Warning: This article may have some spoilers for Disenchanted. Read at your own risk!
Is Disenchanted Worth Watching?
Usually, fairy tales end with a happily ever after and no one else knows whatever happens after the prince marries the main character. However, Disenchanted comes in and it shows whether it is really happy after the happily ever after part. Disenchanted follows Giselle a few years after the end of Enchanted where she now has a child with Robert, Sofia, and Morgan is now a teenager, a concept that Giselle finds hard to understand. They move from the city to the suburbs and that doesn’t really sit well with Morgan. They end up in Monroeville, a town just an hour away from the city, but everything is different, especially living with a toddler and a fixer-upper house. Then, there’s Morgan, and clearly, she’s not into the thought of starting over again somewhere she doesn’t know anyone at all. The King and Queen of Andalasia, Edward and Nancy, pays them a visit and they aren’t too impressed with Giselle and Robert’s new house, too, but their main purpose is to give Sofia, their goddaughter, a gift from Andalasia – the Andalasian wand. Well, Giselle wishes for a fairy tale life and it comes true but everything goes wrong because she’s a step-mother, technically, to Morgan, and usually, step-mothers are villains in fairy tales, thus, she tries to fight the urge to be one and undo the spell before the last strike of midnight, otherwise, it’ll be permanent. Giselle finds a way to undo the spell but only a true son or daughter of Andalasia could use the wand and she is slowly turning into a villain and the whole town into Monroelasia so she pushes Morgan through the Wishing Well knowing that such is a portal to Andalasia so Morgan could ask for help. It turns out Giselle’s wish consumes so much magic from Andalasia, it causes the destruction of its magic, thus, everything will disappear once the spell becomes permanent. Morgan, Nancy, and Edward tries to find for a way to get Giselle back to her senses. Meanwhile, Giselle falls into the villainous path against Malvina, the queen of Monroelasia, and in the end, it was actually Morgan who saved all of them after she wished with the Andalasian wand to be back home with her mother, Giselle. Disenchanted is a highly anticipated sequel especially with how magical Enchanted was when it released in 2007 and the direction of Disenchanted just tells more of what happens after the happily ever after part, that sometimes, it’s not always happy but that is okay so long as you have your family. It’s really family friendly, however, it lacks the magical charm of the first movie. The plot was quite shallow but it effectively did away with the classic fairy tale trope. Disney continues to show that true love could be found even without a prince, much like Maleficent, it’s with someone else. This time, the true love is between Giselle and Morgan, who may not be related by blood, but they love each other like a real mother and daughter. Giselle never considered Morgan as someone who isn’t her daughter which makes the wish of Morgan weigh more, because through Giselle, she becomes a true daughter of Andalasia. It’s cool that other characters like Nancy and Edward had more to do especially now that they are the king and queen of Andalasia, but what maybe lacked is more sensible scenes from Patrick Dempsey’s Robert. In Disenchanted, he was quite made fun of but the ending did give him some redemption.
READ MORE: Will There Be A Third Enchanted Movie After Disenchanted?
The movie focused more on Giselle and Morgan. Giselle being a villain is quite creative, and props to Amy Adams for delivering the role well, even if it meant having conversations with herself, and Gabriella Baldacchino is a effective as Morgan because clearly, they carried the whole movie. The addition of Maya Rudolph as Malvina Monroe is great, she put a hilarious touch to the movie, even adding a bit of some charm because she plays the villain queen of Monroelasia perfectly but Yvette Nicole Brown and Jayma Mays were funny, too, but it was as if they were added for more comedic relief. Idina Menzel remains such a powerful singer and Love Power is quite a good song but still, it couldn’t compete with her other songs like Let It Go, which is iconic! Love Power couldn’t even level with the songs from Enchanted like How Does She Know You Love Her. It’s not that it isn’t good, it’s just not as magical. The set design is what gives it an edge over Enchanted. See, all the sets of Disenchanted fits perfectly with the narrative and the quaint new house of Giselle is a beauty! Monroelasia was also magical, even more than that in New York. The costume design is quite over the top, though, but all the dresses they wore are fitting for each scene. Giselle changing the tones of her gowns from light to dark perfectly signified how she changed sides to being a villain, and that Cinderella-like gown of Morgan is too stunning. Even that of Malvina, her wardrobe scream villain on all sides! The whole town turned into a real life fairy tale thanks to the set design and costumes which deserves an applause, really. There’s that part of the editing, too. Disenchanted’s color-grading fits so well with the narrative, one could easily spot when they are in real life and when they are in a fairy tale. The animation part works well, too! Overall, Disenchanted is a fun watch. While it lacked some magical feels on it, it remains to be a good sequel to Enchanted. It’s family-friendly and all ages could watch it and understand the message it conveys: love comes in different forms. Disenchanted is now streaming on Disney Plus.
