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Enchanted
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Disney Review written by and copyright: Andreas Petersen & Noor Razzak (7th April 2008). |
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The Film
 Every once in a while, a trailer comes along that just leaves me dumbfounded in the theater. The trailer begins and ends, leaving me in the dark, muttering “…the hell was that?” to myself. Usually, I never follow up such a film with an actual viewing. I’m happy to say that I’ve seen "Enchanted" now, and I’m even more delighted at how much I ended up liking the movie. To be honest, I went in with a terrible attitude toward this movie. Not only did the insanely good review make me question it, but when I had to sit through 3 live performances of the film’s songs during the Oscars, I was ready to blow a gasket. Luckily for me, those songs, as well as many other elements, were wrapped up into one hell of a charming flick. The concept is novel enough. A cartoon princess Giselle (Amy Adams) is sent into the real world, where she meets cynical divorce lawyer Robert (Patrick Dempsey). She is chased into the real world by her prince charming (James Mardsen), evil henchman Nathaniel (Timothy Spall), and eventually the evil queen who banished Giselle in the first place, Narissa (Susan Sarandon). The film plays out like any sort of classical Disney story of princes, princesses, and evil witches, but is poking fun at the absurdity of such cartoons at the same time. By injecting a stereotypical tale into real life, director Kevin Lima and screenwriter Bill Kelly have allowed themselves to pick apart all that is so (when you think about it) weird about classic Disney cartoons. However, this movie isn’t as much a parody and homage. Also, the film is loaded with both visual and auditory nods to old Disney films, and I had a blast going “Ooooh! That’s from that movie!” There really is a lot to like about "Enchanted". Being a fan of musicals and classic Disney cartoons, I watched this movie with an extremely critical eye towards the songs, and am glad to say that they really are fantastic. Not only is it funny to see these songs acted out in real life, but they themselves are just as good as what you’d hear in "The Little Mermaid" (1989), "The Lion King" (1994) and others. My personal favorite is 'Happy Working Song'. Just seeing these song performed in real life, with “real” CG animals, was visually appealing. This is also aided by the brilliant performance by Amy Adams. While the rest of the cast are fine in their own right, Adams has captured the ditzy blissfulness of an animated princess, and transferred it onto the screen, something I wouldn't have imagined was impossible before seeing "Enchanted." That’s not to say the film is perfect, though it is really close. There were a few instances where I felt the movie fell below its own standards. The film’s humor for the most part was clever and clean, playing off the absurdity of the situations it has created. There are instances of low comedy involving animal potty-humor and a really out of place gay-biker joke. These instances really skid the movie’s flow, and if it weren’t for them, we’d have a perfect movie on our hands. But these are really minor grievances in an otherwise great films. In what "Shaun of the Dead" (2004) is to zombie movies, or "Grindhouse" (2007) was to trash cinema, "Enchanted" takes both the good and the bad from classic Disney toons, exaggerates both, and ends up with the best non-Pixar Disney film since "The Lion King."
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 2.35:1 this transfer is in high-definition 1080p 24/fps and has been created using AVC MPEG-4 compression. Like most of Disney's recent releases the film features an astounding transfer. The picture is crisp and sharp, featuring an incredible amount of detail especially in the backgrounds and the intricate work on the costumes. The film's colors are also striking, the lushness of central park is particularly impressive. Black levels are deep and bold, shadow details remains consistent throughout the film and skin tones are pitch perfect. Additionally the print free from any imperfections. It's simply a terrific transfer.
Audio
There are four audio tracks present on this disc, they are in English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround presented at 48kHz/24-bit as well as standard Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in English, French and Spanish. I was a little surprised to see a TrueHD track on this disc are Disney and Buena Vista usually include an uncompressed PCM track on their releases. I believe this is the first title issued with a TrueHD track. Despite the lack of uncompressed PCM tracks on this disc the TrueHD track is marvelous. The soundtrack is bustling with depth from the busy New York streets to the soaring score and music which strikes a balance with the dialogue and makes effective use of the surrounds. Optionl subtitles are also included in English for the hearing impaired, French and Spanish.
Extras
Buena Vista has included extras such as three featurettes, a blooper reel, deleted scenes, a short story feature and bonus trailers as well as an interactive game. They are detailed further below: First, the disc includes "Fantasy Comes to Life", which contains three featurettes, focusing on the major songs/events of the film. They are: - "Happy Working Song" which runs for 6 minutes and 26 seconds, in which the film’s songwriting process of the first major song is explored. This was actually very fascinating for me, as this song was my favorite part of the movie. - Second is "That’s How You Know", running for 5 minutes and 55 seconds, which goes into detail about the big song and dance number in central park. - Last is "A Blast at the Ball", running for 5 minutes and 28 seconds, going through the big action sequence near the film’s climax. Overall, I found these featurettes to be both informative and very enjoyable. The disc contains a blooper reel as well, running for 2 minutes and 11 seconds. Pretty typical blooper material, in which the actors flub lines and fall over, followed by much laughter from the crew. The disc also includes a music video for 'Ever After' performed by Carrie Underwood, running for 3 minutes and 33 seconds. Also included are six deleted scenes, each of which is introduced by the film’s director, Kevin Lima. They are: - "A Lock of Prince Edward’s Hair", running for 2 minutes and 28 seconds, told in story-board form, in which Pip escapes the castle with some of Edward’s hair. - "Leaving Karate", running for 1 minute and 28 seconds, in which Robert is given more character development. - "I Am Not Waiting for My Prince", running for 57 seconds, in which Nancy laments over Robert’s behavior at work. - "Hotdogs on the Bridge", running for 42 seconds, Giselle and Edward’s date is extended. - "Nathaniel’s Revelation", running for 1 minute and 15 seconds, in which Nathaniel comes to terms about his feelings for Narissa. - "Exit With a Twist", running at 1 minute and 1 second, in which more action at the ball is explored. "Pip’s Predicament: A Pop-Up Adventure" is a short story feature running for 5 minutes and 37 seconds, this feature offers a short story based around the happy-go-lucky squirrel from the film, told in a similar pop-up-book fashion as the film’s opening sequence. Next is "D-Files" an interactive game, this is an exclusive feature on this Blu-ray disc release and is a game which uses the DB-J aspects of Blu-ray and is a trivia game. The object is to guess the Disney reference, a clip from the film plays and you then answer the trivia to rack up some points. Also included are bonus trailers for: - "Disney Blu-ray" spot running for 2 minutes and 5 seconds. - "Sleeping Beauty" running for 1 minute and 52 seconds. - "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" running for 2 minutes and 32 seconds. - "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" running for 2 minutes and 2 seconds.
Overall
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