Disenchanted

The title certainly fits the film.

Amy Adams, Gabriella Baldacchino, and Patrick Dempsey all wonder if the paycheck was worth it in Disenchanted.

Giselle (Amy Adams) left the fairytale world of Andalasia to marry Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and live happily ever after in New York. Ten years later, Giselle is wondering why her happily ever after isn’t as happy as she’d imagined.

She and Robert have a baby, which leaves them exhausted. Her sweet stepdaughter Morgan (Gabriella Baldacchino) is now a sullen teen. And Giselle is feeling overwhelmed — even chatting with the pigeons doesn’t help.

So Giselle decides to do the one thing we all know is stress-free: Move. She packs up her family and leaves New York City for the quaint suburban town of Monroeville. Morgan is miserable at the idea of leaving her friends and starting over. Robert is dreading his long commute. But Giselle is convinced a fixer-upper house in the middle of a small suburban town will fix everything.

It doesn’t.

Morgan is annoyed with the house and the move. The local queen bee Malvina (Maya Rudolph) has decided to pick on Giselle. And the fixer-upper house has a lot more fixer-uppering to do before it’s ready.

Even more distraught at the idea that she has somehow created more problems, Giselle is thrilled when her Andalasian friends King Edward and Queen Nancy (James Marsden and Idina Menzel) visit. They’re here to present their infant godchild a gift: a magic wand that grants wishes to any true daughter of Andalasia.

Desperate to fix her life once and for all, Giselle takes the wand and wishes for her life to be a fairytale. This is great for about an hour, but soon Giselle notices some downsides to her wish. Can she fix her world before her happily ever after becomes a disaster?

Nearly 15 years after the first film, we get a sequel to 2007’s Enchanted. Why? Because Disney has learned that it can make money by reanimating the corpses of old projects, slapping a shoddy script on them, and allowing them to shamble onto Disney+. Disenchanted completely loses the charm and wit of the original film, leaving Giselle and her family in the lurch.

Director/choreographer Adam Shankman works hard to keep the whimsy of the first film but seems to totally misunderstand what made the first flick so charming. Enchanted worked because it was the tale of this bubbly bright woman landing in cold NYC. Instead of becoming cold and cynical, Giselle was able to keep her spark of kindness. She won over New York and grew as a result — finding an adult relationship, embracing a found family, and starting her own dressmaking business.

In Disenchanted Giselle is essentially a child again. In 10 years she’s learned nothing about being an adult and when presented with the world’s best-behaved sullen teen she completely crumbles. No mention is made of her dressmaking business or her skills at all. She just says “Oh!” repeatedly while covering her mouth. Shankman also robs the film of its contrasts by setting the film in a town that looks like a renaissance fair looted the Magic Kingdom. Without the contrast of New York, the singing and dancing just look like a goofy sequence in a Disney-made-for-TV film.

It’s also odd that when Nancy and Edward arrive, they’re greeted warmly as if they visit frequently. But Morgan has apparently never been to Andalasia. In 10 years, Giselle never thought to take her kids to the magical place she lived so they could talk to chipmunks or have a tea party with a troll. Evidently, border security in fantasy worlds is very tight, even if you know the king and queen.

Still, not all is lost in the kingdom of Andalasia. Adams is still charming as Giselle. The former princess-to-be is cursed by her wish, and switches between her typical sweet self and a scheming evil stepmother. Adams is clearly having a blast switching between wide-eyed innocence and glaring malevolence.

James Marsden and Patrick Dempsey both get some hilarious scenes. Marsden’s Eduard is as batty as ever, but Dempsey gets to join in the fun when he is transformed into an overconfident hero. It’s pretty amusing to watch Dempsey do what is essentially his impression of Marsden. Menzel fares a little worse. She’s made to sing the phrase “let it go” every time she opens her mouth.

There are a couple of cute musical numbers, including a fun sequence where kitchen appliances start bopping along with Giselle as she goes about her morning routine. Shankman also manages to pepper the film with Disney references, specifically princess poses performed by the main leads. It might be fun to keep track of how many you can spot — the less you think about the script, the better.

Though nowhere near as clever or fun as the original, Disenchanted is still a brightly colored Disney romp that will likely appeal to small kids. God help you, however, if you try to show this movie to a teen even half as surly as Morgan is.

Verdict: Disenchanted gets its spell wrong, but it should still charm younger viewers.

Disenchanted is rated PG and is available November 18 on Disney+.