KWIF: Enchanted/Disenchanted (+2)

 Kent's Week In Film #3

Enchanted (2007, d. Kevin Lima - Disney+)
Disenchanted (2022, d. Adam Shankman - Disney+)
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022, d. James Gunn - Disney+)
Reindeer Games Homecoming (2022, d.  - Lifetime)

I rewatched Enchanted as a precursor to watching Disenchanted, and I had forgotten how absolutely delightful the film is from start to finish.  Going back to my original review (8 years ago) I don't have much to add except maybe I enjoyed it even more the second time around.  I knew I enjoyed the picture the last time I watched, it, but so much time had passed it seemed like I was watching it again entirely fresh, and everything seemed just as surprising, funny, and sincere as the last time. Of course, the world has changed since Enchanted was made 15 years ago, and it caused me to consider whether the naifish Princess-to-be Giselle as a variation of the Born Sexy Yesterday trope.

Giselle is naive to our world, because the world she comes from, the magical realm of Andalasia, operates in Disney princess film cliches.  The damning thing about that is the film (and even more so in Disenchanted) sort of postulates that the cliches are the magic, the glue that holds that world together.  Giselle in the real world finds herself in her big, billowy, wedding dress getting in all sorts of innocent scrapes until divorce lawyer Patrick Dempsey's Robert and his daughter Morgan stumble upon her and help her out.   That she's a wide eyed, pretty, strawberry blonde, white woman who seemingly has a 5-year-old's innocent awareness of the world makes her not only not a threat, but kind of an object of attraction, and triggers Robert's white night sympathetic response.   

It is over time that he sees her naivete for what it is, an actual true unawareness of the world he lives in, and what she has is a warmth and kindness that he sees lacking in his legal dealings and his own sense of the world.  His attraction to her is not his ability to teach her about his world, but more about what her view of the world and people can teach him.

Disenchanted picks up 15 years later, and finds Giselle, Robert, Morgan and the new baby Sofia finding life to be not-so-happily-ever-after.  The crushing realities of work-life balance, of parenting a newborn, of dealing with teenage hormones, means that life isn't as magical as it once was for Giselle and Robert, and they think that, somehow, a change of scenery is perhaps what they need, as if getting out of the hustle and bustle of New York would fix things.

They wind up in an run-down estate in Monroeville, an already distressed Morgan has a hard time adjusting to the new location and her new school, and the queen bee of the city, Malvina, is very passive aggressive in welcoming her new neighbours.  King Edward and Queen Nancy pay a visit, gifting baby Sofia a magical wand "for a true daughter of Andalasia" to grant them their truest wishes.  After a particularly fraught day, Giselle cant help but wish her life in Monroeville was more like life in Andalasia, and a transformation happens to the town, as it turns into a real-life cartoon, full of song and dance and magic.

Malvina is a real wicked Queen, Robert yearns for a heroic quest, Morgan feels like she can't do anything right, and Giselle finds herself uncontrollably becoming a wicked stepmother. It knowingly plays into all the cliches in a way that its predecessor tried to buck them.  The root of it all though is dissatisfaction one's life, and how even with great love in family and friends, one can still feel like life isn't exactly what it should be.

It's an entertaining production with some really fun songs, particularly the duet/battle between Amy Adams' Giselle and Maya Rudolph's Malvena, but it's unfocussed. The asides of Robert, in his fantasy form, searching for adventure (and being quite terrible at it) are unnecessary.  The same with a subplot about Morgan's maybe having a love interest in Malvina's son, and Morgan's trip into Andalasia seems to serve purpose of getting Idina Menzel as Queen Nancy a song she can belt out for all the Frozen stans (it was one of the big, glaring omissions of Enchanted to have Menzel and not have her sing, and the song she sings here, she really destroys with it, but, sadly, it doesn't do much for the plot at all).

The movie really needed to keeps its focus tight on Giselle and her dissatisfaction with life, perhaps a postpartum depression metaphor even, as well as Morgan's aging out of believing in magic, increasing tensions with her stepmother, and feelings of inadequacy with the new baby being Giselle's true daughter.  Because when that story comes back around and Morgan learns that she is a true daughter of Andalasia, it opens the spigot for the waterworks.

Enchanted though perhaps problematic, is still a flat-out entertaining marvel.  Disenchanted is lesser-than in its entertainment factor, and perhaps even a bit of a misfire at times, yet still not entirely unwelcome in its existence.

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Toasty did a pretty good summary of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, so I won't say too much about what happens, and most of what Toasty said about it, I agree with.  This really is a Christmas special, but "Holiday Special" recalls the Star Wars Holiday Special more, so I see what director James Gunn was going for there.  But I almost wish this was more in the campy vein of the Star Wars Holiday Special, than the straight up Christmastime adventure that it turned out to be.  There were always shows in the 70's and 80's that would do Christmas specials where things would step outside of the usual sit com vibe or hospital drama and do a really different story to deliver, basically, Christmas feels, about caring, and giving, and goodwill towards men, and learning about the spirit of the season.  And that's really what this is.  Rather than the bizarre variety show that was Bruce Vilanch's interpretation of Star Wars, we get a proper Christmas special but with the massive budget of a Marvel production, and its hard to be anything but grateful for that. Plus, it's basically more content with probably the best franchise in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so I'm doubly thankful for more of that.  I don't know if it will become a holiday staple (I guess it might depend on how GOTG Vol.3 works out), but it'll certainly be fun to return to from time to time.  

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I've taken a step back from the Christmas/Holiday tv movie romances this year. I watched way too many of these the past few years, and last year kind of broke me.  These holiday movies are rarely good, frequently terrible, and the kind of joy or entertainment I got from the repetition of their cliches has almost fully waned.  This year's Hallmark crop, by all signs, has been endeavouring to break its own mould, but I'm having a hard time mustering up the enthusiasm to really care.  Lifetime seems to be content to continue to colour within the lines, and so we get the pablum of Reindeer Games Homecoming.  Written by and starring Grey's Anatomy's Sarah Drew, she's a science teacher who gave up pursuing her career as a doctor when her father got sick, and got complacent after he passed. She's reminded of what she didn't accomplish when high school flame, and super-hot action star Justin Bruening rolls into town.  The two flirt and hang out and develop feelings, but the old feelings of hurt and sadness get in the way.  All of this is framed around the local town's "Reindeer Games" which are a series of team competitions that the movie doesn't really care about in any real way so neither should the viewer.  This is all played as a lighthearted romance, so there are a couple of decent gags (and a lot of lame ones) but it's all trope-laden, seen-a-thousand-times-before type stuff, and the chemistry is not strong enough to really carry you through.  I've seen a lot dumber versions of this story, but a lot better ones too.  This reminded me why I don't want to watch 40 of these this year. One bad one is one too many.