadway star already, with a Tony under her belt for Wicked. It’s weird that she doesn’t sing in this. Right? That’s weird. But her relationship with Disney continued. She was up for the lead in Tangled but didn’t get it in ’09, later clenching the role of Elsa in Frozen because a Disney exec kept her impressive audition on his iPhone and remembered her during casting. She also kills it as someone who cannot wait to be Adam Sandler’s ex-wife in Uncut Gems (‘19). Her character’s level of loathing is nuclear. Anyway, it looks like Disney took a leap with Adams, then slotted in proven talent with built-in fanbases for every other role. Smart.
Man, I enjoyed Enchanted more this time than any other watch. Maybe because I’m getting older and the third-life crisis theme is Relevant To My Interests. Most of all, it’s easy to see why this highly quoted role made Amy Adams a star.
Next week we’ll see how things are going a decade and a half later in Disenchanted. As in Back to the Future 2, I’m sure everyone’s doing great. And, hey, if you like P&aM, forward this to a pal who would too!
NOTES:
Director Kevin Lima cut his teeth as an animator on The Great Mouse Detective, Oliver & Company and The Little Mermaid.
Lima is married to Brenda Chapman, who directed The Prince of Egypt and Brave.
The last time Disney pulled this off old-school animation and live-action hybrid was in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (’88), which is a somewhat unpleasant yet eye-popping masterpiece and inexplicably an homage to Chinatown.
Enchanted took two years to complete. The animation took a year, shooting took two and a half months. They happened at the same time.
The movie opens with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, switches to 1.85:1 for the animated intro, then returns to 2.35:1 for live action and stays that way. It’s effective for making you feel like you’re watching a VHS Disney classic.
Princesses you missed:
Jodi Benson, voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, is Pam the receptionist. That’s why Giselle spits a fish out when she meets her.
Paige O’Hara, voice of Belle in Beauty and the Beast, is in the soap Edward watches.
Judy Kuhn, singing voice of Pocahontas in, uh, Pocahontas, is the tenant who tells Edward “You’re too late” as he searches for Giselle in Robert’s building.
Idina Menzel did have a musical number called “Enchanted”, sung when she and Edward meet. It was cut for pacing. A shame!
Menzel was married to Taye Diggs for a decade.
Patrick Dempsey has competed as a pro-level race car driver since ’09, including in grueling endurance races like the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He has a racing team and giant collection of sports cars. Says he’d leave acting forever for racing. (He hasn’t.)
The narrator is Julie Andrews.