By building a counterpoint in Dempsey’s character, the movie finds endless opportunities to comically run the gamut between chirpy fairy tale idealism and the cynicism that surrounds everyday reality including romance. That includes one particularly hilarious scene where Giselle starts sobbing after seeing one of Robert’s divorcee clients. And in one of the most hygienic use of roaches you’ll ever see, after he takes her in at the behest of his daughter, Morgan (Rachel Covey), she beckons all the animals in New York, including the roaches in the sewers, to squeakily clean his entire apartment.
The addition of Robert also adds some new wrinkles to the old fairy tale, particularly when Giselle starts heeding a concept unheard of in fairy tale land — dating. Robert is already dating Nancy (Idina Menzel), and Giselle has already met her handsome prince who is on his way to rescue her in the city. But as his defenses break down, it becomes anyone’s guess whose kiss Giselle will finally receive. That is, of course, if Queen Narissa doesn’t foil her plans first.
All of this is surrounded by the usual quality music by Alan Menken with lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Being on familiar ground from previous works like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, they deliver their song and dance numbers with a nudge and a wink, aided by the vocal talents of Adams and Marsden, who do all of their own singing. This is particularly true of Marsden, who outrageously camps up his singing and performance to reveal the typical handsome prince persona for the blow-hard, naïve goofball that he really is.
In a way, after the end of hand-drawn Disney and the takeover of digital animation, Enchanted plays like a swan song that is unexpected yet somehow inevitable. And if that sounds like a paradox, it is, just as a winning, gentle satire like this film should be. We just needed the beloved genre to draw its curtain with a bang and this film has packed that, too.
Bottom line: Pretty close to greatness.
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