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I’m not ashamed to admit that since moving to within a couple of hours of Orlando, I have spent a good deal of my vacation days at Disneyworld. On one visit there, I bought an “insiders” book that details little secrets that are hidden throughout Disneyworld, including hundreds of three-circled Mickey Mouse motifs that the original designers snuck into the architecture throughout the park.
Last night, I saw Disney’s latest film, Enchanted, and then stumbled upon a similar guide in USA Today that lists all of the little hidden treasures throughout the film, most of which went completely unnoticed by this usually observant moviegoer.
The film, about animated Disney characters running amok in New York City had incredible potential, but in this viewer’s opinion, it failed to rise to its premise. I wanted Disney to spoof itself in a way that didn’t require a insider’s guide to follow. I wanted to see the myriad hilarious situations that could have been created from a Disneyesque Princess and Prince being lost in New York. I wanted a belty Alan Menkin tune with waves that crash behind the mermaid just as the music swells, that I would be singing to myself for the next week or year.
Apparently the music in the film was meant to spoof other Disney film music, but it just didn’t occur to me that the “Happy Working Song” was meant to echo “Whistle While You Work.” And the calypso beat in “That’s How You Know” was not enough to summon “Under the Sea” for me.
And small details like Giselle’s reflection showing up in the cleaning bubbles like they do in Cinderella and the fact that Idina Menzel’s character’s last name is Tremaine, just like Cinderella’s stepmother eluded me.
Without the insider lowdown, the movie I experienced was a tepid version of Sleepless in Seattle with some cartoon characters thrown in to distract me from its formulaic construction. And I REALLY wanted to like it.
The film has all the stock characters of animated films (the evil queen, the wide eyed princess, the broad shouldered, prince with perfect teeth, the bumbling Englishman with bad teeth, and the talking chipmunk) and date films (the single dad, the lonely daughter seeking a surrogate mother, and the sensible career-oriented fiance, whom the dad thinks he loves until the spunky oddball who is immune to big city cynicism drops into his life).
The premise is that the evil queen (Susan Sarandon) banishes the potential princess (Amy Adams) from the animated world of Andalasia to New York City, (which is also animated but not in that way), in order to keep her from marrying her son (James Marsden) and inheriting the throne. Animated princess meets single dad (Patrick Dempsey) and both are changed by the interaction.
Of course it makes sense when she begins to doubt that Prince Edward (Marsden), whom she has known for a day, may not actually be her true love, but it was so darn predictable that I saw the end of the movie playing out an hour before it was over.
The cast is chock full of Broadway talent, which delighted the theatre geek in me to no end. Idina Mendel (Rent, Wicked) plays the jilted fiance, though she’s not given a whole lot to work with. Tonya Pinkins (Caroline or Change) even has a small role as one of Dempsey’s divorce clients. I didn’t recognize her until I saw her name in the credits. Marsden, who was fantastic as Corny Collins in the film of Hairspray, makes a charming Prince Charming, and Amy Adams (soon to be in the film version of Doubt) breathes life into what could have been a very two-dimentional character (pun intended).
I have also read that Gregory Jbara (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), Brian d’Arcy James (The Apple Tree) and Daniel Mastrogiorgio (Contact) are in there somewhere, but didn’t see/hear them in the ensemble.
I have also since learned that Jodi Benson (the voice of the animated Little Mermaid), Paige O’Hara (the voice of the animated Belle of Beauty and the Beast) and Judy Kuhn (the voice of the animated Pocahontas) all had cameos. Once again, their cameos completely went over my head. I just wondered why the heck the random soap opera actress (O’Hara) on the television in one scene got so much screen time.
The music by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz didn’t rise to the level of either composer’s talent. It wasn’t quite clever enough to be called a true satire, but it wasn’t engaging enough to feel as though the characters really believed what they were singing.
Overall, I think the premise of the film is pure genius, but without a smart, or even interesting development, (or some savvy insider knowledge) the clever idea falls flat and becomes just another sappy date movie (complete with scatological chipmunk humor) that left this princess feeling just a little bit big city cynical.
MiC, sorry you were disappointed. I’d been thinking about seeing this, or at least putting it in my Netflix queue. If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend “Junebug,” the film for which Amy Adams earned her well-deserved Oscar nomination.
I’m sorry you were disappointed too, MIC. We saw the film last night and loved it. In addition to the Broadway stars you mentioned, there were three others in small roles who were also Disney voice talents: Jodi Benson (Crazy for You, voice of the Little Mermaid) played Patrick Dempsey’s assistant, Judy Kuhn (Les Mis, Sunset Boulevard, voice of Pocahontas) was the pregnant woman with all the kids who answered one of the doors the prince knocked on, and Paige O’Hara (voice of Belle in Beauty and the Beast) played Angela.
Esther and Mary–thanks for your condolences. The film is sort of growing on me a few days after I saw it. I guess I had something a little edgier in mind going into it. I do like all the cameos and references to other Disney films. Maybe I’m just bitter that I missed so many of them…