The premise
of the new Disney film, “Enchanted”, has been done before.
The animated world meets the real world. Since the evolution of
CGI (computer generated imagery) the animated cartoon itself is
a little “old school.” Now, 3-D animation seems like it
is the real world. With CGI, we now have the likes of “Toy
Story” (1995) and “Shrek” (2001), and evolved past
“Mary Poppins” (1964) and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”
(1988).
This was actually the simple, early fairy tale age meets the cynical,
sarcastic attitude of today. Happily ever after meets oh, please.
I wasn’t certain if Disney had the objectivity to poke fun
at itself. Besides, the Shrek series has already given fairy tales
a crude, celebrity roast. So, what makes “Enchanted” work
so well?
The pedigree of the film makers is what delivers the film. Director
Kevin Lima has been involved with Disney animation for over twenty
years. He directed his first Disney cartoon, “Tarzan”,
in 1999 and his first live action Disney film, “102 Dalmations”,
in 2000.
In writer Bill Kelly’s first film adaptation, “Blast from
the Past” (1999), we get the same fish-out-of-water tale, this
time, of a man who emerges from a fall-out shelter after 35 years.
It shares much of its story’s frame work with “Enchanted”,
dealing with the early 1960’s meeting the late 1990’s.
The last component of this film is the music team of Alan Menken
and Stephen Schwartz. The former, noted for scoring such Disney
Classics as “The Little Mermaid” (1989) and “Beauty
and the Beast” (1991), and somewhat unnoticed for “Little
Shop of Horrors” (1986), the film adaptation of his Off Broadway
musical adaptation of Roger Corman’s 1960 cult classic film.
The latter, although he won an Oscar for providing music and lyrics
for the Disney animated feature “Pocahontis” (1995), hit
a career high when his 2004 Broadway smash hit, “Wicked”,
won the Tony Award for best musical.
“Enchanted” is a perfect movie. It points out that the
lineage of family film has somewhat corny roots; but most importantly,
it leaves us a new high water mark. It seems that the only way to
make a family film any more is to talk down to the kids while going
over their heads with sexual innuendo and crude humor. This film
sits so high above that. Take your kids, see it again, then rent
it and own it. “Enchanted” is an instant classic.
