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Enchanted (film)

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Enchanted
Theatrical release poster
Directed byKevin Lima
Written byBill Kelly
Produced byBarry Josephson
Barry Sonnenfeld
StarringAmy Adams
James Marsden
Timothy Spall
Patrick Dempsey
Idina Menzel
Rachel Covey
Susan Sarandon
Narrated byJulie Andrews
CinematographyDon Burgess, ASC
Edited byStephen A. Rotter
Gregory Perler
Music byAlan Menken
Distributed byWalt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release dates
October 20 2007 (London)
November 21 2007
Running time
107 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$85 million[1]
Box office$340,221,396[2]

Enchanted is a 2007 musical film, directed by Kevin Lima and produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Josephson Entertainment. It premiered on October 20 2007 at the London Film Festival before it was released on November 21 2007 in the United States. The film, both homage to and a self-parody of conventional Disney animated features, makes numerous references to Disney's past and future works, and blends live action filmmaking, traditional animation and computer-generated imagery. The plot focuses on Giselle, an archetypal Disney Princess who is forced from her 2D-animated world of Andalasia into real-life New York City.

The film heralds the return of traditional animation to a Disney feature film after the company's decision to move entirely to computer animation in 2004. Composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, who had written songs for previous Disney films, produced Enchanted's songs, with Menken also composing its score.

Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall, Idina Menzel, Rachel Covey, and Susan Sarandon, the film was well-received critically and garnered two nominations at the 65th Golden Globe Awards and three nominations at the 80th Academy Awards. The film also proved to be a commercial success, earning more than $340 million worldwide at the box office.[2]

Plot

Giselle (Amy Adams) lives in the blissful, animated world of Andalasia, where animals are talkative companions and musical interludes punctuate every interaction. She dreams of her true love and builds a statue to represent him from her dream with the help of her chipmunk friend Pip and other forest animals. As she sings about true love's kiss (in a song aptly titled "True Love's Kiss"), Prince Edward (James Marsden), a handsome and good-hearted, but somewhat dimwitted and egotistical, prince, hears her voice in the forest and rescues her from a troll. Giselle and Edward get engaged to be married the next day but her fate takes a turn for the worse on her wedding day when his stepmother, the villainous Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon), throws her through a magic portal to "a place where there are no happily ever afters" in order to keep her stepson single and thus remain queen.

Giselle's plunge into darkness lands her in the live-action world of modern day New York City, where she meets Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey), a divorce lawyer who takes her into his apartment despite believing that she is crazy and worrying about the safety of his young daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey), because his first ex-wife left them five years ago. The next morning, he becomes angry when he and his daughter find Giselle has called rats and other vermin to clean their apartment and that she has constructed a dress using material cut from his curtains. Nancy (Idina Menzel), Robert's soon-to-be-fiancée, walks in to find Giselle on top of Robert after Giselle had just tripped and accidentally landed on him. Giselle is dressed only in a towel, having just got out of the shower, and Nancy leaves assuming the worst. Robert goes to his office with Giselle, who starts crying after finding out that one of Robert's clients is getting a divorce, thus bringing everybody down and causing Robert's boss to reprimand him. Robert takes Giselle outside the building to Central Park.

At the end of his patience, Robert decides to leave Giselle, but rejoins her after seeing her give the money he gave her to an old woman. During their walk through Central Park, Giselle questions Robert on how he displays his affection for Nancy and spontaneously starts the musical production number "That's How You Know" with everyone in the park performing with her. Giselle sends Nancy an apology on Robert's behalf, along with tickets to the King's and Queen's Ball. Charmed, Nancy accepts. Meanwhile, Queen Narissa's henchman Nathaniel (Timothy Spall) follows Edward and Pip, who have journeyed to New York to save Giselle. They stop at a motel, where Nathaniel questions himself and his relationship with Narissa after watching a soap opera. He sneaks out to give Giselle a poisoned apple, while Pip, unable to speak in this world, has a frustrating time alerting the Prince of the minion's intentions. Nathaniel tries twice to poison Giselle, only to be stopped by Pip, and Narissa becomes infuriated.

As Giselle stays another night in Robert's apartment, Robert tells her he will help her because he does not believe Edward will show up. She becomes aggravated and then giddy when she discovers that she is experiencing anger for the first time. They both stare at each other for a moment and realize they are falling in love. Edward finds Giselle the next morning and, at her insistence, they go on a date around New York. She suggests that they go to the King's and Queen's Ball that evening while Edward gets her to agree to return with him to Andalasia right after the ball. Giselle and Edward arrive at the ball and greet Nancy and Robert. After Nancy and Edward pair off to dance to the song "So Close", Giselle dances with Robert. As Robert softly sings the lyrics to her, Giselle realizes that Robert is her true love. Nancy decides to cut in. Giselle and Edward leave for Andalasia but as she waits for Edward, Giselle is visibly upset.

Narissa suddenly appears as the old hag and offers Giselle an apple that she says will make her forget the whole experience. Giselle takes a bite and collapses on the floor. Narissa then attempts to take her away, boarding the elevator with her, to die of the poison, but Edward stops her at the last second, blocking the closing doors with his sword. Narissa claims Giselle fainted as Robert and Nancy run to her aid. A remorseful Nathaniel appears and confesses to all that she was poisoned with his help. Narissa attempts to bewitch Edward, but Nathaniel restrains her. He reveals that if the spell is not broken before it is midnight, Giselle will die. Robert remembers true love's kiss and Edward tries to revive Giselle with it, but it doesn't work. He is alarmed, for Giselle's sake, but then realizes that Robert might be her true love, and asks him to try the kiss. He hesitates at first, as he has only known her for a few days and does not know how he could be her true love, but at Nancy's encouragement, he kisses her. Giselle awakens and embraces Robert, but Narissa uses the distracting moment to break free. She transforms into a dragon, declaring that she is going to kill them all. She plans to start with Giselle but Robert intervenes and is promptly seized. Narissa snatches Robert and lures Giselle to the top of the building. Giselle chases Narissa up the building, wielding Edward's sword, as Edward releases Pip to help her. With help from Pip, the dragon falls from the roof, and Giselle uses the sword to stop Robert from falling to his death. Narissa collides with a roof, interrupting the spell she's trying to cast and causing her to burst into flames before falling to her death and exploding in a fury of dark energies. Giselle and Robert still almost fall off, but manage to catch themselves at the last second, and they kiss on the roof. Nancy leaves with Edward to Andalasia and they get married. Robert and Giselle, now married, open up a boutique, where they are assisted by both humans and animals. Both Nathaniel and Pip become successful authors in the modern world and Andalasia respectively. The last scene shows Giselle, Robert, and Morgan playing together and living happily ever after as a family.


Cast and characters

  • Amy Adams as Giselle: Adams was announced to have been cast in the role of Giselle on November 14, 2005.[3] Although the studio was looking for a film star in the role, director Kevin Lima insisted on casting a lesser-known actress. Out of the 300 or so actresses who auditioned for the role,[4] Adams stood out to Lima because her "commitment to the character, her ability to escape into the character's being without ever judging the character was overwhelming."[5] Hailing from Andalasia, Giselle displays many traits similar to Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, and Belle but her character's initial personality is mostly based on Snow White. She is "eternally optimistic and romantic" but is also "very independent and true to her convictions".[6] Over the course of the film, she becomes more mature but maintains her innocence, optimism, and animal friends.
  • Patrick Dempsey as Robert Philip: After he was allowed to cast Adams as Giselle, Lima had to find more well-known actors for the other roles for Disney. He brought in Dempsey, whose starring role on TV series Grey's Anatomy had earned him the nickname "McDreamy", and described him as the "modern-day Prince Charming to today's audience".[4] The role was challenging for Dempsey because he was the straight man, which meant most of the humor came from his reactions to the people around him.[7] Dempsey's character, Robert, is a divorce lawyer living in New York City with his daughter Morgan.
  • James Marsden as Prince Edward: Marsden was announced to have been cast on December 6, 2005.[8] At the time Marsden was auditioning, the role of Robert had not been cast but he decided to pursue for the role of Prince Edward because he was "more fun and [he] responded more to that character."[9] Edward is a prince in Andalasia and the stepson of Narissa. He is "very pure, very simple-minded and naive, but innocently narcissistic."[9] Prince Edward is a daring, brave and earnest prince who wishes to marry Giselle at first, but ultimately realizes that Robert is her true love, and falls for Nancy instead.
  • Timothy Spall as Nathaniel: Nathaniel is a servant of Queen Narissa, who controls him through his infatuation with her and his lack of self-esteem. He initially does Narissa's bidding, but ultimately realizes her true nature and rebels against her.
  • Idina Menzel as Nancy Tremaine: Menzel, who is well-known for her Broadway musical roles, was offered the role of Nancy Tremaine.[10] Since the role did not require any singing, Menzel said in an interview that "it was a compliment to be asked to just be hired on [her] acting talents alone."[11] Nancy is a fashion designer and Robert's girlfriend. She is named after Lady Tremaine, the stepmother from Cinderella although unlike her, Nancy is clearly not evil.
  • Rachel Covey as Morgan Philip: Morgan is Robert's six-year-old daughter.
  • Susan Sarandon as Queen Narissa: Playing the primary villain of the film, Sarandon had been attracted to the project prior to Lima's involvement as director. Since Sarandon's on-screen time was relatively short, it took only two weeks to film her scenes.[12] Narissa's mannerisms, characteristics, powers, and aesthetic features are inspired by such classical Disney villainesses as The Evil Queen and Maleficent.[6]
  • Jeff Bennett and Kevin Lima as Pip: Bennett provided the voice for the 2D-animated Pip in the animated segment while Lima provided the voice for the computer-generated Pip in the live-action segment. Pip, a chipmunk friend of Giselle who has no trouble expressing himself through speech in Andalasia, loses his ability to speak in the real world and must communicate by acting.

Production

Development

The initial script of Enchanted, written by Bill Kelly, was bought by Disney's Touchstone Pictures and Sonnenfeld/Josephson Productions for a reported sum of $450,000 in September 1997.[13] However, it was thought to be unsuitable for Disney as it was "a racier R-rated movie".[14] To the frustration of Kelly, the screenplay was rewritten several times, first by Rita Hsiao and then by Todd Alcott.[13] The film was initially scheduled to be released in 2002 with Rob Marshall as director but he withdrew due to "creative differences" between the producers and him.[15] In 2001, director Jon Turteltaub was set to direct the film but he left soon after. Adam Shankman became the film's director in 2003, while Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle were hired by Disney to rewrite the script once again.[16] At the time, Disney considered offering the role of Giselle to Kate Hudson or Reese Witherspoon.[13] However, the project did not take off.

On May 25, 2005, Variety reported that Kevin Lima had been hired as director and Bill Kelly had returned to the project to write a new version of the script.[17] Lima worked with Kelly on the script to combine the main plot of Enchanted with the idea of a "loving homage" to Disney's heritage. He created visual storyboard printouts that covered the story of Enchanted from beginning to end, which filled an entire floor of a production building. After Lima showed them to the chairman of Walt Disney Studios, Dick Cook, he received the green light for the project and a budget of $85 million.[1] Lima began designing the world of Andalasia and storyboarding the movie before a cast was chosen to play the characters. After the actors were hired, he was involved in making the final design of the movie, which made sure the animated characters look like their real-life counterpart.[7]

Filming

Enchanted is the first feature-length Disney live-action/traditional animation hybrid since Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), though the traditionally-animated characters do not interact in the live-action environment in the same manner as they did in Roger Rabbit; however, there are some scenes where live-action characters share the screen with two-dimensional animated characters, e.g., a live-action Nathaniel communicating with a cel-drawn Narissa. Over the course of making Enchanted, Lima oversaw the direction of both the live-action and animation sequences at the same time.[7] The combination of live-action and animation saw the film to switch aspect ratios within the film. The film starts in 2.35:1 aspect ratio when the Walt Disney Pictures logo and Enchanted storybook are shown, and then switches to a smaller 1.85:1 aspect ratio for the first animated scenes. The film switches back to the first aspect ratio when the film becomes live-action. In all, Enchanted took almost two years to complete; the animation took a little over a year to finish while the live-action scenes were shot in 72 days. The filming of the live-action portions commenced and was completed during the animation process.[7]

Animation

Out of the film's 104 minutes running time, there are approximately 13 minutes of animation with ten minutes of it at the beginning. Lima tried to "cram every single piece of Disney iconic imagery" into the first ten minutes, which were done in traditional cel animation (in contrast to computer-assisted 3-D animation) as a tribute to past Disney fairy tale films such as Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.[7] It was the first Disney film theatrically released in America to feature traditional cel animation since Pooh's Heffalump Movie (2005). As most of Disney's cel animation artists were laid off after the computer graphics boom of the late 1990s,[18] the 13 minutes of animation were not done in-house but by the independent Pasadena-based company James Baxter Animation, which was started by noted lead animator James Baxter. Baxter had previously worked for Walt Disney Feature Animation, bringing to life many memorable animated characters like Jessica Rabbit (Who Framed Roger Rabbit), Belle (Beauty and the Beast), Rafiki (The Lion King), and Quasimodo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame).[6][19]

Although Lima wanted the animation to be nostalgic, he wanted Enchanted to have a style of its own. Baxter's team decided to use Art Nouveau as a starting point. For Giselle, the 2D-animated character had to be "a cross between Amy [Adams] and a classic Disney princess. And not a caricature." Seeing Giselle as "a forest girl, an innocent nymph with flowers in her hair" and "a bit of a hippie", the animators wanted her to be "flowing, with her hair and clothes. Delicate."[20] For Prince Edward, Baxter's team "worked the hardest on him to make him look like the actor" because princes "in these kinds of movies are usually so bland."[20] Many prototypes were made for Narissa as Baxter's team wanted her face to "look like Susan [Sarandon]'s. And the costumes had to align closely to the live-action design."[20]

To maintain continuity between the two media, Lima brought in costume designer Mona May during the early stages of the film's production so that the costumes would be aligned in both the animated and live-action worlds. He also shot some live-action footage of Amy Adams as Giselle for the animators to use as reference, which also allowed the physical movement of the character to match in both worlds. Test scenes completed by the animators were shown to the actors, allowing them to see how their animated self would move.[7]

Live-action

Robert Philip's apartment on 116th Street.

Principal photography began in April 2006.[21] Since the majority of the film is set in New York City, it was shot there in entirety. However, shooting in New York became problematic as it was in a "constant state of new stores, scaffolding and renovation".[22]

The first scene in New York, which features Giselle emerging from a manhole in the middle of Times Square, was filmed on location. Due to the difficulty in controlling the crowd whilst filming in Times Square, general pedestrians were featured in the scene with hired extras placed in the immediate foreground.[23] Similarly, a crowd gathered to watch as James Marsden and Timothy Spall filmed their scenes in Times Square.[24] However, the scene Lima found the most challenging to shoot was the musical number, "That's How You Know", in Central Park. The five-minute scene took 17 days to finish due to the changing weather, which allowed only seven sunny days for the scene to be filmed. The filming was also hampered at times by Patrick Dempsey's fans. The scene was choreographed by John O'Connell, who had worked on Moulin Rouge! beforehand, and included 300 extras and 150 dancers.[7]

Many scenes were also filmed at Steiner Studios, which provided the three large stages that Enchanted needed at the same facility.[1] Other outdoor locations included the Brooklyn Bridge and The Paterno, an apartment building with a curved, heavily embellished, ivory-colored façade located on the corner of Riverside Drive and 116th Street, which is the residence of the film's characters Robert and Morgan Phillip.

Costume design

All the costumes in the film were designed by Mona May, who had previously worked on Clueless, The Wedding Singer and The Haunted Mansion. To create the costumes, May spent one year in pre-production working with animators and her costume department of 20 people, whilst she contracted with five outside costume shops in Los Angeles and New York.[25] She became involved in the project during the time when the animators were designing the faces and bodies of the characters as they had to "translate the costumes from two-dimensional drawings to live-action human proportion".[26] Her goal was to keep the designs "Disneyesque to the core but bring a little bit of fashion in there and humor and make it something new".[26] However, May admitted this was difficult "because [they're] dealing with iconic Disney characters who have been in the psyche of the viewing audience for so long".[27]

For the character of Giselle, her journey to becoming a real woman is reflected in her dresses, which become less fairy tale-like as the film progresses. Her wedding dress at the beginning of the film directly contrasts her modern ball gown at the end of the film.[25] The wedding dress served to provide a "humongous contrast to the flat drawings" and to accentuate the image of a Disney Princess.[26] In order to make the waist look small, the sleeves were designed to be "extremely pouffy" and the skirt to be as big as possible, which included a metal hoop that holds up 20 layers of pettcoats and ruffles.[27] Altogether, 11 versions of the dress were made for filming, each comprised 200 yards (183 m) of silk satin and other fabric, and weighed approximately 40 pounds (18 kg).[25][27] On the experience of wearing the wedding dress, Amy Adams described it as "grueling" since "the entire weight was on [her] hips, so occasionally it felt like [she] was in traction".[28]

Unlike Giselle, Prince Edward does not adapt to the real world and James Marsden, who plays Edward, had only one costume designed for him. May's aim was to try "not to lose [Marsden] in the craziness of the outfit... where he still looks handsome".[26] The costume also included padding in the chest, buttocks and crotch, which gave Marsden the "same exaggerated proportions as an animated character"[25] and "posture - his back is straight, the sleeves are up and never collapse".[26]

May was delighted that Lima "went for something more fashion-forward" with Susan Sarandon's Queen Narissa.[25] She decided to make her look like a "runway lady",[26] wearing something that is "still Disney" but also "high fashion, like something John Galliano or Thierry Mugler might design".[27] Since Narissa appears in three mediums: 2D animation, live-action and computer animation, May had to make sure that the costume would be the same throughout in terms of "color, shape and texture".[27] The costume for Narissa consisted of a leather corset and skirt, which looked "reptilian", as well as a cape.[27] Working with the animators, May incorporated parts of the dragon's form into the costume; the cape was designed to look like wings, the layers of the skirt wrap around like a tail and a crown that would turn into horns during Narissa's transformation into a dragon.[25]

Music

The film's score was written by accomplished songwriter and composer Alan Menken, who has worked on a number of Disney films previously. Fellow composer Stephen Schwartz wrote the lyrics for six songs, also composed by Menken. Menken and Schwartz previously worked together on the songs for Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Menken became involved with the film in the early stages of the film's development and invited Schwartz to resume their collaboration. They began the songwriting process by searching for the right moments in the story in which a song moment was allowed. Schwartz found that it was easier to justify situations in which the characters would burst into songs in Enchanted than in other live-action musicals as its concept "allowed the characters to sing in a way that was completely integral to the plot of the story."[29]

The three songs Giselle sings contain references to earlier Disney films. The first song played in the film, "True Love's Kiss", was written to be "a send-up of, and an homage to, the style of those Disney animated features",[30] namely, "I'm Wishing" (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" (Cinderella), during which Disney heroines sing about the joy of being loved. It posed a challenge for Menken and Schwartz because of the "many preconceptions with that number"; it had to be reflective of the era of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Cinderella.[29] Accordingly, Amy Adams performed the first song in an operetta style in contrast to the Broadway style of the later songs.[31]

Both "Happy Working Song" and "That's How You Know" also pay tributes to past Disney songs. "Happy Working Song" pays an homage to such songs as "Whistle While You Work" (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), "The Work Song" (Cinderella) and "A Spoonful of Sugar" (Mary Poppins) while "That's How You Know" is a self-parody of Menken's compositions for his Disney features, specifically such big production numbers as "Under the Sea" (The Little Mermaid) and "Be Our Guest" (Beauty and the Beast). To achieve this, Schwartz admitted he had to "push it a little bit further in terms of choices of words or certain lyrics" while maintaining "the classic Walt Disney sensibility". However, Menken noted that the songs he has written for Disney have always been "a little tongue-in-cheek".[29] As the film progresses, the music uses more contemporary styles, which is heard through the adult ballad "So Close" and the country/pop number "Ever Ever After".[30]

Out of the six completed songs written by Menken and Schwartz, five remained in the finished film. The titular song "Enchanted", a duet featuring Idina Menzel and James Marsden, was cut from the movie.[10]

Visual effects

The majority of the visual effects shots in Enchanted were done by Tippett Studio in Berkeley, California, who contributed a total of 320 shots. These shots involved virtual sets, environmental effects and CG characters that performed alongside real actors, namely the animated animals during the "Happy Working Song" sequence, Pip and the Narissa dragon during the live action portions of the film. CIS Hollywood was responsible for 36 visual effects shots, which primarily dealt with wire removals and composites. ReelFX did four visual effects shots involving the pop-up book page-turn transitions while Weta Digital did two.[32]

Out of all the animals that appear in the "Happy Working Song" sequence, the only real animals filmed on set were rats and pigeons. The real animals captured on film aided Tippett Studio in creating CG rats and pigeons, which gave dynamic performances such as having pigeons that carried brooms in their beaks and rats that scrubbed with toothbrushes. On the other hand, all the cockroaches were CG characters.[33]

Pip, a chipmunk who can talk in the 2D world of Andalasia, loses his ability to communicate through speech in the real world and relies heavily on facial and body gestures. This meant the animators had to display Pip's emotions through performance as well as making him appear like a real chipmunk. The team at Tippett began the process of animating Pip by observing live chipmunks which were filmed in motion from "every conceivable angle". They then created a photorealistic chipmunk through the use of Maya and Furrocious. While on location in Times Square in New York City, visual effects supervisor Thomas Schelesny showed the first animation of Pip to director Kevin Lima, who was surprised that he was a looking at CG character and not reference footage.[32] To enhance facial expressions, the modelers gave Pip eyebrows, which real chipmunks don't have.[33] During the filming of scenes in which Pip appears, a number of ways were used to indicate the physical presence of Pip. On some occasions, a small stuffed chipmunk with a wire armature on the inside was placed in the scene. In other situations, a rod with a small marker on the end or a laser pointer would be used to show the actors and cinematographer where Pip is.[32]

Unlike Pip, the Narissa dragon was allowed to be more of a fantasy character. Instead of using a laser pointer to direct the extras' eyelines in the scene which sees the transformation of Narissa from a woman into a dragon, a long pole was used. In addition, a computer-controlled lighting setup and a repeatable head on the camera were all synchronized together. Set pieces were also made to move back and forth. In the film's final sequence, in which Narissa climbs Manhattan's Woolworth Building while clutching Robert in her claws, a greenscreen rig was built to hold actor Patrick Dempsey in order to film his face and movements. The rig was a "puppeteering" approach that involved a robotic arm being controlled by three different floor effects artists.[32]

Sequel

The direct-to-DVD sequel would be Enchanted 2: Return of Queen Narissa (A.K.A. Rise of Dai Shi), featuring the Jungle Fury Rangers, Queen Narissa is back from falling to raise the Virus Pirates (White), Super Virus Pirates (Black), Destroyer Virus Pirates (Glow in the dark), Magnavirus Pirates (Metallic Gold), Vikington (transform by Barbarax), and Captain Darkbeard (a human form by Captain Mutiny) (Dee Bradley Baker). On DVD August 6, 2010.

Distribution

The film was distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures to 3,730 theaters in the United States.[34] It was distributed worldwide by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International to over 50 territories around the world[35] and topped the box office in several countries including the United Kingdom and Italy.[36][37]

Enchanted was released on standard DVD and Blu-ray Disc by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on March 18, 2008 in the United States. While Enchanted topped the DVD sales chart on the week of its release in the United States, narrowly defeating the DVD sales of I Am Legend, the Blu-ray Disc sales of I Am Legend were nearly four times the number of Blu-ray Disc sales of Enchanted.[38] The DVD was released in United Kingdom and Europe on April 7, 2008,[39] and in Australia on May 21, 2008.[40]

The bonus features included on both the DVD and Blu-ray Disc are "Fantasy Comes to Life", a three-part behind-the-scenes feature including "Happy Working Song", "That's How You Know" and "A Blast at the Ball"; six deleted scenes with brief introductions by director Kevin Lima; bloopers; "Pip's Predicament: A Pop-Up Adventure", a short in pop-up storybook style; and Carrie Underwood's music video for "Ever Ever After".[41] Featured on the Blu-ray disc only is a trivia game entitled "The D Files" that runs throughout the movie with high scoring players given access to videos "So Close", "Making Ever Ever After" and "True Love's Kiss".[42] In the United States, certain DVDs at Target stores contain a bonus DVD disc with a 30-minute long making-of documentary titled Becoming Enchanted: A New Classic Comes True. This DVD is also sold with certain DVDs at HMV stores in the United Kingdom.

Reception

Reviews

Reviews of Enchanted ranged from generally to extremely positive. Movie review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes deemed the film a 94% rating based on 139 reviews (with 130 "fresh" and 9 "rotten")[43] while Metacritic gave it a 75% rating based on 32 reviews.[44] Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film as the ninth best reviewed film in wide release of 2007 and named it the best family film of 2007.[45][46]

Positive reviews praised the film's take on a classic Disney story, its comedy and musical numbers as well as the performance of its lead actress, Amy Adams. Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three stars out of four, describing it as a "heart-winning musical comedy that skips lightly and sprightly from the lily pads of hope to the manhole covers of actuality" and one that "has a Disney willingness to allow fantasy into life".[47] Film critics of Variety and L.A. Weekly remarked on the film's ability to cater for all ages. L.A. Weekly described the film as "the sort of buoyant, all-ages entertainment that Hollywood has been laboring to revive in recent years (most recently with Hairspray) but hasn’t managed to get right until now"[48] while Todd McCarthy of Variety commented, "More than Disney's strictly animated product, Enchanted, in the manner of the vast majority of Hollywood films made until the '60s, is a film aimed at the entire population - niches be damned. It simply aims to please, without pandering, without vulgarity, without sops to pop-culture fads, and to pull this off today is no small feat."[49] Enchanted was the Broadcast Film Critics Association's choice for Best Family Film of 2007, while Carrie Rickey of The Philadelphia Inquirer named it the 4th best film of 2007.[50]

Rolling Stone, Premiere, USA Today and The Boston Globe all gave the film three out of four,[51][52][53][54] while Baltimore Sun gave the film a B grade.[55] They cited that although the story is relatively predictable, the way in which the predictability of the film is part of the story, the amazingly extravagant musical numbers, along with the way in which Disney pokes fun at its traditional line of animated movies outweighs any squabbles about storyline or being unsure of what age bracket the film is made for. Michael Sragow of Baltimore Sun remarked that the film's "piquant idea and enough good jokes to overcome its uneven movie-making and uncertain tone"[55] while Claudia Puig of USA Today stated that "though it's a fairly predictable fish-out-of-water tale (actually a princess-out-of-storybook saga), the casting is so perfect that it takes what could have been a ho-hum idea and renders it magical."[53]

Reviewers asserted that Amy Adams lifted the film with her performance, which was compared by some to her Academy Award-nominated performance in Junebug, and claimed that Enchanted has made Adams a movie star, likening it to Mary Poppins' effect on Julie Andrews' career.[49][54] Similarly, film critics Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips, who gave the film positive reviews on At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper, emphasized the effect of Adams' performance on the film with remarks like "Amy Adams is this movie" and "Amy Adams shows how to make a comic cliché work like magic." However, both agreed that the final sequence involving the computer-generated dragon of Narissa "bogged down" the film.[56]

Empire stated that the film was targeted at children but agreed with other reviewers that the "extremely game cast" was the film's best asset. It gave the film three out of five.[57] Time gave the film a C-, stating that the film "cannibalizes Walt's vault for jokes" and "fails to find a happy ending that doesn't feel two-dimensional".[58] Similarly, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian commented that the film "assumes a beady-eyed and deeply humourless sentimentality" and that Adams' performance was the "only decent thing in this overhyped family movie covered in a cellophane shrink-wrap of corporate Disney plastic-ness". Bradshaw gave the film two out of five.[59]

Box office performance

Enchanted earned $7,967,766 on the day of its release in the United States, placing at #1. It was also placed at #1 on Thanksgiving Day, earning $6,652,198 to bring its two-day total to $14.6 million. The film grossed $14.4 million on the following day, bringing its total haul to $29.0 million placing ahead of other contenders. Enchanted made $34.4 million on the Friday-Sunday period in 3,730 theaters for a per location average of $9,472 and $49.1 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday in 3,730 theaters for a per location average of $13,153.[34] Its earnings over the five-day holiday exceeded projections by $7 million.[60] Ranking as the second-highest Thanksgiving opening after Toy Story 2, which earned $80.1 million over the five-day holiday in 1999, Enchanted is the first film to open at #1 on the Thanksgiving frame in the 21st century.[61]

In its second weekend, Enchanted was also the #1 film, grossing a further $16,403,316 at 3,730 locations for a per theater average of $4,397. It dropped to #2 in its third weekend, with a gross of $10,709,515 in 3,520 theaters for a per theater average of $3,042. It finished its fourth weekend at #4 with a gross of $5,533,884 in 3,066 locations for a per theater average of $1,804. Enchanted earned a domestic gross of $127,807,262 and a total of $340,221,396 worldwide.[2] It was the 15th highest grossing film worldwide released in 2007.

Awards

In total, Enchanted was nominated for 18 awards presented by various critics associations and movie industry groups, five of which it won - Best Live Action Family Film from the Phoenix Film Critics Society, Best Family Film at the 13th Critics' Choice Awards and three Saturn Awards: Best Fantasy Film, Best Actress for Amy Adams and Best Music for Alan Menken. The film also received seven nominations at the MTV Movie Awards and Teen Choice Awards, which are voted upon by the general public.

Enchanted dominated the Best Original Song category at the 80th Academy Awards with three nominations but did not win. The nominated songs were "Happy Working Song", "So Close" and "That's How You Know", all three of which were written by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz. "That's How You Know" was also nominated at the 65th Golden Globe Awards for Best Original Song and the film's lead actress, Amy Adams, was nominated in the category of Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

At the 13th Critics' Choice Awards, Adams was nominated for Best Actress, Menken was nominated for his film score in the category of Best Composer and "That's How You Know" was nominated for Best Song. Enchanted received two nominations at the 12th Satellite Awards; Best Actress - Musical or Comedy for Amy Adams' performance and Best Visual Effects for the visual effects work done by Thomas Schelesny, Matt Jacobs and Tom Gibbons. Gibbons, along with James W. Brown, David Richard Nelson and John Koester, were nominated for an Visual Effects Society Award in the Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture category for the animated chipmunk, Pip, while costume designer Mona May received a nomination for Excellence in Costume Design for Film - Fantasy for her work in Enchanted at the Costume Designers Guild Awards 2007. The film was also nominated for an Golden Reel Award in the category of Best Sound Editing: Music in a Musical Feature Film.

Additionally, Enchanted received three nominations at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards: Best Female performance (for Amy Adams), Best Comedic Performance (for Amy Adams) and Best Kiss (for Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey). It also received four Teen Choice Award nominations: Choice Movie: Chick Flick, Choice Movie Actress: Comedy (for Amy Adams), Choice Movie Actor: Comedy (for James Marsden), Choice Movie: Villain (for Susan Sarandon). For its trailer, the film received a 2008 Golden Trailer Award for Best Animation/Family feature film preview.

Disney references

Main article: List of Disney references in Enchanted

According to director Kevin Lima, "thousands" of references are made to past and future works of Disney in Enchanted,[62] which serve as both a parody of and a "giant love letter to Disney classics".[63] It took almost eight years for Walt Disney Studios to greenlight the production of the film because it "was always quite nervous about the tone in particular".[63] As Lima worked with Bill Kelly, the writer, to inject Disney references to the plot, it became "an obsession"; he derived the name of every character as well as anything that needed a name from past Disney films to bring in more Disney references.[4]

While Disney animators have occasionally inserted a Disney character into background shots, for example, Donald Duck appears in a crowd in The Little Mermaid, they have avoided "mingling characters" from other Disney films for fear of weakening their individual mythologies.[63] In Enchanted, characters from past Disney films are openly seen, such as the appearances of Thumper and Flower from Bambi in the 2D animation portion of the film.[63] Disney references are also made through camera work, sets, costumes, music and dialogue. Obvious examples include the use of poisoned apples from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and True Love's Kiss from Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.[64] Dick Cook, the chairman of Walt Disney Studios, admitted that part of the goal of Enchanted was to create a new franchise (through the character of Giselle) and to revive the older ones.[63]

Soundtrack

Untitled

The soundtrack was officially released on November 20, 2007 by Walt Disney Records and contains 15 audio tracks, which include the five original songs used in the film as well as the film's score. The music was orchestrated by Blake Neely, conducted by Michael Kosarin and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony. Although "Ever Ever After" was not released as a single, a music video of the song was made and is included on the CD.

  1. "True Love's Kiss" (performed by Amy Adams and James Marsden) – 3:13
  2. "Happy Working Song" (performed by Amy Adams) – 2:11
  3. "That's How You Know" (performed by Amy Adams and Marlon Saunders) – 3:49
  4. "So Close" (performed by Jon McLaughlin) – 3:49
  5. "Ever Ever After" (performed by Carrie Underwood) – 3:31
  6. "Andalasia" – 1:47
  7. "Into the Well" – 4:42
  8. "Robert Says Goodbye" – 3:16
  9. "Nathaniel and Pip" – 4:03
  10. "Prince Edward's Search" – 2:24
  11. "Girls Go Shopping" – 1:41
  12. "Narissa Arrives" – 1:34
  13. "Storybook Ending" – 10:44
  14. "Enchanted Suite" – 4:36
  15. "That's Amore" (performed by James Marsden) – 3:07

Merchandising

Disney Princesses

Although Giselle is shown in both animated and live-action forms, she is not being marketed as one of the Disney Princesses, as was thought when a 2007 Toy Fair showed a Giselle doll featured with packaging declaring her with Disney Princess status.[65] Disney has since decided not to include Giselle in the Princess line when they realized they would have to pay for life-long rights to Amy Adams' image. While Giselle is not being marketed as one of the Disney Princesses, Giselle and Enchanted merchandise has been available in various outlets with Adams' animated likeness being used on all Princess Giselle merchandise.[66]

Giselle led the 2007 Hollywood Holly-Day Parade at the Disney's Hollywood Studios.[67] She was also featured in the 2007 Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade in the Magic Kingdom with Cinderella, Snow White, Belle, and other Disney Princesses.

Video games

Main article: Enchanted (video game)

A game based on the film was released for Nintendo DS and mobile phones. There is also a Game Boy Advance title, which is a prequel to the film, about Giselle and Pip rescuing Andalasia from a magic spell. It is currently planned for the PlayStation Portable and Wii systems.

References

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  5. ^ Wood, Jennifer M., "Amy Adams Enchants Kevin Lima", Movie Maker, November 26, 2007. Retrieved on January 12, 2008.
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