15 years after discovering the “kingdom” of New York City, Giselle and the cast of Enchanted return in the highly anticipated sequel, Disenchanted. Determined to find her own happily after moving into suburbia, Giselle (Amy Adams) turns to the magic of Andalasia for help, accidentally turning the town into a fairytale…which does more harm than good.
As a huge fan of Enchanted, I was SO excited to continue the story, especially with most of the original cast returning. Amy Adams is pure Disney magic as Giselle. It is perhaps one of her most iconic roles in her colorful resume.
But. Oh. My friends. I REALLY wanted to like Disenchanted. However, between the forgettable songs, miserable visual effects, and uninspired plot, this sequel is void of the joy, wit, or dare I say, “enchantment” brought by its predecessor.
What was so wondrous about the story of Enchanted was its self awareness. The ability for Disney to poke fun at the stereotypes they created. It was so brilliant. None of that really exists here.
Another element lacking from this sequel is character development.
Enchanted had Giselle transform. According to the film’s epilogue, Giselle embraced her fairytale roots but adapted to New York City life with a thriving business. Starting this film, I couldn’t help but wonder why we ignored Giselle’s transformation and the character digressed back in a decade? She just like…stopped working and went back to singing around?
Every character feels like a shallow characterization, which is so disappointing considering how incredible this ensemble was in the first film.
Nevertheless, Adams thrives in her reprisal despite the script’s absurdity. I really enjoyed watching her dabble between very over the top versions of good and evil.
I also enjoyed seeing Idina Menzel’s reprisal as Nancy, who is far more fleshed out (and even given a song this time around), as well as James Marsden’s dashing yet dim witted, Prince Edward. It’s just unfortunate we don’t get a lot of them.
But we do get a lot of beautiful costumes. So at least Disenchanted is fun to look at from that sense.
If anything, between Disenchanted and Hocus Pocus 2, I hope Disney+ thinks twice before creating a sequel based on one of its beloved legacy films.
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