Still haven't seen No Country For Old Men, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead or I'm Not There yet...but I have seen Enchanted.
Naturally, there was a kid involved. But I'd actually grown curious the more I'd read about Enchanted. The initial trailer looked kinda dopey, but the reviews were surprisingly strong, and director Kevin Lima is a veteran Disney animator, so if anybody could handle a spoof of Disney's "Princess" tradition, while still maintaining respect for Uncle Walt's very real accomplishments, Lima would probably be the guy.
And, you know, it's...eh, it's okay. Parts of it work beautifully--the opening animated sequence sets a perfect tone, there's a wonderful production number set in Central Park, the climax nicely pays tribute to one of my favorite Disney epics, Sleeping Beauty. The performances are all terrific, with Amy Adams note-perfect as our poor, bewildered heroine, trapped in a world she doesn't understand.
But there's a distasteful gag involving a chipmunk turd--when did defecation become acceptable gag material in family films?--and one elaborately staged sequence, clearly designed to make us swoon, is unfortunately set to a song burdened by a cheesy eighties lite-pop arrangement.
There's one other thing that bugged me and wouldn't let go. The film's premise, of course, is that an animated fairy tale character somehow finds herself in the "real world" of New York, and is absolutely clueless about everything around her. She's unfamiliar with cars, money or the concept of sarcasm.
Okay. I'll accept that, although somehow I always assumed every imaginary kingdom had some kind of monetary system, and all these stories tend to have at least one character making sarcastic asides. But okay, I'll play along.
Until the point where our heroine, finding herself in a stranger's apartment, decides to tidy up the place. In true Disney heroine fashion, she calls on all her animal friends to help as she sings a Happy Working Song. It's a pretty funny concept (this being New York, the only available animals are rats, pigeons and mosquitoes), well-staged...and then, her song makes reference to a vacuum cleaner.
Well, no. She wouldn't have any idea what a vacuum cleaner is. You can't establish a premise, then casually betray it, and ask us to go along any more. Enchanted is precisely the kind of movie that requires a light, delicate touch. One false move and the whole thing collapses like a castle built on sand.
Of course, if you ask anyone else, they'll tell you I overthink these things, and it didn't ruin the movie for me, but dammit, I'm right about this. No, seriously, I am. No, really...
