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Disenchanted
Doesn't the phrase "And they lived happily ever after" imply the end of a story? Apparently not, because Disney Studios have dusted off their surprise 2007 hit Enchanted and brought us Disenchanted an overblown and unnecessary sequel to Enchanted that instead of providing us with a viable new story, pretty much just rehashes the first film and doesn't even do that effectively.
Amy Adams returns to inhabit one of her most popular roles as Princess Giselle, the animated princess from Andulasia who finds her Prince Charming in a sexy lawyer named Robert (Patrick Dempsey) who has a young daughter named Morgan. For some reason, Robert and Giselle who in addition to raising Morgan together now have a baby of their own named Sophia. have decided to give up living in Manhattan and move to a small suburb called Monroeville, which the now sullen teenage Morgan is not at all happy about. Shortly after their arrival in Monroeville, Giselle innocently makes a wish that Monroeville was more like Andulasia and as the wish comes true, Monroeville begins morphing into Andulasia and poor Giselle finds herself turning into her worst nightmare: a wicked stepmother which begins to seriously damage her relationship with Morgan and husband Robert fighting dragons and trying to protect the town from the evil Malvina (Maya Rudolph).
The Disney gloss, very similar to the MGM gloss that helped make their musicals in the 40's and 50's so special, does very little to disguise how unnecessary this sequel is. In the first film, Giselle found her prince in Robert, stealing him effortlessly from Robert's snooty fiancee, Nancy (Idina Menzel), who did eventually find happiness with Prince Edward (James Marsden). As a matter of fact, the first ten minutes of this film tells us exactly what happened in the first film, never a good sign for a sequel. We then see Giselle working very hard to keep her new family together with the help of a magic scroll (delightfully voiced by Alan Tudyk) while poor Robert finds himself doing everything that he hated doing in the first film.
For some reason, Pip, Giselle's adorable pet from the first film is turned into an overweight cat and Malvina is given a pair of flying monkeys named Ruby (Jayma Mays) and Rosaleen (Yvette Nicole Brown) to do her bidding. And despite everything that happened in the first film, Morgan is conveniently calling Giselle Mother at the beginning of the story in order to validate Giselle's transformation into a wicked stepmother.
The most enjoyable aspect of this film is Adams' terrific performance as Giselle, where we see the poor thing terrified as she sees the wicked stepmother persona try to overtake her normally sunshine ad sugar personality that enchanted everyone in the first film. The screenplay cleverly allows Giselle's transformation to occur slowly, sometimes in the fork of just a couple of words that slip out of Giselle's mouth without her realizing it and unable to control.
The main problem here is the main problem with most sequels: Sequel-itis, that idiotic filmmaking concept that in order to make a sequel, it has to be bigger, longer and provide twice as much as the first film did and it kills this film to the point of complete exhaustion, where this reviewer found himself actually nodding off a couple of times ad having to rewind to catch what I missed.
As with the first film, there is a serviceable music score by Alan Mencken (The Little Mermaid) and Stephen Schwartz (Godspell) that serves the story but it's nothing special. Did enjoy a spectacular duet with Adams and Rudolph called "Badder" that brought the house down.
Production values are serious including stunning set designs and costumes. Adams works very hard keeping Giselle sweet and lovable, but Dempsey is phoning it in as Robert. If the truth be told, he looks embarrassed to be involved in this debacle. Marsden and Medina' roles as Edward and Nancy have been reduced to glorified cameos and Rudolph's cartoon character villain wasn't anywhere as near as fun as Susan Sarandon in 2007. For hardcore fans of Adams only.
Doesn't the phrase "And they lived happily ever after" imply the end of a story? Apparently not, because Disney Studios have dusted off their surprise 2007 hit Enchanted and brought us Disenchanted an overblown and unnecessary sequel to Enchanted that instead of providing us with a viable new story, pretty much just rehashes the first film and doesn't even do that effectively.
Amy Adams returns to inhabit one of her most popular roles as Princess Giselle, the animated princess from Andulasia who finds her Prince Charming in a sexy lawyer named Robert (Patrick Dempsey) who has a young daughter named Morgan. For some reason, Robert and Giselle who in addition to raising Morgan together now have a baby of their own named Sophia. have decided to give up living in Manhattan and move to a small suburb called Monroeville, which the now sullen teenage Morgan is not at all happy about. Shortly after their arrival in Monroeville, Giselle innocently makes a wish that Monroeville was more like Andulasia and as the wish comes true, Monroeville begins morphing into Andulasia and poor Giselle finds herself turning into her worst nightmare: a wicked stepmother which begins to seriously damage her relationship with Morgan and husband Robert fighting dragons and trying to protect the town from the evil Malvina (Maya Rudolph).
The Disney gloss, very similar to the MGM gloss that helped make their musicals in the 40's and 50's so special, does very little to disguise how unnecessary this sequel is. In the first film, Giselle found her prince in Robert, stealing him effortlessly from Robert's snooty fiancee, Nancy (Idina Menzel), who did eventually find happiness with Prince Edward (James Marsden). As a matter of fact, the first ten minutes of this film tells us exactly what happened in the first film, never a good sign for a sequel. We then see Giselle working very hard to keep her new family together with the help of a magic scroll (delightfully voiced by Alan Tudyk) while poor Robert finds himself doing everything that he hated doing in the first film.
For some reason, Pip, Giselle's adorable pet from the first film is turned into an overweight cat and Malvina is given a pair of flying monkeys named Ruby (Jayma Mays) and Rosaleen (Yvette Nicole Brown) to do her bidding. And despite everything that happened in the first film, Morgan is conveniently calling Giselle Mother at the beginning of the story in order to validate Giselle's transformation into a wicked stepmother.
The most enjoyable aspect of this film is Adams' terrific performance as Giselle, where we see the poor thing terrified as she sees the wicked stepmother persona try to overtake her normally sunshine ad sugar personality that enchanted everyone in the first film. The screenplay cleverly allows Giselle's transformation to occur slowly, sometimes in the fork of just a couple of words that slip out of Giselle's mouth without her realizing it and unable to control.
The main problem here is the main problem with most sequels: Sequel-itis, that idiotic filmmaking concept that in order to make a sequel, it has to be bigger, longer and provide twice as much as the first film did and it kills this film to the point of complete exhaustion, where this reviewer found himself actually nodding off a couple of times ad having to rewind to catch what I missed.
As with the first film, there is a serviceable music score by Alan Mencken (The Little Mermaid) and Stephen Schwartz (Godspell) that serves the story but it's nothing special. Did enjoy a spectacular duet with Adams and Rudolph called "Badder" that brought the house down.
Production values are serious including stunning set designs and costumes. Adams works very hard keeping Giselle sweet and lovable, but Dempsey is phoning it in as Robert. If the truth be told, he looks embarrassed to be involved in this debacle. Marsden and Medina' roles as Edward and Nancy have been reduced to glorified cameos and Rudolph's cartoon character villain wasn't anywhere as near as fun as Susan Sarandon in 2007. For hardcore fans of Adams only.