Thanks, Walt.
You’ve been unreasonably raising the expectations and thus ruining the lives of women for years. Someday my prince will come?!? Yeah, right.
Well, at least the current heirs to your artificially idealized legacy are attempting to make amends with today’s “Enchanted.” It’s a semimusical, briefly animated romantic comedy that spoofs the fairy-tale conception of the pining, goody-two-shoes princess stereotype that the Walt Disney people have been pushing from Snow White and Sleeping Beauty to Belle and Ariel.
Of course, Disney is still Disney. So even as this mostly live-actionsend-up tries to haul a cartoon princess named Giselle (“Junebug’s” Oscar nominee Amy Adams) kicking and screaming into the modern era of messy relationships and urban girl empowerment, it also tries to have it both ways. Director Kevin Lima (“102 Dalmatians”) and screenwriter Bill Kelly (“Blast From the Past”) make fun of but also buy into the “happily ever after” mentality by hooking up Giselle with the real-world version of a Prince Charming — otherwise known as Dr. McDreamy.
The heroine is banished through a manhole into the heart of Manhattan’s Times Square by the evil stepmother Queen Narissa (voiced as a cartoon and then performed in live action by Susan Sarandon in high drag). But it won’t take long before a gradually enlightened Giselle starts preferring “Grey’s Anatomy” hottie Patrick Dempsey — as a divorce lawyer with emotional baggage named Robert — to her uncomplicated but vapid fantasyland prince Edward (James Marsden).
Along the way, showtune-style songs are sung.
One of the movie’s musical and farcical highlights comes during the production number “Happy Working Song,” an obvious lampooning of “Whistle While You Work.” But instead of cuddly little woodland creatures like bluebirds and bunnies, Giselle is aided in the chores by a vermin army of New York City’s slimy cockroaches, diseased rats and grimy pigeons. It’s a hoot. So is the anthropomorphized chipmunk character Pip. He’s an amazing special effects creation, as lifelike and fully developed as any of the best Disney cartoon sidekicks.
Because they are aiming this potential franchise starter at the same little girls and disillusioned adult women who have always bought into Disney’s warped romanticized vision, the filmmakers don’t go for the edgy tone enough, however. In the end, despite moments of clever satire, “Enchanted” is really more of the same. Adams has the turned-up little button nose, waiflike hourglass figure and unflappably sunny disposition of all those princesses who continue to make us earthbound peasants feel inadequate by comparison.
‘Enchanted’
***
Starring: Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, Susan Sarandon
Director: Kevin Lima
Rated PG for some scary images and mild innuendo
Running time: 107 minutes
