Disney making fun of Disney is just too meta for me.
So I finally saw Enchanted. And I gotta say, it lived down to my expectations. It wasn't awful. But I did remark to my feverish husband (after the CGI vermin apartment-cleansing scene) "I'm still waiting for this movie to win me over." Because it was sort of falling right into the live-action Disney traps of weak script, cheap cinematography and (with the exception of the formidable Amy Adams) so-so acting (including and especially from Patrick Dempsey, whose fame continues to baffle me.) Then came the Central Park scene--that fabulous full-on production number complete with Mariachi and steel drum bands. If I had only seen from that point to the ballroom scene, I would have said that this was a good movie. Those middle 20 minutes were pretty precious in spite of Schwartz's Schwartzy lyrics and the aforementioned pitfalls; the film was suddenly earnest and fresh and creative. And then there was the dragon. The awful, embarrasing dragon. And my smile turned back to a scowl and I mourned.
Because when you get right down to it, I loved, loved, loved the old Disney cartoons. And if you're going to do a sendup farce/homage to your own body of work it had better be as good as if not better than Cinderella/SnowWhite/LittleMermaid/SleepingBeauty/Alladin, etc. This was barely better than the remake of The Parent Trap. Sorry. Disney's standards have slumped, and were it not for Pixar I would say it was time to put them and Elton John out to pasture. What would I do without Brad Bird to keep alive my favorite brainwashing brand?
Sigh.
Because when you get right down to it, I loved, loved, loved the old Disney cartoons. And if you're going to do a sendup farce/homage to your own body of work it had better be as good as if not better than Cinderella/SnowWhite/LittleMermaid/SleepingBeauty/Alladin, etc. This was barely better than the remake of The Parent Trap. Sorry. Disney's standards have slumped, and were it not for Pixar I would say it was time to put them and Elton John out to pasture. What would I do without Brad Bird to keep alive my favorite brainwashing brand?
Sigh.