Disenchanted for the Holidays

By Lori Perkins

A friend called and said she wanted to watch something uplifting for the holidays, so She Said or The Menu was out of the question. But I didn’t have to rack my brain because Disney has just released Disenchanted, the sequel to the 2007 Amy Adams/Patrick Dempsey urban romcom set in New York City.

The basic premise of Enchanted is recapped for you at the beginning of the sequel – Giselle, an Adalasian princess in a fairy tale land, is sent down a wishing well and turns up in New York City where she is rescued by lawyer Patrick Dempsey, and his 7 year-old daughter. She is waiting for her prince to find her, but in the meantime she cleans his Upper West Side apartment by calling forth the local wildlife (so that’s pigeons, rats and roaches) with song who clean up the place for her (my favorite part of this film, BTW). Anyway, after various high jinx, she realizes that her “perfect” Andalasian prince is not her one true love, but Patrick Dempsey is, and they live happily ever after.

NOT.

In Disenchanted, it’s years later and daughter Morgan is a morose teenager and the perfect couple have a new baby. They decide to move to a fixer-upper in the suburbs, where there’s only one queen in town. As Giselle realizes it’s not as easy taking care of a house and a family as it was in Adalasia, she uses magic to wish for the happy ever after life she was used to in her childhood land. But, she’s a stepmother now, and in happy-ever-after land, stepmothers are evil, so Giselle gradually is turning into the evil stepmother she never wanted to be.

Disenchanted is fun, and nostalgic. Not as good as the original, but it has charm if it’s own, especially with Maya Rudolph playing Giselle’s evil stepmother’s nemesis.