Enchanted (2007)

A princess, who is prepared to be wed, is sent away to New York by an evil queen, where she falls in love with a lawyer.

Director:

Kevin Lima

Writer:

Bill Kelly

Stars:

Amy Adams, Susan Sarandon, James Marsden

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 12 wins & 39 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Amy Adams	...	Giselle
Patrick Dempsey	...	Robert Philip
James Marsden	...	Prince Edward
Timothy Spall	...	Nathaniel
Idina Menzel	...	Nancy Tremaine
Rachel Covey	...	Morgan Philip
Susan Sarandon	...	Queen Narissa
Julie Andrews	...	The Narrator (voice)
Jeff Bennett	...	Pip in Andalasia (voice)
Kevin Lima	...	Pip in New York (voice)
Emma Rose Lima	...	Bluebird / Fawn / Rapunzel (voice)
Teala Dunn	...	Bunny (voice)
Fred Tatasciore	...	Troll (voice)
Courtney Williams	...	Sunglass Street Vendor
William Huntley	...	Grumpy

Storyline

The beautiful princess Giselle is banished by an evil queen from her magical, musical animated land and finds herself in the gritty reality of the streets of modern-day Manhattan. Shocked by this strange new environment that doesn't operate on a "happily ever after" basis, Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. But when Giselle begins to fall in love with a charmingly flawed divorce lawyer who has come to her aid - even though she is already promised to a perfect fairy tale prince back home - she has to wonder: Can a storybook view of romance survive in the real world?

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Plot Keywords:

love | prince | fairy tale | new york | city | 

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Taglines:

The real world and the animated world collide.

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Genres:

Comedy | Family | Fantasy | Musical | Romance

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Disney [France] Disney DVD and Blu-ray [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 November 2007 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Il était une fois...

Filming Locations:

875 Third Avenue, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$85,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£2,547,975 (UK) (14 December 2007)

Gross:

$127,706,877 (USA) (7 March 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Pictures, Josephson Entertainment, Andalasia Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

On the experience of wearing the wedding dress, Amy Adams described it as "grueling" since "the entire weight was on my hips, so occasionally it felt like I was in traction".

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Goofs

When Giselle first arrives at Robert's apartment, she gets her petticoat stuck in the door. She then falls asleep on his couch without the petticoat on. However, when she wakes up in the morning, she clearly has her petticoat on.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: Once upon a time, in a magical kingdom known as Andalasia, there lived an evil queen. Selfish and cruel, she lived in fear that one day her stepson would marry and she would lose her throne forever. And so she did all in her power to prevent the prince from ever meeting the one special maiden with whom he would share true love's kiss.

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Crazy Credits

The cutouts shown in the end credits reference various Disney films, such as Fantasia (1940), Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Cinderella (1950), The Princess and the Frog (2009), and The Little Mermaid (1989).

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Connections

Spoofs King Kong (1933)

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Soundtracks

That's Amore
Written by Jack Brooks and Harry Warren
Produced by Blake Neely
Performed by James Marsden

User Reviews

An enjoyable romp.

This is really the definition of "light entertainment," and seriously, I am still smiling about it now. After getting in the way of an Evil Queen, a fairytale princess is cast into an alternate reality--the real world as we know it--and must survive there until her rescue by her Prince Charming. Hmm! From the trailer I saw, my guess was that "Enchanted" was a one-joke show, a series of gags about how fairytale magic falls on its face in the real world. That Disney has managed to squeeze at least four or five good jokes out of the idea, and mixed in a few sprinkles of profundity on top of that, is something of an achievement. As a romp, it works fairly well, and it delivered quite a lot more than I was expecting.

This is a risky film to make, and Disney gets points for having the guts to unleash this oddity on the holiday season. It's a fun film that isn't afraid to go, occasionally, in weird and startling directions.

The intersection of the two worlds--the world of faith and magic, and the world of disillusionment and hard reality--creates the expected comedic drama at first. Then the two opposing realities begin to influence and change each other in unsettling and stimulating ways that may surprise the audience. The ideas aren't fully developed, but a crucial detail was attended to at the wrap-up that satisfied me--the main characters succeed mainly because they are able to grow beyond their previous conceptions of themselves.

Along the way of telling this story, we get to see a very challenging film production featuring two distinct worlds and their accompanying designs, and the intermingling of these two worlds. It's occasionally heavy on visual effects and animated sequences, but the effects are always story-driven and never gratuitous--a surprising enough thing nowadays that it's worth taking note of. Strong film-making skills, with an old-school sensibility, are at work.

My rating gets an extra point for an audacious, overblown MGM-style singing/dancing sequence, the kind that is rarely seen in theatres nowadays. Go see it!