Desencantada

In the new movie, "Disenchanted," the bulk of the actors and crew members from the earlier film are back. Everyone who is reprising their roles does an excellent job of ageing the characters while keeping them recognisably the same people they were in the previous film.

Giselle's over-the-top whimsy and the bustle and cynicism of New York City provided for a hilarious and effective cultural clash in the film Enchanted, which contributed to the film's popularity. Compared to the previous film, Disenchanted is missing a significant chunk of its personality due to the fact that Monroville has been transformed into Monrolasia. However, knowing that you've seen them done before in many of Disney's live-action remakes of its animation titles gives you a sense of déjà vu and changes the film from an appreciative but satirical tribute to more of a brand synergy exercise.

Disenchanted isn't horrible, and it serves its purpose if you're looking for light entertainment or want to see these actors and actresses again, but it's no match for the passion, energy, and freshness of the first movie in the series. Taking everything into consideration, I do not have any second thoughts about having seen it, but I also would not advise someone to go out of their way to do so.

Disenchanted delivers a cliche story that loses the charm of the first film. It manages to siphon out everything that made Enchanted great, whilst adding a forgettable villain into the mix, and numerous plot holes, that had me scratching my head at times. Performances were as good as they could be with the lackluster script, and the climax of the film came off as shallow and underwhelming. This movie is just another Disney reboot and I wouldn't recommend watching it.

Best part of the film was James marsdens character, he's just the only funny person in the whole movie, and it looks like James is having a lot of fun playing him

5/10.

My main issue with the film is it could've been better, there were some interesting ideas presented rather than just rehashing the original in a dulled down way as most sequels do, the cast were great although writing-wise the character development from the first film had basically vanished and the new characters were somewhat forgettable, still some funny moments but not as memorable as the original, similarly the songs were not as memorable as the original either, lots of abandoned plot threads and characters that had no role in the story but were just kind of there, it feels unfair to compare this to the original since that was over 14 years ago, time flies, but I just think there wasn't really a reason to make a sequel to the first Enchanted

Even so, as far as sequels go it's not the worst, the aforementioned positives stood out for me, the sets were beautiful and costume design was excellent, and I liked some of the ideas the sequel was leading into but the execution just fell flat for me, felt very rushed, sense of scale gone, the animated sequences were almost unnecessary this time as they didn't even involve much movement or expression, and it's a scathing indictment of both Disney's gradual attempts to abandon animation as a medium (despite it being so crucial to their past success) and the conditions animators have to work under, with very little pay or suitable hours, especially compared with the animated sequences of the first film.

All in all it ironically kinda lives up to the Disney tradition of making a memorable, iconic blockbuster film about a princess and then having the direct-to-video sequel being kind of underwhelming, I'd rate this a 6 or a 5 under other circumstances but because I feel like it was close to being a better film and just didn't reach that, and because it doesn't live up to the original, I think 4 is kind of appropriate, Disney needs to pick up their slack, they're becoming too complacent.

If it wasn't for the nostalgia I'd given this a 4.

Is a pity, because all the ingredients are there; great actors, a solid pitch, a massive budget...but no filling, only crust.

The concept of the plot is great; a magical wish goes wrong as it means fairy tale logic is applied to real people and our former heroine Giselle is turning to a villain! Will the almost grown Morgan be able to reach past her grumpy teen persona and find her faith in fairy tales again? Great pitch!

Only that it's not what the movie is about.

There's no gradient turn of the people, no slow realization for neither Giselle or Morgan. Everything is explained as it happens, the logic of magic made up as it shows, or at least that's what it feels like as they present the answer to a problem exactly one second after it's occurred and then take three whole minutes to actually carry out what ever they just figured out before the next one shows up.

There is no generational change; Giselle is still the heroine although she's also the villain (?) and Morgan and Robert simply become completely other characters instead of gradually turning into their fairy tale persona. Missed opportunity.

I'd have loved for this to be Morgan's and Giselles story. Have Morgan rediscover her love for magic and imagination and faith in "happily ever after" by finding her self as the heroine she didn't think she was - all while Giselle yet again find her way back to what made her want to leave her former life of imagined paths for an open world that may be full of strife and conflict, but where love and overcoming those conflicts tastes all the sweeter for it.

This was not that. This was a mess of musical numbers "for the sake of it", special effects because they can do them and focus on Amy Adam's, because she's the star.

Disappointing. But not unexpected.

I could watch Enchanted any time I want to feel better about the basic goodness of people - and that is what is missing in Disenchated. Apart from James Marsden's dimwitted return as the Prince, and finally letting Menzel sing (albeit a forgettable song amidst a sea of forgettable songs), there's nothing to recommend here. It's a sequel that shouldn't have been made, or at least not by a group of writers, which appears to be the case here. Same cast as Enchanted, Amy Adams actually looks even nicer this time around, but what a godawful story they're stuck with - it's just a mish-mosh of set pieces, each trying to set up the next piece, and failing. As was the case with Hocus Pocus 2, Disney has lost its way.