A Horrible Disappointment

Rating: 3/10 (6 May 2008)

Enter a standard Disney cartoon. The cartoon section of the film is supposed to be a homage, or a reference, or a poke at classic Disney cartoons. Instead, it is practically a complete lift from Sleeping Beauty, one of the better early Disneys. This does not come across as intelligent, but as a rip-off, as if it is okay to laugh at Sleeping Beauty because post-modern cartoons have taught the modern audience that the old cartoons weren't very good. Well, mostly they were very good and so far, the post-modern versions haven't touched them in quality.
Edward's stepmother doesn't want Giselle to usurp her throne, so sends Giselle to the live-action real world. Amy Adams plays human Giselle bizarrely, while she clearly isn't a normal person, she doesn't particularly come across as a cartoon. The first part of the film follows Giselle closely, and then suddenly cuts to new characters Robert and his daughter Morgan (who may as well have been cut for the little she does) for no reason, breaking the feeling of continuity, which irritatingly sets how the rest of the film flits between so many characters that none get a good enough set up or development and scenes are endlessly resolved by simply not existing any more.
The romance, the crux of the film, is boring, obvious and has been done too many times before. For a brief moment it seems as if Giselle will help Robert propose to his long-term girlfriend Nancy, while her own love Prince Edward fights to rescue her. However, the film quickly kills this interesting premise after suggesting it, by going back to the dull getting-to-know-you plot and having Giselle randomly state she is on a date with Robert, and proceed to steal him off of Nancy. It is slightly sick that Robert fancies Giselle, since she is basically a child, and she never learns anything about reality, other than dates and hot dogs, because this is a children's film and children aren't allowed to know about reality, which really defeats the point of the film. It would have worked better written for adults, but then wouldn't have done so well at the box office.
The ending, apart from emphasising the bad plot of Robert and Giselle getting together, involves the evil queen turning into a giant dragon to kill Giselle, despite her whole reason for sending Giselle to the real world being to break her up with Edward  well, she has succeeded! The Queen wins her evil aim, so what is with the awful dragon stuff? So poor Edward loses the love of his life and Nancy loses her five-year relationship despite telling Robert that she trusted him (she shouldn't, because he runs off with the girl she thinks she can trust him with), but don't worry, no broken hearts for them because they get together for a nice neat, nonsensical ending. They don't know each other at all, she doesn't know he comes from a cartoon and the two scenes which could have helped their relationship feel like it was destined to happen were cut by some idiot editor. That's if it is possible to hear the ending over the blaring music.
So it's a horrible disappointment of a film. Elements of the film that really work are the swashbuckling Prince Edward, brilliantly performed by James Marsden, who is sidelined again (seriously man, get a better agent), and the two moments in the film when Giselle manages to bring her cartoon magic to the real world  when she decides to clean the house with the help of local animals (rats, pigeons, flies and cockroaches) and when she starts to sing a song and hundreds of people join in. If these elements had been more central, and the forced romance had been axed (it's yet another they get together because in the course of the film they don't spend any time with anyone else) then Enchanted may have been worth watching, even achieved the classic status it was aiming for, but instead it is vapid and spirit-crushing and an annoying waste of time.