ENCHANTED (2007):
Written by: Bill Kelly & Ron Howard (yes, that one)
-This one’s a bit funny, in that it’s a cutesy parody of Princess Movies… that basically also plays them straight, to the point where it actually revolutionized and restarted the entire Disney Princess genre! Some of the gags are pretty good, and there’s some WONDERFUL over-acting from Jason Marsden & Susan Sarandon (who is looking way too good to be as old as she is). The chipmunk and his funny pantomimes ruled, as is the time where he LITERALLY CRAPPED HIMSELF WITH FEAR. Then Amy Adams leads Central Park in song, and uses her “Princess Singing Voice” to communicate with New York’s vermin to clean an apartment . The love story is a bit “he dislikes her/then he suddenly realizes that this Manic Pixie Dream Girl is his ideal!”, but since the whole movie is a parody example, it works.

There is some FANTASTIC acting in the final sequence, when Giselle and Robert arrive at the big dance. You can see in there eyes that they have fallen in love with each other, with Robert being serious and pained, but Giselle is basically beside herself (since she has to go back with Prince Edward). And then Edward & Nancy arrive, cutting in on the dancing. Edward is clueless, but aware that Giselle is upset over something and thus concerned. And NANCY… well, she just gives her fiancee this “Dude, WTF?” look that could chill a soul before dancing with him. And then… they share a kiss, at which point Nancy’s face just becomes “ahh… SHIT.” because she realizes he’s lost to her. I mean, the dialogue is sparse and unnecessary- pure facial reactions and body language pull off this scene perfectly.

And heck, the final sequence has Amy Adams, Idina “Elphaba” Menzel & Susan Sarandon all in sexy dresses. What’s not to love? Then it actually sticks my beloved Idina in animated form, and WOW does she ever look beautiful that way! Actually, I liked the animated bits much more than everything else, because it reflects how far animation’s come, and I dig the style more than anything. The outlines of the characters are a little flesh-toned, though, making it look weird compared to anything older (which usually uses thick black lines).

Fun Fact: Various Disney Princesses appear throughout, usually with an audio motif from their trademark film. Jodi Benson appears as Robert’s assistant, with Part of Your World playing as Giselle drinks some water and spits out a fish. Paige O’Hara is an actress on a bad soap opera as Beauty and the Beast plays. Judy Kuhn, singing voice of Pocahontas, simply tells Prince Edward “you’re too LATE” while looking over her three children. I’m curious as to whether or not I noticed this the first time I saw the film, as it’s pretty obvious now.

-Giselle is your archetypical Princess (despite never attaining royalty), to the point of parody- she’s more innocent and good-natured than ANY real Princess (even Cinderella & Snow White could be bossy and sarcastic), always talks about true love, and has Honest-To-God SUPER-POWERS revolving around her Animal Friends, summoning them with a few little notes. This role would be unimaginably hard to play (probably MUCH more than a simple drama character- as some “in the know” have stated, comedy is MUCH harder than drama), so good on Amy Adams for her ability here.

About the Performer: Amy Adams is probably the only woman ever who could play a LIVE DISNEY PRINCESS and feel “right”- only she has the right combination of likability, beauty (but CUTE, round-faced beauty, not predatory, sexy beauty), acting ability, and guileless simplicity to handle it. Anyone else would come off too impure, too cynical, or too sexy. She basically looks like the girls next door Nd the girl every mother dreams about for her son. That she had the acting ability to match (FIVE Oscar nominations, usually for “the wife” in a big drama) is what’ll keep her getting work for the next twenty years.

-Adams was kinda new when this came out, and she’s only gained in credibility since. With the art films (and mandatory nude scenes that accompany them), she’s got critical acclaim as well. While she doesn’t get “Big-Time” stuff like the Hathaway’s & Lawrence’s, she’s arguably gonna have a longer, stronger career. A-List females tend to get too old, or get too big a backlash. Who could ever backlash against Amy Adams? She’s just too adorbz.

-Robert Phillip (named for Prince Phillip, naturally) is the cynical New Yorker who has to be brought out of his shell- the natural counterpoint to Amy Adams’s Literal Disney Princess character. Of course his stuffy ass has to be made to see the beauty of life by her ethereal kindness.

-Lest anyone slay me for not giving someone played by PATRICK DEMPSEY the Attractive Advantage (though personally, I’m rotten at telling if some dudes are supposed to be handsome- I can tell James Marsden is, but this guy just looks like any old dude to me), he never really utilizes such a thing in the film. He’s more or less what a “common professional” would be like, and isn’t really a fighter or anything.

About the Performer: Patrick Dempsey is best-known for being on Grey’s Anatomy, one of the most-watched and least-respected TV shows out there. His career started slow in the 1980s with bit parts and “Love Interest” roles, but didn’t actually hit big until the *2000s*, again playing the Love Interest. Basically, his name became a “Patrick Swayze” byline for “A Hot Guy Is In This Movie”, and he got pretty much typecast in that kind of role everywhere (ESPECIALLY once Anatomy became a huge hit). He was actually the replacement for Joaquin Phoenix in the sequel to Brother Bear. Satisfied with his acting career, he’s instead moved on to auto racing, where he’s quite good- he kind of did an “enough money is enough” sort of thing, and got tired of the grind. The fact that he is DECIDEDLY typecast probably helped him along, as does the fact that he’s mostly known as a “TV Actor” who’s never fronted a film on his own, meaning he’d be stuck in the “full 24 episodes” thing (which is EXHAUSTING to performers).

PRINCE EDWARD

-James Marsden really played it up in this movie, effectively aping Amy Adam’s “Naive Fantasy Character” thing, but adding a dose of narcissism and violence without coming across as insane or hyper-aggressive, which would have to be tough to play right. He fights like Prince Phillip (he’s shown handily beating a fairly large Troll), but is a bit low on Mental Stats (since he’s… kind of simple-minded), but he DOES end up with an animated version of IDINA FREAKING MENZEL, which is totally rad. I mean, combining Elphaba with the uber-babeness of a Disney Princess? AWESOME.

About the Performer: James Marsden is another Handsome Leading Man type, who ironically gets cast as “The Guy We Don’t Want To Get The Girl” OVER AND OVER AGAIN, to the point where people crack jokes about it all the time. A pretty-boy with a round face and eager smile, he was ideal for “Unthreatening Love Interest” types, but his career took some time to get started, as those roles don’t make for respected work. His biggest role by far is as Cyclops in the X-Men movies, and he was well-cast, being a bit stodgy and uninteresting, but ultimately noble and good at his job. Fans were obviously supposed to think Wolverine was the coolest, but Cyke came off properly. Alas, the series just COMPLETELY shit all over the character in the end, as he gets killed OFF-CAMERA in X3 because Marsden was too busy to do much filming, and he only does cameos in the later ones.

-His career went pretty well for a while, with a role as… the guy who doesn’t get the girl in The Notebook. And in Enchanted… as the guy who doesn’t get Princess Giselle. And Superman Returns… where he’s raising Superman’s child with Lois Lane. I mean, this REALLY became a thing- all these movies were released within a couple of years of each other.

-… Wow, talk about a faltering career. His work since 2011 is pretty damn pathetic. The fact that Hollywood has a HUGE amount of Handsome Leading Men to call upon, and continually casts them even when they’re old and gray, means that it’s hard to properly break in, and despite a respectable career appearing in MULTIPLE $300 million+ movies, he’s always “That Guy Who Loses The Girl”.

mmm… animated Idina Menzel…

NANCY TREMAINE

-Nancy Tremaine (her last name comes from Cinderella’s Wicked Stepmother’s) kind of got the short shrift in Enchanted, being more of an obstacle than a fully-fledged character. Despite being engaged to the male lead, she’s the 7th-most-important character in the film, and features in very few scenes- her role is ultimately “The James Marsden”, playing the one who’s NOT supposed to get the girl/guy in the end. And in so doing, she basically has to be the plainly-dressed, angry/dour, humorless (whenever she’s not angry, she’s trying too hard to look cool), older-looking, dark-haired “Other Girl” to the bright, glowing Princess embodied by light, flighty Amy Adams. In the “tying up loose ends” finale of the movie, Nancy literally pulls an “Old-School Disney” and marries a man she’s just met, fittingly marrying James Marsden’s character, since she was playing the female version of Marsden’s typical archetype.

About the Performer: She was played by popular stage actress Idina Menzel, who was nowhere near a name to anyone other than theatre dorks at this point, though she says she was proud to be cast just based off of her acting abilities, since her character doesn’t utilize those dramatic pipes Menzel has. Becoming an animated character and marrying Edward at the end, we get the ultimate “Disney Circle of Life”, as Idina would later play ANOTHER animated member of Disney royalty, but this time make a hell of a lot more of an impact doing it. And ironically, this time she marries a man she just met.

QUEEN NARISSA

-Queen Narissa (played by Susan Sarandon) is a combination of multiple Evil Disney Villainesses, combining the Wicked Stepmother Lady Tremaine with The Dragon-Morphing Maleficent and the Hag-Transforming Queen Grimhilde. However, unlike those fierce, staring, understated women, Narissa was played to the hilt with Maximum Hamminess, making her more of a scenery-hog. Once she finally teleports into the real world and starts raising hell, she becomes a much more dangerous threat (her Henchman is your classic “Blundering Fool” archetype, and throws out the Poisoned Apple & Turning Into a Dragon.

About the Performer: Susan Sarandon is a universally respected actress and the Goddess of Hot Grannies, so it’s easy to forget just how far back her career goes. She’s such a big name that she’s the only performer in The Rocky Horror Picture Show who isn’t most famous for THAT. Initially married to Chris “Prince Humperdink/Jack Skellington” Sarandon, she got a lot of bit parts, but got a lot of recognition as a Sex Symbol for a lot of ’70s work, including getting lesbonic with Catherine Deneuve in The Hunger. But in another signifier of how big she was, she could do tons of nudity in sexy movies and STILL be ultimately respected, showing up in The Witches of Eastwick, Bull Durham (which made her a household name, apparently), and iconic feminist film Thelma & Louise, which also gave her Oscar cred. She finally won the award for Dead Man Walking, hitting a creative peak at *49 years of age*. Her career slowed down a bit given her age, but she pretty much became “The Older Woman Cast in Everything” before Meryl Streep’s big comeback, appearing in Little Women, Elizabethtown and Stepmom (my mom’s favorite movie, describing it as “every mother’s worst nightmare”), among others. She still gets regular work, even past her sixties. She’s currently SEVENTY-ONE and still appears in cleavage-baring gowns, because holy SHIT ain’t no one telling this lady that septenarians can’t be hot.

-It’s really a hell of a thing- how many actresses have this long a career? How many actresses can appear in Sex Movies over and over again and STILL be respected thespians? The woman did White Palace as a predatory cougar who seduces a young lawyer (working title: Jabroniville Wrote This) and THE NEXT YEAR won an Oscar. Who else appeared in Rocky Horror and had remotely as big a career (keep in mind that’s Tim Curry’s most iconic and famous performance). And who else gets political THIS MUCH and doesn’t get publicly hated- she’s also a big deal in the “Celebrity Activist” world, somehow being one of the preachiest people in Hollywood but actually doesn’t get shit on the way most hyper-lefty celebs do- possibly because she friggin’ HAAAAAAAAAATES the Clintons, seeing them as corporate stooges.

Reception & Cultural Impact:
-The movie did super, SUPER well, and I can see how this movie basically made Amy Adams’ career (it’s got to be hard to play the super-innocent sweetheart without making her come across as an annoying Mary Sue/Princess). Tragically, despite literally becoming a Princess at the finale, Idina Menzel’s character does not get included in the “Disney Princesses” line (lol, I first wrote that before one LITERALLY became a Disney Princess). And in fact, Amy’s Giselle never actually counts as a Princess either, despite fitting most of the tropes. Granted, using either of them would involve paying the actresses for their likenesses, since real people have rights that artists & voice actors do not. There were rumors of a sequel in development, but as Amy Adams says, “none of us are getting any younger”, so I wouldn’t bet on it… though apparently Disenchanted has recently moved out of Development Hell, so who knows? Given that Disney’s now sitting on the VA of their most-toyetic character ever in the world of Enchanted, I can see some reasoning for trying to go back to the well.