Week 47 brings us to 2007!
I had two good movies to choose from.
I turned down Ratatouille. I noted real quick in a previous review my feelings of Ratatouille. So a quick repeat...I come from 20 plus years of dietary management. So when I originally watched this film it just freaked me out that there were rats/mice in the kitchen. I just could not get past it. As time moved on and I left that industry, I went back and watched it again. I enjoyed it a litttle more, and after a couple more viewings I have to say it is a 4 out of 5 Mickeys film for me now. Still it is in the bottom half of my list of PIXAR films. The reason I did not choose this because I had the chance to avoid a animated movie this week, I see in future weeks that may not be possible.
So I jumped on the film Enchanted. When the evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) exiles Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) from the cartoon kingdom of Andalasia to the real world of New York City, she gets help from a New York divorce lawyer Robert Phillip (Patrick Dempsey) who reluctantly takes her in.
I do not know if you are like me, but when I first saw this film in the theatres I was shocked how much I liked it. The first surprise is Disney makes fun of itself! And it works! The second surprise was Amy Adams. The ads and trailers did not really spot light her much. Then you go into the theatre and you think..who is she, she is fully vested into this part. I mean go back and watch her hand movements. She is something in this role. Lets be honest..she makes the movie, without her I cannot see it working. Dempsey plays a great straightman to her, maybe his best role on film since his teenage years. For some reason I never find him likable, I find him smug, but in this film, he pulls back a bit, I liked him. The film has a good performance by Timothy Spall ( Wormtail from the Harry Potter films), playing Nathaniel, who has one job and that is to get Giselle to bite the poison apple. Also a good overtop performance from James Marsden as the slightly clueless Prince Edward.
This leads me to a couple small faults of the film. Whenever we leave Adams and Dempsey and follow Marsden and Spall the movie drops down a bit, I mean I could have watched Adams the whole movie in New York. Yes, I know that is not realistic, Disney needs friction or suspense to push the movie along. However, I would have still been happy following Adams, she is that good. Second problem, the ending. I feel the movie should have ended with the loves last kiss. The dragon, and the hanging from buildings seemed way out of place for this film. The movie was running long at this point anyway. Plus I imagine the dragon was scary for little ones.
Well time for fun and not so fun facts:
The actresses who provided the voices for three previous animated Disney princesses make appearances in the film:
Jodi Benson ('Ariel' in The Little Mermaid) plays Sam.
Paige O'Hara ('Belle' in Beauty And The Beast ) plays Angela.
Judy Kuhn (Pocahontas) plays a pregnant woman.
Two of the elderly men dancing were in West Side Story.
One of the elderly men dancing was in Mary Poppins.
The dress that Amy Adams wore was 45 pound and she had to be trained by a stunt person on how to walk in it.
Over 300 actresses auditioned for the role of Giselle. Amy Adams was 275.
Enchanted is so much fun to watch. I still laugh at many scenes. To me the ending was off a bit, because of that it drops a bit to 4 out of 5 Mickeys. Still a wonderful and fun Disney film.
Thanks for your time as always.
Safe travels.
I had two good movies to choose from.
I turned down Ratatouille. I noted real quick in a previous review my feelings of Ratatouille. So a quick repeat...I come from 20 plus years of dietary management. So when I originally watched this film it just freaked me out that there were rats/mice in the kitchen. I just could not get past it. As time moved on and I left that industry, I went back and watched it again. I enjoyed it a litttle more, and after a couple more viewings I have to say it is a 4 out of 5 Mickeys film for me now. Still it is in the bottom half of my list of PIXAR films. The reason I did not choose this because I had the chance to avoid a animated movie this week, I see in future weeks that may not be possible.
So I jumped on the film Enchanted. When the evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) exiles Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) from the cartoon kingdom of Andalasia to the real world of New York City, she gets help from a New York divorce lawyer Robert Phillip (Patrick Dempsey) who reluctantly takes her in.
I do not know if you are like me, but when I first saw this film in the theatres I was shocked how much I liked it. The first surprise is Disney makes fun of itself! And it works! The second surprise was Amy Adams. The ads and trailers did not really spot light her much. Then you go into the theatre and you think..who is she, she is fully vested into this part. I mean go back and watch her hand movements. She is something in this role. Lets be honest..she makes the movie, without her I cannot see it working. Dempsey plays a great straightman to her, maybe his best role on film since his teenage years. For some reason I never find him likable, I find him smug, but in this film, he pulls back a bit, I liked him. The film has a good performance by Timothy Spall ( Wormtail from the Harry Potter films), playing Nathaniel, who has one job and that is to get Giselle to bite the poison apple. Also a good overtop performance from James Marsden as the slightly clueless Prince Edward.
This leads me to a couple small faults of the film. Whenever we leave Adams and Dempsey and follow Marsden and Spall the movie drops down a bit, I mean I could have watched Adams the whole movie in New York. Yes, I know that is not realistic, Disney needs friction or suspense to push the movie along. However, I would have still been happy following Adams, she is that good. Second problem, the ending. I feel the movie should have ended with the loves last kiss. The dragon, and the hanging from buildings seemed way out of place for this film. The movie was running long at this point anyway. Plus I imagine the dragon was scary for little ones.
Well time for fun and not so fun facts:
The actresses who provided the voices for three previous animated Disney princesses make appearances in the film:
Jodi Benson ('Ariel' in The Little Mermaid) plays Sam.
Paige O'Hara ('Belle' in Beauty And The Beast ) plays Angela.
Judy Kuhn (Pocahontas) plays a pregnant woman.
Two of the elderly men dancing were in West Side Story.
One of the elderly men dancing was in Mary Poppins.
The dress that Amy Adams wore was 45 pound and she had to be trained by a stunt person on how to walk in it.
Over 300 actresses auditioned for the role of Giselle. Amy Adams was 275.
Enchanted is so much fun to watch. I still laugh at many scenes. To me the ending was off a bit, because of that it drops a bit to 4 out of 5 Mickeys. Still a wonderful and fun Disney film.
Thanks for your time as always.
Safe travels.
