Years after her happily ever after, Giselle, Robert and Morgan move to a new community and Andalasia and the real world are thrown off-balance.
Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, Gabriella Baldacchino, James Marsden, Idina Menzel
‘Disenchanted’ is Disney’s latest obligatory sequel to a beloved nostalgic Disney franchise. While it has some of the same charm the original did, it struggles to match what made the first so special.
As you may have expect, Amy Adams is the highlight of the film. She steps right back into the role of Giselle so gracefully, and we even get to see her tackle an almost entirely new character in a twist about halfway into the film. In an otherwise stale film, Adam’s performance is worth the watch.
The musical numbers in this film weren’t anywhere near as good as the first. While the original had some memorable songs, I can’t think of a single one in this new film that I’d consider listening to after watching it. I don’t think I can even remember a single lyric, which is unfortunate given that the songs were one of the pest parts of the first film.
The production value felt a lot smaller here, with some choppy VFX that we’re off putting when it came to some of the grand aspects of the plot, that culminated in scenes that were supposed to be epic, but I couldn’t help but acknowledge how weird everything looked. I’m sure that’s in no part the fault of the VFX artists themselves; but the studio for the time crunches and stress they place on them, which is a conversation to be had elsewhere.
James Marsden was also criminally underused, he maybe has 10(?) minutes of screen time total here, which was quite disappointing given how fun his character is to watch.
The 2D animated scenes return in this film again, which was something I loved to see given that 2D animation seems to be a lost art at Disney nowadays. It was fun to return to that classic Disney princess art style that we all saw in the films we grew up with. It’s a shame we may never get anything like that again.
When all is said and done, ‘Disenchanted’ is fine. It’s an alright sequel, that manages to scrape up some of the same heart that the original had, while simultaneously feeling like a drab continuation of a beloved story.
