My favorite thing about this movie was trying to come up with all the words that start with dis- ….like dismayed, disagree, dislike, displeased, and discard. As in, I’m going to discard this movie from my “recently watched” display so I’m not reminded of this dissatisfaction of dis movie!
Hello there, I’m Ben. Like you, I was looking forward to the follow-up story of a movie I loved, “Enchanted.” But what did Disney do? They ruined it! They made everyone we love in the story kind of unloveable. For instance, Pip the chipmunk. He was simply adorable when we last saw him starring alongside Giselle. But in this movie he gained a New York accent, yuck (no offense!). If that wasn’t disastrous enough, they turned him into a cat, and not even a cute one!
Then there’s Giselle. She was so happy, kind, and innocent in “Enchanted,” nothing to dislike. So why not turn her into a villain, right? She went from everyone’s favorite princess to the wicked witch in a matter of minutes. Plus, was I the only one a little disconcerted with the movie having a wicked witch AND an evil queen? Two villains don’t make sense in this type of Cinderella story.
The next lovable character was Robert (Giselle’s hubby). We know him as a strong, decisive, although a bit stubborn, confident man. But in this continuation of their story, he turns into bumbling, goofy, goofball. He can’t use a sword and is conveyed as a soft, beta male. This is disjointed with the Robert we saw in “Enchanted.”
So take away the chipmunk, the humor, and the charm of the original “Enchanted” and what do you have? Yep, “Disenchanted.” I fell asleep more than once trying to finish the movie. It’s not that I went into expecting to dislike it, as was the case when I tried watching “Hamilton.” WIth that live version of the stage play, I made it to intermission and if I never watch the rest, I’m perfectly OK with that. I’ll say this, the music (in “Hamilton”) is fantastic. But I spent more than half the time not knowing exactly what was going on because I caught only about every 5th word in the rap songs. And I’ll say this, too… the music (in “Enchanted”) doesn’t have one song I’ll remember. And that is VERY different than the first one. It even includes one of my favorite songs of all time from Jon McLaughlin.
Some reviews point out something I completely agree with… the magic just isn’t there. Trying to recapture the magic of a successful first film has got to be very difficult. It’s the reason nearly everyone will poo-poo sequels in almost every movie franchise. I think for Disney, though, they could’ve pretty much stuck with the formula that worked for them in “Enchanted.” And by that, I mean don’t change Pip into a unlikeable and unfunny cat. That seems like a no-brainer. And meow it’s time for my final thoughts…
I wish (with the magical wishing wand, perhaps?) that I could go back to before I watched “Disenchanted” and NOT watch it. The movie was that disappointing. If you’ve seen it, let me know if I’m overthinking it or missing something. Share your dispute in the comments below!
Thanks for dropping in…
-Out of the Wilderness
Out of the Wilderness 