A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Enchanted

Date Viewed: 12/8/07

Details:

Amy Adams

James Marsden

Susan Sarandon

Patrick Dempsey

Timothy Spall

Idina Menzel

Rachel Covey

Julie Andrews (narrator)

Director: Kevin Lima

Score: 1/2

The Review: A semi-musical romantic comedy that illustrates what happens when a fairy tale impinges upon the real world -- a mixture of Disney animation and live-action, partitioned serially rather than parallel (as was Who Framed Roger Rabbit?). The denouement has tinges of Ghostbusters.

Evil Queen Narissa (Sarandon) wants to rid the kingdom of annoying, up-beat, beautiful Giselle (Adams) before she can marry her son (Marsden). So she throws Giselle down a magic well that acts as a portal into a very strange world with odd physics and even stranger social customs -- ours. To someone whose entire existence has been a fairy tale, New York City and its inhabitants can be a rude shock.

Of course, since this is a Disney cartoon -- err..., comedy -- everybody feels an uncontrollable urge to sing about their feelings. Sometimes they can be stopped, but on those occasions the brakes cannot be applied soon enough, the typical Disney patter rings out loud -- in a dirty apartment, in Central Park, everywhere where it would seem most embarrassing. The long dance sequence through the park becomes a new exemplar for "over the top," and expands the closing credits significantly.

Clever, a bit too cute for its own good, not bad.

(9-Feb-08)

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