Long ago, when about the only way that women held power was through royalty and the rest could only dream of being "saved" by some handsome (or even not-so attractive) prince, fairy tales made more sense. Nowadays, a growing number of people, particularly women, find them objectionable in their sexist view that a young woman's only salvation is through a man, and thus worry about the gender specific stereotypes they might be instilling in impressionable minds of both sexes.
Yet, many parents figure they have bigger battles to wage, or they simply succumb to cultural pressures of showing their kids such material since it's been done throughout the ages. Of course, one of the biggest purveyors of fairy tales has been Disney, and they've now come up with the solution to appease everyone in the form of "Enchanted."
While it starts out as the typical story of a young woman dreaming of her Prince Charming -- complete with a handsome prince, scheming witch, helper animals and dreamy songs of love -- it quickly subverts the standard trajectory. And it does so not only by transporting its animated characters into the real world where they turn into flesh and blood beings, but also by having the heroine having a slight change of philosophy about fairy tale love and happily ever-afters.
The result will likely please kids, what with the cartoon-type characters in the real world and related goofy comedy, a chipmunk who can no longer be understood in non-animated form, and a big action sequence at the end featuring a huge dragon. Yet, it will also please more adults than expected, not only those who will enjoy the musical numbers, but also the romantic comedy approach that the film takes.
Although I would have preferred a slightly more subversive approach of turning the standard fairy tale on its head, and the filmmakers -- writer Bill Kelly and director Kevin Lima -- don't really go whole hog in playing up the animated meets real world or the obvious fish out of water angle, the film is cute and occasionally funny enough to get a pass from a critical curmudgeon like me.
Much of that stems from Amy Adams and James Marsden as the beauty and prince who suddenly find themselves in the foreign world of Times Square. When I first heard about the project, I was concerned that the filmmakers were going to go the "Cool World" route by having the cartoon characters interact with real ones.
Instead, the two performers simply act like cartoon beings, complete with overly dramatic line readings, simplified motivations, and the tendency to break into some sweeping, romantic song at the drop of a hat. Granted, that effect easily could have become tiresome and/or irritating the fourth or fifth time it occurred, but the cast and crew thankfully keep most of that under control, using it sparingly and spaced out.
Following them out of Andalasia is Timothy Spall as the prince's treacherous assistant who's really working for the Queen, played in over-the-top glee (and lots of witchy makeup) by Susan Sarandon. The little, computer-generated chipmunk gets a few laughs (always having to do a variation of charades to impart his important messages since no one can understand him), but in a field where similar rodents have ruled of recent (most notably in the "Ice Age" flicks), that particular act is beginning to feel just a little stale.
Purposefully or not, the former animated characters are more interesting than those who've never been rendered. Patrick Dempsey plays up his dreamy, number two sexiest man alive persona for all it's worth, but his single divorce lawyer dad part isn't fleshed out enough to make us hope he'll get the fairy tale hookup.
Rachel Covey is cute as his daughter, but isn't asked to do much beyond the standard young girl bit, while Idina Menzel can't do much with the future wife/stepmother role other than show a surprising amount of tolerance for finding her longtime boyfriend on the floor with a fairy tale princess straddling him there in nothing more than a towel.
Of course, nothing was happening as they ended up that way accidentally, but the film does include a surprising dose of somewhat sexualized material, presumably to fulfill the needs of the rom-com format. In accordance with the latter (as well as the usual fairy tale structure), the film offers few, if any, plot surprises. That is, except for some gender bending in terms of who ends up saving whom.
While I imagine the film could have been so much better by shaking up the form even more and/or being far smarter, creative, and cleverer with the material, "Enchanted" is charming and cute enough to earn a 5.5 out of 10 rating.
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