Directed By Adam Shankman

Starring – Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, Maya Rudolph

The Plot – Ten years after her happily ever after, Giselle (Adams), Robert (Dempsey), and Morgan (Gabriella Baldacchino) move to a new house in the suburb of Monroeville with their newest addition. The community is overseen by Malvina Monroe (Rudolph), who has nefarious intentions for the family. When problems arise, Giselle wishes that their lives were the perfect fairy-tale. The spell backfires, with Giselle rushing to save her family and her homeland of the Kingdom of Andalasia before the clock strikes midnight.

Rated PG for mild terror and adult language

Disenchanted | Official Trailer | Disney+ – YouTube

POSITIVES

Doubling down on my opinion from the 2007 original film, Adams was born to play this role, embodying Giselle with the kind of tongue and cheek exaggerations and charming exuberance that brings a Disney princess to life, but this time with a balance in moral complexity. Because the film challenges her character in ways we previously haven’t seen, Adams is able to channel a darkly devious side from within her that works terrifically for the fun and originality of the character, creating an equally intriguing internal conflict from within her that compliments the shape shifting peril persisting externally in this boldly beautiful environment. Speaking of which, Shankman is a welcome addition to this secondary installment, painting a warmly vibrant canvas in exuberant set design and imaginative costumes that match the consistency of its predecessor seamlessly. As well in Adam’s key capabilities is the familiarity of the film’s tonal personality, capturing naivety in spades with a playful ignorance that once again not only works terrifically with the fish out of water formula that is prominent in the material, but also within the merits of the many musical numbers, with enough energy and infectiousness to inspire audiences into a good time. On the subject of those tracks, the acclaimed duo of Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz are one of the many things to return for the sequel, bringing with them an eclectic range in mood and lyrical impulses that transcribe a variety of emotional experiences for the actors actually tasked with performing them. In the element of Adams and Frozen’s own Idina Menzel singing through a few power ballads, we receive merit for their musical capabilities, but in the case of Maya Rudolph, it’s a welcome surprise, calling on the same vocal talents only hinted at during her time on Saturday Night Live for spoofing. The track that will be the academy darling for awards consideration is definitely “Love Power”, a power ballad co-performed by Menzel and Baldacchino, but for my money the show-stealer of this engagement is easily “Badder”, co-performed by Adams and Rudolph as a ‘can you top this’ of sinister seduction and tantalizing melody that brings out the chemistry of its leading ladies.

NEGATIVES

Unfortunately, fifteen years might’ve been too long of a wait for this anticipated sequel, as its Disney Plus rendering isn’t just an avenue for its release, but also its greatest hinderance for production value. The special effects are atrocious, even for streaming quality, lacking the kind of circumstantial heft and believability in motion that all but outlines the detectable strings meant to materialize an artificial essence in post-production rendering. Likewise, the material in gags this time around attempts to persist without a pulse, lacking the cunning ingenuity of its predecessor in ways that not only lead to embarrassing instances of flat effectiveness made apparent by these drawn-out quiet pauses, but also an overwhelming predictability that had me spotting its various punchlines from miles away. Considering I pegged out every single aspect of what eventually transpires, it alludes to my biggest problem with Disney productions since I was a little child watching them, and even though happily ever after is the overall message continuously delivered throughout this engagement, the lack of impact or stakes to its sentiment leads an almost hypocritical side effect to the various films its franchise is continuously spoofing. On top of all of this, the script itself is a little too convoluted and even disjointed at times for my own personal tastes, supplying each character with their own respective arc and subplot all in the way of landing at a nearly two-hour runtime that it doesn’t even remotely earn with the many beats of its direction landing in repetitious waters, time and time again. As to where “Enchanted” completely deconstructed the world of Disney princesses, with deviation of tropes and ensuing social commentary that felt freshly innovative for the time, “Disenchanted” walks two steps backwards, with conflicts and evolutions that feel directly lifted from any of the infinite number of Disney properties that they originally spawned from. This immediately strained my interest in the story with the laziness of its storytelling, as well as the imbalance of its time allowance, leading to an occasionally boring and overwhelmingly tedious engagement that continuously tested my patience, while essentially eviscerating the identity of this once prosperous franchise.

OVERALL
“Disenchanted” doesn’t have the spark or magic of its superior predecessor, with the story and technical merits lacking the proper evolution of the decade and a half since its original inception. While Amy Adams continues sparkling in the role that will ultimately define her career, and the songs are able to elicit a toe-tapping infectiousness every now and then, the film is simply too long as a result of its convoluted criteria, leading to a mixed bag of an experience that is the latest offering of disappointingly uninspired Disney Plus offerings.

My Grade: 5/10 or D