‘Enchanted’ is a lot of corny fun in the Disney tradition

Moviegoers were more than enthralled with “Enchanted,” as it made the Walt Disney Pictures film the No. 1 movie of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

“Enchanted” earned $35.3 million over the weekend — $50 million since its opening last Wednesday.

Our story is first told in old school Disney animation, involving the lovely Giselle (Amy Adams). Adored by woodland creatures, Giselle pines away for everlasting love and hope to find herself a Prince Charming.

Although not necessarily Charming, she lands upon the lap (literally) of Prince Edward (James Marsden), and within a day’s time, vow to wed each other. I guess after completing each other’s songs is enough to walk the wedded aisle in this film.

However, the impending nupitals doesn’t sit well with Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon), who doesn’t want to lose her royal placement to Giselle.

Disguised as an old hag, Narissa dupes Giselle into falling down a wishing well the day of the wedding.

While adorned in full-blown princess wedding gown, Giselle ends up in the busy streets of Manhattan, and in human form. She’s a long way from her dream wedding in Andalasia, and now has to fend for herself in the real world of New York.

When Giselle is spotted trying to enter a Palace Gambling billboard by divorce attorney Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey) and his daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey), Robert decides to assist Giselle with Morgan’s urging.

Of course, Robert was planning on getting engaged to long-time girlfriend Nancy (Idina Menzel), much to the dismay of Morgan, who believes in princesses and fairy tales.

After spending the night, Giselle unintentionally turns Robert’s life inside out, as she “ah-ha’s” surburban creatures to clean Robert’s messy apartment, and making a new dress out of his curtains. By the way, for being a bachelor, Robert doesn’t have the most manly drapes in his place.

Anywho, Prince Edward and sidekick Nathaniel (Timothy Spall) go down the wishing well to retrieve Giselle. However, Edward isn’t finding New York much to his liking, while Nathaniel is secretly doing the bidding of Narissa.

Along for the ride and sparring with Nathaniel is Pip the Squirrel, who doesn’t have much luck in communicating with Edward about Nathaniel’s deceit.

So while Edward is running around New York in search of Giselle, she is spending more and more time with Robert, which turns this love story from a triangle into a square.

“Enchanted” could be described in one word — wow! There was all of the usual Disney fodder such as animation, singing, talking domesticated animals, an impish girl, a prince and evil stepmother. What I didn’t expect was all of that and a lot more.

While it does start off sugary-sweet in animation, once it goes live in New York, the comedy really kicks in. I’ve often wondered what it would be like if a Disney character would come to live. This film has that, and enough comedy and jokes to capture everyone’s attention.

Adams is spectacular as Giselle, as she’s sweet, innocent and embodies everything that a Disney princess should, including singing and pleasant optimism.

Dempsey is great as Robert, who doesn’t know if Giselle is literally crazy or if she could be as real as his daughter would like her to be.

Marsden portrays the prince in typical Disney mode — charming and brash. Spall’s Nathaniel is perfect as the comedic foil, and is the butt of a lot of jokes.

One of the hottest scenes is when Sarandon’s Narissa comes to life, as she struts across the street while waving her witchcraft in making cars stop at her presence. While this isn’t a huge role for Sarandon, it was a pleasant surprise seeing her cast this way.

The only minor flaw I didn’t like about this film is that five minutes of corniness towards the end could’ve been lopped off, but I suppose that was more for the children’s sake.

This time around, Disney has taken its formula of “girl meets boy, get married and happily ever after” and tweaks it between animation and real life. If only a lot of past Disney classics were given some real life fusion.

A perfect holiday film for all ages, “Enchanted” will leave you feeling happy even after with four out of four stars.

“Enchanted” is rated PG for some scary images and mild innuendo. Running time is 1 hour, 48 minutes.

Last week’s No. 1 film, “Beowulf,” toppled to third place with $16.2 million — its two-week total reaching $56.4 million.

For more information and show times, contact Regal Cinemas Marketplace 24, 180 Mill Road, Oaks, at 610-666-6697.

Posted by
Dennis J. Wright dwright@phoenixvillenews.com