DVD Review – Enchanted

Director: Kevin Lima
Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marden
Studio: Disney
Release Date: March 18, 2008

Enchanted starts off with that old school classic Disney feel showing the opening book and music introduction. It is unmistakably Disney. From there we are treated to the cartoon aspect of the film, which is a subtle exaggeration and fun parody of pretty much all Disney cartoons that have been produced. When animated Giselle calls the animals to come help her with her singing voice and the forest empties out like the end of a concert the fine ride is just starting.

Once out of the animated world and flung head (or dress) first into the bustling world of New York do we really get to see Amy Adams play the perfect princess. The character of Giselle works so well because she maintains the naïve attitude as well as the special powers of song, of a princess living in a fairy tale world when she comes to New York. “It’s like you escaped from a Hallmark Card…”, the character of Robert says to Giselle, which pretty well sums it up. The rest of the characters that come over from the cartoon fairy tale world have their same characteristics and powers that were available to them in their own world of Andalasia. Where Giselle can call the animals of the forest (rabbits, chipmunks, foxes) to help her clean and sew in Andalasia, in New York they come in the form of pigeons, rats, and roaches which do the same. Total parody, and really funny.

For the astute Disney fan many of the scenes pay homage to older Disney movies and cartoons, which include Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, Cinderella, etc… I thought this was a very nice touch to a wonderful movie. I understand the Blu Ray version points them out via a bonus feature for those of us who don’t put the hidden aspect of the two mouse ears together.

When a Disney live action movie can be enjoyed by a 30 something year old father and his son, you know you have something worth picking up on DVD. I found Amy Adams really stole the show with what I would call the perfect portrayal of an animated princess that comes from a world where there is only the day of happily ever after. James Marsden plays a nice compliment with his depiction of Prince Edward, the prince of Andalasia, and Patrick Dempsey as Robert the single father New Yorker rounds out the male love interests. Susan Sarandon plays Queen Narissa the evil wicked step mother witch who wants to keep the throne to herself and keeps the action coming from every which angle. Another personal note while watching Enchanted was that I really enjoyed all of the musical numbers in the movie. This is a rare occurance these days, but I felt that the music from Alan Menken was superb and the pacing of them through out the movie worked extremely well. Each number was at least as interesting as the last and they did not seem to interrupt the story, but rather add to it.

Bonus Features – We have what we would consider “the norm” in bonus features these days on the Enchanted DVD, with deleted scenes, bloopers, some behind the scenes, and then the Pop Up Adventure.

Pip’s Predicament is a well done special effects pop-up adventure of how Pip goes to rescue Prince Edward in Andalasia so he can then come to New York to save Giselle. The deleted scenes were nice and we also get a nice description of why they were deleted.

Note: DVD Version watched on a Playstation 3 with a hdmi connection to a Panasonic 43 inch rear projection

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