Disenchanted

This weekend, Disenchanted, the sequel to the 2007 film Enchanted was released onto Disney Plus. Disenchanted takes place 15 years after the original film and follows Giselle, Robert, and Morgan as they move out of the city into the suburbs. After an argument with Morgan, Giselle wishes that her world was like that of a fairy tale. However, problems begin to arise that put both her world and the Kingdom of Andalasia at risk.

This movie was entertaining enough and fun to watch. The musical numbers were all a lot of fun to listen to and quite catchy. The film also adds a bit of self-aware humor to the music with people passing by giving Giselle weird looks when she just bursts into song. The film also had quite a few funny moments that made me laugh out loud. I also thought the overall premise was interesting, flipping the idea of the original film on its head where now everyone in the real world is pushed into a world full of magic and fairy tales. I also thought Maya Rudolph does a great job as the evil queen character, she can deliver just the right personality for the role. Overall, this is an entertaining enough film that provides a bit of light fun for two hours.

Unfortunately, this film has quite a few issues that keep it from being good. Starting from the beginning of the film, Giselle's character does not make sense considering she has been living in the real world for 15 years. After 15 years, it would make sense that she somewhat grows to fit into the culture of the world, however as shown in this film, her character has had no changes in the last 15 years and she acts as though she is still new to this world. This character depiction makes her come across as clueless and annoying. The film could have let her be a little more adjusted to normal life and still had the story going in the same direction and make her character much more likable. I also wasn't a fan of where they went with Giselle's character after the world change. It made it really hard to have someone to route for. The film also decides to sideline Robert and make him do a James Marsden/Edward impression instead of letting him be a part of the story. Overall, the character choices they made just felt like a betrayal of the characters they set up in the last film. The other main issue I had was that there was a lack of consistency in the rules that were set up and just different plot elements that don't make much sense or ended up doing anything for the story.

In the end, while the movie was entertaining to watch, the poor plot and character choices make it a poor follow-up to the original film and do not justify a sequel 15 years after the original.

Score: 6/10 Grade: C+ Recommendation: Stream it if you enjoyed the original.