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Was Bungion Boy ENCHANTED By An Early Screening?!
SPOILER ALERT !!
Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here.
This is Disney’s big holiday family film, and I think I may be seeing it next week. Bungion Boy got an early peek... since he is, after all, the king of the early NYC screening at this point... and here’s what he had to say:
Hey Harry, Mori, etc. Bungion Boy here, back in New York. I’ve just returned from an extended vacation in Northern California where the only things to see were “Rush Hour 3” and “Halloween.” It’s good to be back… sort of. For tonight I saw the new Disney faerie tale film “Enchanted.” The film begins like so many classic Disney animated films have before. We see a storybook resting on a table in a castle. On the cover is the word “Enchanted.” The books pages magically fold open. We hear Julie Andrews’ voice narrating to us. For that magical moment I flashed back to my childhood and to films like “Pinocchio” and “Snow White.” I felt like a kid again. Then the movie started and I once again became a bitter, cynical New Yorker.
In the unlikely case that you don’t know, “Enchanted” is a modern faerie tale about an animated girl named Giselle who finds herself in Manhattan. Sound familiar? Well at the top of the long list of films that this is similar to is “Elf,” one of my favorite family films from the new century. Replace “Christmas Magic” with “Faerie Tale Magic” and you have the exact same movie. The film opens with a ten minute animated sequence in which we are introduced to the girl and her world. Well, not really. What we get is a pretty generic opening that just shows us a guy, a girl, and a villain. There is a musical number with Giselle singing with lots of forest creatures, but it’s not sweet and sincere like as if Snow White were doing it. It’s played for laughs and meant to be satirical. This was the part of the movie that really should have felt like a classic Disney film of the 40’s. There was plenty of time to make fun of those things later in the film but they couldn’t wait. The 2D animation is nice to see on the big screen again and is pretty impressive, looking like early 90’s caliber Disney animation, but the magic isn’t there. We get a chipmunk that talks like Joe Pesci and a giant ogre that reminds us of Shrek. These aren’t really characters. These are mash ups of every Disney princess that feels like just as recycled as something like “Happily N’ever After.” We get a set up of the evil queen not wanting her prince step-son to get married so she sends Giselle to “a place where Happily Ever After doesn’t exist.” New York. Get it?
Now in human form, Giselle is played by the wonderful Amy Adams, who is already princess-like. Anyone who saw her in “Junebug” knows that she’s hard to resist. She is sweet, funny, and adorable. Later in the film she gets a few opportunities to demonstrate these charms, but at first she’s kind of annoying, due in whole to the script making her do and say really stupid, annoying, expected things. Of course we get the long, extended sequence of her walking around the nightmare that is Times Square, getting shocked and surprised by some things and mistaking other things for something else. I was so certain that bastard Naked Cowboy was going to show up for a gag but no such luck. It isn’t long before Giselle meets Robert, a straight laced divorce lawyer played by Patrick Dempsey. Dempsey isn’t bad in this, though it might have just felt that way because he plays it straight and is given nothing to do but look pretty and roll his eyes. Robert has a young daughter, played by a young actress who I don’t think can read yet because every time she opened her mouth she sounded like she was repeating a line that had just been fed to her. The daughter realizes that something is different and magical about Giselle and decides she would make a wonderful mother. Robert doesn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, even when rats clean his bathroom and people break out into song in Central Park, so he just thinks she’s crazy. Wow. There’s no way these two could ever end up together. They’re so drastically different in every way!
But remember? Giselle already has a true love in her animated world. He is the charmingly dim Prince Edward, played hilariously by James Marsden, who has followed Giselle to New York to find her. He also brought the chipmunk with him. What’s worse than an animated chipmunk that talks like Joe Pesci? A CGI chipmunk that can’t talk so it just squeaks and plays charades. That gets old pretty fast. Marsden on the other hand is really shaping up to be a funny character actor. Between “Hairspray” and this, he has been one of the nice surprises of the year. He had the only scene that made me laugh out loud, which came towards the end of the film after I had all but given up hope. Giselle is also being pursued by the evil queen’s henchman, played by Timothy Spall in one of the other worthy effort performances in the film. He’s constantly chasing Giselle, trying to feed her poison apples, and questioning his fidelity to the queen in the film, which results in one of the better site gags at the end. And what about that evil queen? Well she’s eventually played by Susan Sarandon but neither incarnation of her is in the film much at all. That’s one of the film’s real flaws is that it doesn’t have a credible villain. The queen pops up in the animated beginning and once or twice more for brief moments, but she never seems like a real threat or even part of the story. Until the end, in which she turns human and then into a talking dragon, she only has about a combined five minutes of screen time. More of a cameo than a character.
So why didn’t this work? It’s got an attractive and/or talented cast and a sweet, family friendly premise. There. That’s the problem. No. Not the “family friendly” part for once. The premise. It’s a great premise but that’s all it is. There isn’t much of a story getting told. It seemed like the screenplay was written by a committee writing individual scenes and piecing them together later like a puzzle. At times I couldn’t tell if the screenplay was just sloppy or if there had been a lot of scenes already cut out of the film. Characters are always popping up all over Manhattan with no explanation of how or why they’re there. How do you account for a scene when Timothy Spall is in Times Square one minute and then the next he’s in the kitchen at Katz’s Deli talking to a magic image of the queen in a pot of soup? Now it’s not the geography. I know all he has to do is walk to 6th Avenue and take the F train to Houston and 2nd Avenue to get there, but where was the scene in which the queen told him to report to her. Or the scene in which the queen explains that she can communicate with the other world using liquid like soup and martinis and that delis are especially good places to do this. This sounds like I’m nit-picking but it’s little things like that that made me think that the film was making up all the rules and stories as they went along.
The same thing happens in one amusing sequence in which Giselle enlists the help of rats, pigeons, and roaches to clean the apartment. For a while in the film Giselle has been seeing many things in Manhattan and either not knowing what they are or thinking they are something else, like dragons and monsters. Yet as she sings her cute cleaning song, (one of four written by Disney veterans Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz) she starts calling things like vacuums and toilets by name. Again, a little thing but it’s the little things that make or break movies like this.
I know I’m being a little hard on “Enchanted” and giving it more guff than it deserves. Frankly this isn’t a terrible film, and it’s certainly a lot more harmless than some of the family films out there these days like “Are We Done Yet?” and “Daddy Day Camp.” This just saddened me because it could have been so much more. The things that start to work are just pushed off into the background so they can make room for the conventions we’re used to and are expecting. Why did we need Patrick Dempsey’s character? Was it so essential that she fall in love with him? I was a lot more interested in seeing Giselle interact with Prince Edward. The movie would have been a lot more original and funny if the story were about a girl and a prince from another world trying to find each other in Manhattan so they could go back to the Faerie Tale world together. But with Edward just there for comic relief and Marsden not being the star of a hit tv show, we just get a lot of meet-cutes and misunderstandings with Dempsey. Seen that before. What else have you got? I know this movie wasn’t made with someone like me in mind, but neither was “Elf.” This film will be a huge hit this November and at least it will make a lot of young girls very, very happy and there’s no harm in that. My only fear is that this film will be so huge that it will spawn an unnecessary sequel, which this film doesn’t leave room for at all. This is a cute holiday distraction for kids, but doesn’t deserve to be anything more than that. Just like how Ben Stiller doesn’t deserve to see what kind of crazy adventures his museum exhibits will have on another exciting night.
-Bungion Boy
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I'll grin and bear, buy the DVD and use as a pacifier. Oh joy!
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Because my baby's momma wants to go...
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Which one is dating that idiot Borat?
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Turd.
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I'll give this a watch. Trailer was good.
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I had high hopes. looks like a netflix item for later. kind of a shame. (queue the retarded talkbackers that give anyone shit for deciding to see or not see a movie in theaters because of a review...)
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James Marsden is so amazing i'll see him in anything. I havn't seen 2d animation on the big screen in a long time. And it certainly doesn't look as bad as most kiddy family films of late. At least they are trying right? I hope to like this film and nothing more.
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sorta like Big.
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to actually go see it for myself.
"Bathroom? No sweetie here use the the cup the pop came in" -
It's been a while since we've gotten a sexy Disney cartoon babe.
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Disney's next film: "GOODMUNKS".
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how I wish I'd been free last week to join you.
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B-Boy, your spelling of "fairy" ANGERS me.
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People went go into a film in the today world expecting the next Godfather. Lower the standard a bit more, people. Gosh!
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im sure it's mostly shit anyways...
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sorry
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I've heard this film discussed here and there, and the animation isn't 100% kid-oriented like the originals, because that's not the point. A big demographic this flick is aimed at is the young teens who grew up watching the classic Disney movies. They now want to see cheesy romance in their movies, and are old enough to recognize the silliness in their old cartoons. It's good-natured, nostalgic mockery...
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that misses the innocence and family values that Disney used to stand for? Why do they need to make a movie that is so un-original to tarnish what they created before? I remember those old animated Disney films being incredible when I was little. Like opening my eyes to a new world. Now thay just have to talk smack about everything. The princess can't be pure in today's world. That is sad.
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What annoys me most about this movie is that it is only being made because Disney thinks that the fractured fairy tale route is profitable these days because of Shrek. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that the only way that the Disney corp would allow itself to be made fun of would be if it could make them some money. You can be sure that nobody behind this just had a good idea and wanted to make this kind of movie--some Disney hack was told to make a movie that will appeal to audiences who like the recent movies that make fun of fairy tale conventions. And the reason this movie will suck, and the reason that Shrek sucked, is that these movies are conventional drivel in a way that is far worse than the conventional fairy tales ever were.
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One of my all-time favorite sitcoms with Caitlin O'Heaney (temporarily) and Paul Winfield as the magic mirror? The only thing missing was the animated animals.
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While I actually like Shrek. It was at least somewhat original. Then, everyone has to follow along. The "for adults, too" idea is starting to show up in every movie aimed at kids. An actual movie just for kids isn't so bad, is it? And they should get into their heads that "just for kids" isn't an excuse for stupid writing, and adults should be able to watch a movie without pop culture references and hidden innuendo.
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It seems clear to me that Bungion Boy is looking for reasons to hate this movie... and he's really reaching. It just seems that he wants to see a different movie, and not that this is a bad movie. I'm still very excited to see it based on other reviews I've read!
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The Pesci squirrel reminded me of it. It was a segment from Animaniacs, with three pigeons, and their characters were copies of Pesci's, DeNiro's and Liotta's characters from "Goodfellas". Interesting they had a cartoon that was one big reference to a movie kids didn't see. The Godpigeon showed mumbling like Brando, too.
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She'll always be that creepy scarf and barf chick that tried to eat PETE!! She sucks!!! And not that hot. And her fat suit was really bad.
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I actually do remember that show. It only lasted a season if I remember correctly and was very strange. Wasn't it like premired on NBC or something on Wed night and then Friday nights repeat on Nick at Nite who were calling it like "instant classic" or something like that? The beginning of the end for Nick at Niteas for Disney, I loved Meet the Robinsons, haven't read the book so I can't comment on how well it was adapted but I heard that as a fatihful adaption it wasn't done well b ut the spirit of the book was in the movie. But I thought it was a cute way to mix some pop culture stuff "like tom Selleck") with a very sweet and heart warming story. That is what I want from Disney, if I wanted fractured Fiary Tales, I'd watch my Rocky and Bullwinkle DVDS
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i miss it.
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but I was expecting better than this. I know I compared this film to "Elf" a lot in my review, because it really is so incredibly similar that I had trouble separating the two and was just always so aware of how this was not making me feel the same joy I do with a good fantasy film, let alone any other real emotions. As I said at the end of the review, it's not terrible. It's colorful and surrounded by lots of fine actors. The audience I was with mostly seemed to love it. And this is going to be a movie that kids will absolutely love, which makes me happy for them. I would have loved it as a kid, but watching it now it did not make me feel like a kid again. The movie's faults started out as minor, became distracting, and ultimately brought the film down for me. Again, not completely. I would probably give it a solid 2 stars. Maybe even 2 1/2. I even mentioned things that I think would have made the film better. There were things in this movie I really liked, like James Marsden and his character, but since he was put on the sidelines to make room for some of the more conventional stuff, I was disappointed. Amy Adams is so likable and sweet that I was discouraged when the script wasn't giving her material that would match what she's capable of. I still think the movie would have been a lot more fun and enjoyable if he were the male lead and it was his character who Giselle was destined to be with. It would have been a nice match. It would fit. Rather than pairing her up with someone who is so wrong for her that there's no way it can't be right. I'm determined to see this film again, hopefully taking my young cousin with me. With her by my side my icy heart might melt a little, but I imagine a lot of what I felt will still be there.
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Who calls them "Faerie tales". Sorry.
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FYI, the animation in this wasn't even done by disney, they farmed it out to an animation house. What is scary is some industry people are saying the fate of 2D animation at Disney hinges on this flick. Those are some big shoes to fill, although this looks like it will do OK whether it turns out well or not. Hard to tell from the trailer, which seems to have some charm but also some jokes that became tired as soon as the first Shrek movie did them. And I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Amy Adams' apperance in The Office as the Hot Girl who sold purses and went out with Halpern. And you people call yourself geeks...
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ever since space jam, it's just been a mixed bag. now it's just creepy and cliche'd like the view.
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ever since space jam, it's just been a mixed bag. now it's just creepy and cliche'd like the view.
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ever since space jam, it's just been a mixed bag. now it's just creepy and cliche'd like the view.
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was jasmine in aladdin 14 fucking years ago.
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I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking last night but I kept spelling it that way when I knew better. I'm not British or a fantasy geek. I swear. No offense to all you fantasy geeks out there. My apologies to you especially, Keanho_in_NY. I never want to disappoint you again.
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Hello? Fucking POCAHONTAS, Esmeralda (Hunchback), Megara from Hercules...? I even liked Nani from Lilo & Stich.
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Kida for Atlantis: The Lost Empire
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