Reality: "Enchanted" failed to stay with its fantasy plot

Rating: 3/10 (20 February 2009)

"Enchanted" starts out in saccharine sweet animation. Not having read anything about the film in advance, I feared that the whole film would be a rehash of Disney classic animated films. The best part of the film was the transition from cartoon characters to live actors, which I wasn't expecting and was done very well. The next scenes with the fantasy world princess- to-be trying to cope with real world New York City was also well done, although I would have hoped that even in NYC the police would have eventually noticed her and taken her to Bellevue Hospital's psychiatric ward. Why Robert didn't do that after observing her actions and talking to her in his apartment also was more fantasy than reality, although it was in the reality part of the story.
I really enjoyed Giselle getting the help of the real world animal kingdom in cleaning Robert's apartment, including rats and roaches. Hopefully the rats disease spreading fleas were well behaved.
Denying the animals of the real world the ability the animated animals had to speak in human voice was a nice touch. I also liked the next day scenes when Giselle got the denizens of Central Park singing and dancing.
But I hate it when a good story is ruined by producers who think all movies must have more destruction and special effects.
The story line of Enchanted is that the Queen doesn't want her stepson to marry his "true love" because she fears that when the bride became a princess she would want to usurp the Queen's crown. That seems a rather weak reason for a Queen to plot to keep them from meeting and, when that failed, to have the girl killed. But I can accept that as I can assume the Queen, whose magical powers seem limitless, is not only power mad but also paranoid. Of course it would have been simpler for her to just eliminate her step-son.
What I object to is that after Giselle chooses Robert Philip over Prince Edward, the Queen still sees a need to kill Giselle. I would have expected the Queen to be happy to see Giselle and Robert become a couple. Instead of the violent ending that is in vogue, the film could have ended with everyone, including the Queen, living happily ever after. Or at least transfer the Queen's wrath to Nancy, who seems in danger of becoming the Prince's new love.
The actual ending has Edward and Nancy reversing the plunge off an endless cliff in the kingdom of Andalasia, although Edward previously did not have the ability to soar up a cliff. It is also regrettable that Nancy had no time to let her work know that she wouldn't be to work the next day because she was leaving the real world. Do you think any of her friends and family made it to her wedding?