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MONROEVILLE — Thanks to Disney+ we are getting new content thrown at us faster than Dash Parr after pounding a Red Bull.
In addition to new TV shows and more Marvel than we thought we ever wanted, we're also getting sequels to movies we all liked but never really asked for a continuation of.
I apologize, I shouldn't use the royal "we" there, but while I had fun with "Hocus Pocus" as a kid, I was never dying to know if the Sanderson sisters ever came back. Now, I know they did and it wasn't too bad of a ride. Another story I never really wondered about involves the princess Giselle and how she and Robert ended up after "Enchanted" came to a close.
I now know what became of these characters thanks to "Disenchanted," the newest movie and sequel to hit Disney+.
There were some things that made "Disenchanted" magical and some other things that really left me wishing I saw more of the Sanderson sisters.
The enchantment
The cast
Just like "Enchanted," "Disenchanted" has a fun cast of characters. Amy Adams is (once again) perfect as Giselle, and the additions of Maya Rudolph and Oscar Nuñez added some laughs. Alan Tudyk offers his voice to the cast, which is always a pleasure, and more from Griffin Newman as Pip was a welcome surprise, as well.
My favorite character is still James Marsden as Edward. I think he's an underrated actor and his over-confident Edward is pure gold. My only complaint there is there was not enough of him in the movie.
The songs
"Enchanted" had some fun songs as the animated heroine found herself in the real-world of New York. "Disenchanted" ups the song level by 11. There are a lot of songs in this movie and most of them will get you smiling.
Not every song is a home run, but they're well-constructed and one particular song called "Badder," by Adams and Ruldoph, may be a bit on the nose, but it made for an enjoyable number.
The disenchantment
Too much of the fantasy
"Enchanted" was a nice surprise when it released. The fish-out-of-water storyline has been done a million times, but when done right it's still a blast and that's exactly what "Enchanted" did. "Disenchanted" gives us a little bit of that magic, but then turns the real-world into the fantasy world and it manages to take the magic out of the movie.
It felt like the things that made the original so much fun were stripped out of the sequel and left me wanting. Without spoiling too much, Giselle manages to turn her quaint suburb into a form of Andalasia and it felt hokey and forced. I found myself getting bored and the runtime of just under two hours started feeling much longer.
The final spell
"Disenchanted" is a movie trying to entertain families for a couple of hours and it manages to do that, for the most part. When I asked my 6-year-old what she thought of the movie, she raised her little hand and tipped it back and forth signaling, "it was OK."
That's how I felt — it was OK. I didn't hate it, but it felt like the days, when I was a kid, and Disney would make the direct-to-video sequels of the movies we loved. Stuff like "The Return of Jafar" and "Simba's Pride." The movies weren't terrible, but they lacked the magic of the original. "Disenchanted" had a big budget, but it feels like the direct-to-video sequel to the far superior original.
"Disenchanted" is now available on Disney+.
