So finally got enough money (salary) to upgrade to buying Blu rays... Purchased and watched the Godfather trilogy (my all time favorite) and a whole shit ton of Disney animated movies because I couldn't watch them during my childhood (elder brothers were the ones renting the movies on VHS).
(in no particular order)
The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Aladdin
(can you believe I never got to see the original movie but have beaten the genesis game a thousand times uptil now), Aristocats, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping beauty, Mulan, Dumbo, Frozen and Wall-E.
And lastly on the suggestion of my friend, "Enchanted".
My friend was adamant that I should watch this movie in the last as it had too many hidden references to older Disney movies that I was sure to miss and I did exactly that, I went through all the other movies in a week and finally got around to watching "Enchanted" yesterday.
Now for a long time I've had this odd (and definitely wrong) assumption that acting performance of women in films is serviceable at best and mostly the are included just for eye candy. Most of the times they are given secondary roles and kind of feel out of place. It doesn't help that most of my favorite movies (Godfather, Jurassic Park, Shawshank Redemption, Matrix, LoTR) are CG or don't have an emphasis on the female cast.
Boy was I not ready to be proven so much wrong. This movie is all about the leading lady. It does have the charm and follow the themes of Older Disney classics (optimism, love conquers all) but where it really shines is the performance of Amy Adams and James Marsden (prince Edwards). She took the free flowing, energetic and (for lack of a better word) spunky demeanor of classic Disney princesses and transferred it faultlessly to live action.
There was never a time when I felt that the naiveness and optimism that she portrayed was forced in any way. From the dreamy accent she used to the weird hand thing she did all the time it all came together to define her character in way to which I had never been exposed before. Coupled that with the amazing costume design, that character became such a complete package.
Usually i'm not the one to get teary eyed at kids movies (I did cry when Mufasa died) but the facial expressions from Giselle during the scene when Robert asks her to leave (in Central Park) made me feel quite sad.
The other actors' performance also require a mention. James Marsden did an excellent job portraying a Disney prince. He managed to perform a difficult rule, being clueless in humorous way. Whenever he was on screen you were sure to have a laugh sooner or later. Queen Narissa (Susan Srandon) portrayed an awesome villain and props goes to the makeup artist and costume designer for making her feel menacingly sexy to the audience (traits that are common to most of Disney female villains), Patrick Dempsey... well he had very little to work with what with him being a divorced single parent. Still he didn't feel out of place.
The musical numbers is the second best thing in this movie after the superb acting. I have not watched as many Disney movies as to completely know what songs they have made spoof of but from what I've heard or seen the songs in this movie are among the best that I have heard from Disney. The first song (true love's kiss) is a nice little song that is made even better by the awesome animation in the movie. It's subsequent instrumental versions (hears several times throughout the movie) make up an awesome atmosphere.
The second song (Happy Working Song) is my favorite among all. Why? because of its nonsensical lyrics and catchy tune. Plus I have a little bit of interest in special effects and CG so I thought it was awesome that they had used live pigeons and rats during filming. At first I couldn't tell whether the rotation of Giselle's dress was CG or not and came as a mild surprise to know that they had made a rig for her to stand in while the dress rotated by wires. Again the performance of Amy Adams is exceptional and she demonstrates a lot of energy during the whole number.
The last song (How do you know), is an accurate representation of what a fully choreographed animated sequence would look like in real life. I was smiling throughout the whole song at Patrick Demsey's expressions as he had to constantly run to catch up with Giselle, forcefully pull her away from things and awkwardly get out the way of dancers. It also has one of my favorite lines from the movie (he knows the song too? I've never heard of this song).
The little jokes were well executed (Yeah well welcome to New York), the Disney references were not too intrusive to the main action (Grumpy scene) and even the physical humor (Edward breaking into a song and getting run over by bicyclists) managed to get a laugh out of me. It was a movie that took itself seriously in just the right amount.
Ending was lame.
One thing that bugged me after watching the movie was how I had never heard of this movie among my friends or on the forums. I went to GAF and found we didn't have an OT for that movie (maybe there weren't many movie OT's back then). It's a seriously underrated movie that deserves more recognition. It's a movie that can be appreciated by nearly anyone regardless of age or gender. I for one am recommending it to nearly everyone from now on.
Sorry if the post is too long or the formatting is an eyesore.
