Disenchanted

Disenchanted

Disillusioned with life in the city, feeling out of place in suburbia, and frustrated that her happily ever after hasn’t been so easy to find, Giselle turns to the magic of Andalasia for help. Accidentally transforming the entire town into a real-life fairy tale and placing her family’s future happiness in jeopardy, she must race against time to reverse the spell and determine what happily ever after truly means to her and her family.

  • Released: 2022-12-16
  • Runtime: 120 minutes
  • Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Family
  • Stars: Amy Adams, James Marsden, Patrick Dempsey, Idina Menzel, Maya Rudolph, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jayma Mays, Kolton Stewart, Oscar Núñez, Gabby Baldacchino, Gabriella Baldacchino, Griffin Newman
  • Director: Adam Shankman
 Comments
  • hughchilles - 17 May 2024
    This movie is upsetting.
    Okay where do I start, the premise is great in this movie, Adams character is dealing with a teenager who is tiring of her Disney Princess step mother, she wants to be normal but her new Mum's overbearing kindness is affecting her life, her desire to have a fairytale existence conflicting with teenager wanting to find her own identity. This was shaping up really well, Maya Rudolph being the queen of the town like a 'Why Women Kill' episode was looking to be interesting conflicting with a genuinely perfect Princess type moving in. Also the Dad catching the train to the city every day just to give them their perfect country suburbia life, it seemed like really interesting themes to explore in contrast to the previous movie.

    Then something happened... maybe a Disney executive said it was too plain, needed more magic, needed to hammer home the theme of fairytale life being fake and embracing true family warts and all, but it ends up feeling like they are retelling the same beats of the first movie. It could have been great but too many effects, too many rewrites, results in a jumbled mess, which is hilarious because they did it to themselves. They had no limitations and they stalled the production for over 10 years then rushed it at the end which results in an entirely pointless venture. The best part was seeing Idina Menzel steal the show with her song, also the casting for the daughter was great, I thought it was the original actor she was so fitting. But again like her daughter in the first movie loved that she was a real princess, I appreciate that they kind of addressed this a bit in the script but still she knows Adams character, she knows where she is from, and she is surprised that she doesn't understand highschool? They could have really subtly made Adams into the mean step mother, that was a great idea but I feel it was better executed in earlier scripts, what we get is Adams wishing the town to be a fairytale and that is really where the film falls off the rails, the daughter suddenly happy to be in it singing? So what is the town possessed? Do the people not go to work anymore on the train? Unless you are like 12 you really can't help but wonder wtf is going on, why Adams can't control her behaviour and what it will mean for say Any of these townspeople's families outside the town? It's just a dumb literal plot device that ruins the whole movie, like they didn't get why the contrast of a Disney princess in gritty new york was entertaining, by making the real world into a fairytale what we get is a generic Disney movie, I don't know how they read the script and said yes this will work. I think it was more about retreading the same content in a different way and they failed terribly.

    Finally Rudolphs son! What another missed opportunity, again they only have themselves to blame, they setup these interesting things then just bungle it repeatedly. Having the daughter attracted to the town queen son is interesting! They could have made Adam's attempts to impress result in her finding rivalry with this new town queen, they could have made that rivalry come between her daughter and her crush, could have made her into a bad step mother that way, and have to grow to accept her daughter is becoming an adult and will make choices she wouldn't. This could have been a nuanced wholesome movie about broken families and trying to live perfect lives that become dillusional in trying to prevent any conflict. I kind of want to track down the original script because I feel all of this was in there and they went an entirely different way. Turning Adams into an evil step mother could have been a great move in the right hands, but what we got was Gollum and Smeagol and I didn't care about anything she was doing because it wasn't her anymore, it wasnt anyone in the town, they were all possessed and that made it a really bizarre dark movie and to tie off this huge issue they just say oh they all think they were dreaming... What everyone? Except Adams and her Daughter? So this whole town lost like a week of their lives and they all had the same dream but no one questions this? The first movie was light hearted but it had logic and sense in the universe they created, this movie doesn't respect the audience at all, it wants to blast you with music and colours and hope you don't notice what a piece of trash it is.
  • disnotbetty-10195 - 21 June 2023
    Not quite Happy Ever After
    I love Enchanted. .....and Princess Giselle and Robert lived happy ever after.

    Well it is 15 years later and happily ever after is just not happening in the real world of New York City. They have become Disenchanted. Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and Giselle (Amy Adams) now have a baby and Morgan, Robert's daughter, is a teenager.

    They decide to move the whole family to the suburbs, to the small town of Monroeville. But even here, Morgan misses her friends and wants to move back, Robert has a long boring commute to work everyday, and the local''it'' Moms rejects Giselle and a super-mom war begins.

    Not the fairy tale life Giselle had hoped for. So in a desperate moment, Giselle wishes that Monroeville could be a place where fairy tales come true and accidentally turns the small town into a real-life fairy tale, but at what cost to everyone in Andalasia. Suddenly, the animals can talk and things become animated, the nosy neighbors become fairy godmothers, a powerful evil Queen takes over the town, Morgan becomes a Cinderella, and of course Giselle is slowly turning into the ''Evil Stepmother'' Yes the movie has a few moments. Idina Menzel and James Marsden are fun and we still have people bursting into song and dance and they all really try, but for me, Disenchanted can not quite recapture the magic of the first film.
  • iliandtimeskuleno - 23 February 2023
    Disenchanting the Story
    Disenchanted is a movie that says it is a "Part 2" of the movie enchanted.

    It really didn't feel like a Part 2. Why? The reason is that Disenchanted didn't really "continue" the story for Enchanted. Disenchanted came with a new theme out of nowhere.

    The story was really cliché, nothing really special, nothing new with this movie.

    The acting was a little bit too much acted. It was how they talked and acted. The movie is supposed to be a "fairytale" just in the real world, which wasn't that impressing.

    Is this movie worth watching? I would've said no. But you decide if you want to watch it or not. As I said, it is really nothing that special with this movie.
  • krpdimitra - 5 January 2023
    Not as good as the first one
    Disenchanted didn't live up to Enchanted. First of all, it had me wondering why a perfectly balanced movie needed a musical as its sequel. I never not once got frustrated over Giselle suddenly starting singing in the first one cause it was just a few times and with actually catchy songs. In disenchanted there is way more singing than needed and it has those songs that you don't even remember the melody after two minutes, like the actor was literally creating it that exact moment. The main thing that charmed us all in Enchanted, that is to say the romance between Giselle and Robert, was put aside and neglected , like some side story. And I understand Disney didn't have more to say about them but I would have much more enjoyed a good story about some marriage crisis than this whole "Andalasian magic" thing. Not a bad movie, just not a movie of Enchanted 's league, and not one I'll ever think of watching again.
  • mattharden - 20 December 2022
    Not as good as I hoped, bad casting choice too
    Giselle went from sunshine and rainbows to "imma WandaVision everyone" all because Morgan has grown up and got annoyed by the constant singing. So Giselle uses magic to control the whole town at her will. Her rival who ends up as the "evil queen" (don't mean to hate Maya Rudolph....but I'm serious) she looked like the cartoon version of Ursula. Idk who the makeup person and costume designer was but she looked...bad. The music was average considering it's the Enchanted sequel. Maya Rudolph's character didn't exactly have a true point, maybe I didn't pay much attention but her and her group of friends seemed pointless to the story, it's like they just needed a mean person and then they're like "oh let's make her a villain for 40 minutes".

    Also...why call it Disechanted when Giselle is enchanting everything?
  • pcjbt1980 - 5 December 2022
    Absolutely Brilliantly Beautiful Film
    So many cynics in the crowd! Why did you all allow yourselves to become this way? So cynical and negative? Didn't you learn ANYTHING from Disney movies that you need to stay young at heart? Even The Bible tells us to be childlike! Watch it again with a childlike heart-not the darkened one you seem to currently have, which is so disheartening to see! This was a wonderful take on the original!

    ***Spoilers Ahead***

    Amy Adams is such an accomplished actress! To watch her and to hear her change from the innocent Giselle to the wicked stepmother was truly amazing! It all starts with Giselle wanting a fairy tale life, so they move to a suburb based on a sign stating it's a fairytale life. Morgan hates it and begins to become severely annoyed by Giselle to the point of calling her "stepmother"! Eek! Naturally, this casts a shadow on Giselle's wish for a fairytale life. The movie is amazing, and I really think the lot of you who are saying such negative things about it need to open yourselves up to the magic! You'd feel better about everything-not just this film!
  • justmarloesmvs - 2 December 2022
    Not worth watching
    If you loved the first movie, I'm sorry to disappoint you, the second one is nothing like it. I was going to go in full detail as to why people shouldn't watch it but there's enough bad reviews already which says enough. To sum it up: no compelling storyline, not one great song, just a bunch of annoying ones.. The animation seems off, I actually think it was better all those years ago, maybe because disney did it themselves this time? (Not sure about that). What I loved about the first movie was the making fun of the fairytale cliches WHILE also loving them, here it really is.. just cliches, they add NOTHING to the story. It's just really bad, I'm going to watch the first one to erase this from my memory.
  • cas-55144 - 28 November 2022
    Great family movie
    The sequel plot was great. I like the performance. It was better than expected. Those who said the movie lack of originality because of the clichés from other Disney princesses movies do not understand the main purpose of the original Enchanted and this one.

    Both movies , Enchanted and Disenchanted, are a kind of a parody of all Disney princesses "Happily ever after" cliché. Princess Giselle is not an original princess from cartoon movies. So, (without spoiling specific content from the movie) they made it clear by incorporating dialogs and scenes similar to other movies, which they did great.

    As with the first movie, the songs are original, however you can feel vibes from the other movies. They didn't hide it as it was the purpose.

    A thing instereting was seen a princess turning to the "dark side", which is an unexpected thing in Disney movies. But they handled it good for a kids movie.

    I recommend it for all ages.