The world got a bit more magical recently as Disenchanted, the sequel to Disney’s 2007 film, Enchanted, was released on Disney Plus almost 15 years after the original movie’s release. I have to admit, I was excited about this as a big fan of the original film and with both returning and new characters, it held a promising tale.
The story of Disenchanted follows Giselle (Amy Adams) and Robert (Patrick Dempsey), along with their daughters Morgan (Gabriella Baldacchino) and Sofia as they move from New York City to the suburban town of Monroeville into a fixer-upper home. They are quickly thrown off balance in this new life, as Morgan is unhappy at her new school, Robert doesn’t find happiness in commuting into the city for his job and the home has a bunch of work left to be done. When King Edward (James Marsden) and Queen Nancy (Idina Menzel) come to visit their new home, they give Sofia a late birthday gift of an Andalasian wishing wand. When Giselle meets with the head of the town council, Malvina Monroe (Maya Rudolph), she discovers there is a town ball to be held with votes for the prince and princess, and, in wanting to help Morgan fit into the town, tries to get her chosen as the princess, ultimately embarrassing her and causing a fallout between the two.
Because of this fallout, she takes advice from her chipmunk friend, Pip, and uses the wishing wand to wish for a fairytale life. Of course, this is where things begin to turn as the town is transformed into Monrolasia, with Morgan being happy in her role as a servant, Robert believing he is an adventurer and is protecting the people in the town, and Malvina becoming the town’s evil queen. As Giselle seemingly thinks that things are fine, she begins to realize how she is taking pleasure in mistreating Morgan, realizing she is slowly becoming an evil stepmother and she asks for help from the wand’s instruction scroll. This reveals how Giselle’s wish is actually taking away all of the magic within Andalasia and it will become permanent at the last stroke of midnight.
Well, we know how Disney movies almost always end with that “happy ever after” ending, and Disenchanted is no exception to this. I have to say, while the storyline seems fairly predictable, I did enjoy how everything played out and found myself even crying at certain moments of the film.
The biggest complaint I have is that there seemed to be a song quite often and really none of them were that memorable to me except for the villain duet number between Giselle and Malvina (because villains always happen to end up with the best songs) as well as Menzel belting out the song “Love Power” because you can’t include her in a Disney film and not give her a number to belt out. In comparison to the original, sometimes less is ultimately more when it comes to singing.
I don’t want to spoil my favorite moments, as they all hold a large plot point, but I will say that this is a film that is perfect for those young and old, as it even holds nostalgia towards the original film alongside nods to other Disney films. If you grew up in the world of Andalasia through Enchanted, I have no doubt you’ll enjoy being back in this world once again after 15 years of being away.