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Enchanted (2007 film)
Encyclopedia
Enchanted is a 2007 American fantasy
-musical
film, produced and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures
in association with Barry Sonnenfeld and Josephson Entertainment. Written by Bill Kelly
and directed by Kevin Lima
, the film stars Amy Adams
, Patrick Dempsey
, James Marsden
, Timothy Spall
, Idina Menzel
, Rachel Covey
, and Susan Sarandon
. The plot focuses on Giselle, an archetypal Disney Princess, who is forced from her traditional animated world of Andalasia into the live-action world of New York City.
This is the first Disney movie to be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures instead of Buena Vista
, due to Disney semi-retiring the name in May 2007, making all other future Disney movies permanently distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
The film is both an homage
to, and a self-parody of, conventional Walt Disney Animated Classics, making numerous references to Disney's past and future works through the combination of live action filmmaking, traditional animation
and computer-generated imagery
. It heralds the return of traditional animation to a Disney feature film after the company's decision to move entirely to computer animation in 2004. Composer Alan Menken
and lyricist Stephen Schwartz
, who had written songs for previous Disney films, produced the songs of Enchanted, with Menken also composing its score.
The animation sequences were produced at James Baxter Animation in Pasadena. Filming of the live action segments took place around New York City
. It premiered on October 20, 2007, at the London Film Festival
before its wide release on November 21, 2007, in the United States. Enchanted was well-received critically, and received two nominations at the 65th Golden Globe Awards
and three nominations at the 80th Academy Awards
. The film earned more than $340 million worldwide at the box office.
) lives in Andalasia, an animated fairy tale world with talking animals, characters breaking into song and "happily ever after" a foregone conclusion. Prince Edward (James Marsden
), her designated true love, saves her from a troll
and they plan to get married the next day. Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon
), Edward's evil stepmother, schemes to protect her throne, which she will lose once Prince Edward is married. She throws Giselle into a portal that transports her to a world where there are no "happy ever afters
", also known as New York City
.
Giselle emerges in the middle of Times Square
. After a number of misadventures, including causing a minor car accident, accidentally being caught in a crowd and getting on the subway, and having her tiara stolen by a homeless man in the Bowery
, she meets Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey
), a hardened, yet friendly divorce lawyer. At his daughter Morgan's (Rachel Covey
) insistence, Robert lets Giselle stay at their apartment. Following the ways of her fairy-tale world, Giselle recruits urban animals (of the breeds generally believed to be household pests) – pigeons, cockroaches and rats – to clean his apartment while she fashions a dress out of his curtains. Robert's girlfriend whom he was going to propose to, a fashion designer named Nancy (Idina Menzel
), misunderstands the situation and runs off after arguing with Robert.
At Robert's law firm, his secretary Sam (Jodi Benson
) tries to find Giselle transportation home, but cannot locate Andalasia. Deciding he must part with Giselle in Central Park
, Robert offers her some money. However, Giselle almost immediately gives it to an old woman who remembers Edward stabbing an MTA bus in Times Square (while under the delusion that the bus was a giant steel beast). Deciding that Giselle needs his protection, Robert rejoins her. While walking through the park, Giselle questions Robert on how he displays his affection for Nancy, before launching into a big song-and-dance number that gets the whole city singing and dancing. Giselle eventually helps Robert reconcile with Nancy by sending flowers to her, along with tickets to the King's and Queen's Ball.
Meanwhile Narissa's henchman Nathaniel (Timothy Spall
) follows Prince Edward and a talking chipmunk named Pip, who have journeyed to New York to rescue Giselle. Nathaniel is given three poisoned apples, and is told to make sure Giselle takes a bite out of it. He makes his first attempt on Giselle's life while she and Robert are in Central Park - here, he disguises himself as a vendor and hands her the apple (made to look like an ordinary caramel apple on a stick) - the attempt fails when Giselle inadvertently throws the apple in the air and it gets lodged in a bicyclist's helmet, burning through his helmet and leaving a round bald spot on his hair. Nathaniel and the prince then spend a night at a cheap motel, where Nathaniel questions his adoring but servile relationship with Narissa after watching a soap opera
on the TV (which Edward thinks is a magic mirror
). Finding Giselle and Robert at an Italian restaurant, Nathaniel does his next attempt: he serves her a poisoned apple martini while disguised as a waiter. Although Pip is unable to speak coherently in the real world, and has trouble alerting the Prince to Nathaniel's intentions, he foils Nathaniel's plot. Infuriated by these failures, Narissa goes to New York to kill Giselle herself.
As Giselle and Robert spend more time together, Giselle discovers that the real world is much more complicated than she realized, while Robert is affected by her optimism and idealism. After a brief argument with Robert, Giselle realizes her own emotional growth and her growing feelings toward him. Edward continues to look for Giselle, eventually finding her at Robert's apartment. While Edward is eager to take Giselle home and marry, she insists that they first go on a date, which she has learned is customary in the real world. They end their date at the King's and Queen's Costume Ball. After Nancy and Prince Edward pair off to dance, Giselle dances with Robert. Giselle realizes that Robert is her true love as he, very softly, sings the lyrics of the song to her. Edward and Nancy seem to realize the attraction between Giselle and Robert also discover a mutual attraction. Using her old hag's disguise, Narissa poisons Giselle, but is stopped by Edward before she can escape with her comatose victim.
Nathaniel exposes Narissa's plot, admits his deeds and reveals that one must kiss Giselle by midnight to break the poison apple's spell. After Edward's kiss fails to wake Giselle up, Robert kisses her. Giselle comes out of her coma and admits that she knew Robert was her one true love. Narissa uses the distracting moment to break free. Deciding to write her own ending to the story, she transforms into a dragon. When Robert protects Giselle, Narissa takes Robert hostage, luring Giselle out the window and up to the top of the Woolworth Building
to kill her. However, with Pip's involvement, Narissa falls to her death. Giselle catches Robert, and they manage to keep from sliding off the roof, ending in a romantic embrace.
Edward finds Giselle's discarded shoe and places it on Nancy's foot à la Cinderella
. They happily leave for Andalasia and later get married. Giselle uses her magical dress-making talents to run a successful boutique shop, assisted by both humans and animals. Both Nathaniel (in New York) and Pip (in Andalasia) become successful authors, writing self-help book
s based on their experiences. The last scene shows Giselle, Robert, and Morgan playing and living together happily ever after.
, was bought by Disney's Touchstone Pictures
and Sonnenfeld/Josephson Productions for a reported sum of $450,000 in September 1997. However, it was thought to be unsuitable for Disney because it was "a racier R-rated movie". To the frustration of Kelly, the screenplay was rewritten several times, first by Rita Hsiao and then by Todd Alcott
. The film was initially scheduled to be released in 2002 with Rob Marshall
as director but he withdrew due to "creative differences" between the producers and him. In 2001, director Jon Turteltaub
was set to direct the film but he left soon after, later working with Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer
on the National Treasure
franchise. Adam Shankman
became the film's director in 2003, while Bob Schooley
and Mark McCorkle
were hired by Disney to rewrite the script once again. At the time, Disney considered offering the role of Giselle to Kate Hudson
or Reese Witherspoon
. However, the project did not take off.
On May 25, 2005, Variety
reported that Kevin Lima
had been hired as director and Bill Kelly had returned to the project to write a new version of the script. Lima worked with Kelly on the script to combine the main plot of Enchanted with the idea of a "loving homage" to Disney's heritage. He created visual storyboard printouts that covered the story of Enchanted from beginning to end, which filled an entire floor of a production building. After Lima showed them to the chairman of Walt Disney Studios
, Dick Cook
, he received the green light for the project and a budget of $85 million. Lima began designing the world of Andalasia and storyboarding the movie before a cast was chosen to play the characters. After the actors were hired, he was involved in making the final design of the movie, which made sure the animated characters look like their real-life counterparts.
in 1988, though the traditionally-animated characters do not interact in the live-action environment in the same method as they did in Roger Rabbit; however, there are some scenes where live-action characters share the screen with two-dimensional animated characters, for example, a live-action Nathaniel communicating with a cel-drawn Narissa, who is in a cooking pot. The film uses two aspect ratio
s; it begins in 2.35:1 when the Walt Disney Pictures logo and Enchanted storybook are shown, and then switches to a smaller 1.85:1 aspect ratio for the first animated sequence. The film switches back to 2.35:1 when it becomes live-action and never switches back, even for the remainder of the cartoon sequences. When this movie was aired on NBC in 2010, the beginning of the movie (including the first animated sequence) was shown in standard definition; the remainder of the movie was shown in high definition when it becomes live-action. Lima oversaw the direction of both the live-action and animation sequences, which were being produced at the same time. Enchanted took almost two years to complete. The animation took about a year to finish while the live-action scenes, which commenced on location in New York City during the summer of 2006 and was completed during the animation process, were shot in 72 days.
(in contrast to computer-generated 3-D animation) as a tribute to past Disney fairy tale films such as Sleeping Beauty
, Cinderella
, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
. It was the first Disney film theatrically released in America to feature traditional cel animation since Pooh's Heffalump Movie
(2005). This film, although quite different in terms of plot from any previous Disney film, also contained obvious homages to other Disney films of the distant past, such as Old Yeller
, The Shaggy Dog
, Swiss Family Robinson
, Bon Voyage!
, and Savage Sam
. As most of Disney's cel animation artists were laid off after the computer graphics
boom of the late 1990s, the 13 minutes of animation were not done in-house but by the independent Pasadena
-based company James Baxter Animation, which was started by noted lead animator James Baxter
. Baxter had previously worked for Walt Disney Feature Animation, bringing to life many memorable Disney animated characters like Jessica Rabbit
(Who Framed Roger Rabbit
), Belle (Beauty and the Beast
), Rafiki (The Lion King
), and Quasimodo
(The Hunchback of Notre Dame
).
Although Lima wanted the animation to be nostalgic, he wanted Enchanted to have a style of its own. Baxter's team decided to use Art Nouveau
as a starting point. For Giselle, the 2D-animated character had to be "a cross between Amy [Adams] and a classic Disney princess. And not a caricature." Seeing Giselle as "a forest girl, an innocent nymph with flowers in her hair" and "a bit of a hippie", the animators wanted her to be "flowing, with her hair and clothes. Delicate." For Prince Edward, Baxter's team "worked the hardest on him to make him look like the actor" because princes "in these kinds of movies are usually so bland." Many prototypes were made for Narissa as Baxter's team wanted her face to "look like Susan [Sarandon]'s. And the costumes had to align closely to the live-action design."
To maintain continuity between the two media, Lima brought in costume designer Mona May during the early stages of the film's production so that the costumes would be aligned in both the animated and live-action worlds. He also shot some live-action footage of Amy Adams as Giselle for the animators to use as reference, which also allowed the physical movement of the character to match in both worlds. Test scenes completed by the animators were shown to the actors, allowing them to see how their animated self would move.
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Principal photography began in April 2006 and ended in July 2006. Because of the live action sequence setting, all live action work was filmed in New York City. However, shooting in New York became problematic as it was in a "constant state of new stores, scaffolding and renovation".
The first scene in New York, which features Giselle emerging from a manhole in the middle of Times Square
, was filmed on location in the center of the square. Because of the difficulties in controlling the crowd while filming in Times Square, general pedestrians were featured in the scene with hired extras placed in the immediate foreground. Similarly, a crowd gathered to watch as James Marsden and Timothy Spall filmed their scenes in Times Square. However, the scene Lima found the most challenging to shoot was the musical number, "That's How You Know", in Central Park. The five-minute scene took 17 days to finish due to the changing weather, which allowed only seven sunny days for the scene to be filmed. The filming was also hampered at times by Patrick Dempsey's fans. The scene was choreographed by John O'Connell, who had worked on Moulin Rouge!
beforehand, and included 300 extras and 150 dancers.
Many scenes were also filmed at Steiner Studios
, which provided the three large stages that Enchanted needed at the same facility. Other outdoor locations included the Brooklyn Bridge
and The Paterno
, an apartment building with a curved, heavily embellished, ivory-colored façade located on the corner of Riverside Drive
and 116th Street
, which is the residence of the film's characters Robert and Morgan Phillip.
All the costumes in the film were designed by Mona May, who had previously worked on Clueless, The Wedding Singer
and The Haunted Mansion
. To create the costumes, May spent one year in pre-production working with animators and her costume department of 20 people, while she contracted with five outside costume shops in Los Angeles and New York. She became involved in the project during the time when the animators were designing the faces and bodies of the characters as they had to "translate the costumes from two-dimensional drawings to live-action human proportion". Her goal was to keep the designs "Disneyesque to the core but bring a little bit of fashion in there and humor and make it something new". However, May admitted this was difficult "because [they're] dealing with iconic Disney characters who have been in the psyche of the viewing audience for so long".
For the character of Giselle, her journey to becoming a real woman is reflected in her dresses, which become less fairy tale-like as the film progresses. Her wedding dress at the beginning of the film directly contrasts her modern gown at the end of the film. The wedding dress served to provide a "humongous contrast to the flat drawings" and to accentuate the image of a Disney Princess. In order to make the waist look small, the sleeves were designed to be "extremely pouffy" and the skirt to be as big as possible, which included a metal hoop that holds up 20 layers of petticoats and ruffles. Altogether, 11 versions of the dress were made for filming, each comprised 200 yards (183 m) of silk satin and other fabric, and weighed approximately 40 pounds (18 kg). On the experience of wearing the wedding dress, Amy Adams
described it as "grueling" since "the entire weight was on [her] hips, so occasionally it felt like [she] was in traction".
Unlike Giselle, Prince Edward does not adapt to the real world and James Marsden
, who plays Edward, had only one costume designed for him. May's aim was to try "not to lose [Marsden] in the craziness of the outfit... where he still looks handsome". The costume also included padding in the chest, buttocks and crotch, which gave Marsden the "same exaggerated proportions as an animated character" and "posture – his back is straight, the sleeves are up and never collapse".
May was delighted that Lima "went for something more fashion-forward" with Susan Sarandon
's Queen Narissa. She decided to make her look like a "runway lady", wearing something that is "still Disney" but also "high fashion, like something John Galliano
or Thierry Mugler
might design". Since Narissa appears in three media: 2D animation, live-action and computer animation, May had to make sure that the costume would be the same throughout in terms of "color, shape and texture". The costume for Narissa consisted of a leather corset and skirt, which looked "reptilian", as well as a cape. Working with the animators, May incorporated parts of the dragon's form into the costume; the cape was designed to look like wings, the layers of the skirt wrap around like a tail and a crown that would turn into horns during Narissa's transformation into a dragon.
, who has worked on a number of Disney
films previously. Fellow composer Stephen Schwartz
wrote the lyrics for six songs, also composed by Menken. Menken and Schwartz previously worked together on the songs for Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Menken became involved with the film in the early stages of the film's development and invited Schwartz to resume their collaboration. They began the songwriting process by searching for the right moments in the story in which a song moment was allowed. Schwartz found that it was easier to justify situations in which the characters would burst into songs in Enchanted than in other live-action musicals as its concept "allowed the characters to sing in a way that was completely integral to the plot of the story." The three songs Giselle sings contain references to earlier Disney films. The first song played in the film, "True Love's Kiss", was written to be "a send-up of, and an homage to, the style of those Disney animated features", namely, "I'm Wishing" (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
) and "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes
" (Cinderella
), during which Disney heroines sing about the joy of being loved. It posed a challenge for Menken and Schwartz because of the "many preconceptions with that number"; it had to be reflective of the era of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Cinderella. Accordingly, Amy Adams performed the first song in an operetta style in contrast to the Broadway style of the later songs.
Both "Happy Working Song
" and "That's How You Know
" also pay tributes to past Disney songs. "Happy Working Song" pays a lyrical homage to such songs as "Whistle While You Work
" (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), "The Work Song" (Cinderella) "A Spoonful of Sugar
" (Mary Poppins
) and Making Christmas (The Nightmare Before Christmas
), and a musical homage to the Sherman Brothers (with a self-parodic 'Alan Menken style' middle eight). "That's How You Know" is a self-parody of Menken's compositions for his Disney features, specifically such big production numbers as "Under the Sea
" (The Little Mermaid) and "Be Our Guest
" (Beauty and the Beast). To achieve this, Schwartz admitted he had to "push it a little bit further in terms of choices of words or certain lyrics" while maintaining "the classic Walt Disney sensibility". However, Menken noted that the songs he has written for Disney have always been "a little tongue-in-cheek". As the film progresses, the music uses more contemporary styles, which is heard through the adult ballad "So Close" and the country/pop number "Ever Ever After".
Out of the six completed songs written by Menken and Schwartz, five remained in the finished film. The titular song "Enchanted", a duet featuring Idina Menzel and James Marsden, was cut from the movie.
in Berkeley, California, who contributed a total of 320 shots. These shots involved virtual sets, environmental effects and CG
characters that performed alongside real actors, namely the animated animals during the "Happy Working Song" sequence, Pip and the Narissa dragon during the live action portions of the film. CIS Hollywood was responsible for 36 visual effects shots, which primarily dealt with wire removal
s and composites. Reel FX Creative Studios did four visual effects shots involving the pop-up book page-turn transitions while Weta Digital
did two.
Out of all the animals that appear in the "Happy Working Song" sequence, the only real animals filmed on set were rats and pigeons. The real animals captured on film aided Tippett Studio in creating CG rats and pigeons, which gave dynamic performances such as having pigeons that carried brooms in their beaks and rats that scrubbed with toothbrushes. On the other hand, all the cockroaches were CG characters.
Pip, a chipmunk who can talk in the 2D world of Andalasia, loses his ability to communicate through speech in the real world so he must rely heavily on facial and body gestures. This meant the animators had to display Pip's emotions through performance as well as making him appear like a real chipmunk. The team at Tippett began the process of animating Pip by observing live chipmunks which were filmed in motion from "every conceivable angle", after which they created a photorealistic chipmunk through the use of 3D computer graphics software, Maya
and Furrocious. When visual effects supervisor Thomas Schelesny showed the first animation of Pip to director Kevin Lima, he was surprised that he was a looking at CG character and not reference footage. To enhance facial expressions, the modelers gave Pip eyebrows, which real chipmunks do not have. During the filming of scenes in which Pip appears, a number of ways were used to indicate the physical presence of Pip. On some occasions, a small stuffed chipmunk with a wire armature on the inside was placed in the scene. In other situations, a rod with a small marker on the end or a laser pointer would be used to show the actors and cinematographer where Pip is.
Unlike Pip, the Narissa dragon was allowed to be more of a fantasy character while still looking like a living character and a classic Disney villain. The CG dragon design was loosely based on a traditional Chinese dragon and Susan Sarandon's live-action witch. When filming the scene which sees the transformation of Narissa from a woman into a dragon, a long pole was used to direct the extras' eyelines instead of a laser pointer. Set pieces were made to move back and forth in addition to having a computer-controlled lighting setup and a repeatable head on the camera that were all synchronized together. In the film's final sequence, in which Narissa climbs the Woolworth Building
while clutching Robert in her claws, a greenscreen rig was built to hold Patrick Dempsey in order to film his face and movements. The rig was a "puppeteering" approach that involved a robotic arm being controlled by three different floor effects artists.
Enchanted was released on standard DVD and Blu-ray Disc
by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on March 18, 2008, in the United States. While Enchanted topped the DVD sales chart on the week of its release in the United States, narrowly defeating the DVD sales of I Am Legend
, the Blu-ray Disc sales of I Am Legend were nearly four times the number of Blu-ray Disc sales of Enchanted. The DVD was released in United Kingdom and Europe on April 7, 2008, and in Australia on May 21, 2008.
The bonus features included on both the DVD and Blu-ray Disc are "Fantasy Comes to Life", a three-part behind-the-scenes feature including "Happy Working Song", "That's How You Know" and "A Blast at the Ball"; six deleted scene
s with brief introductions by director Kevin Lima; bloopers; "Pip's Predicament: A Pop-Up Adventure", a short in pop-up storybook style; and Carrie Underwood's music video for "Ever Ever After". Featured on the Blu-ray disc only is a trivia game entitled "The D Files" that runs throughout the movie with high scoring players given access to videos "So Close", "Making Ever Ever After" and "True Love's Kiss". In the United States, certain DVDs at Target
stores contain a bonus DVD with a 30-minute long making-of documentary titled Becoming Enchanted: A New Classic Comes True. This DVD is also sold with certain DVDs at HMV stores in the United Kingdom.
tallied the film at an overall 92% approval rating (based on 156 reviews, with 144 "fresh" and 12 "rotten"), while Metacritic
gave it a 75% rating based on 32 reviews. Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film as the ninth best reviewed film in wide release of 2007 and named it the best family film of 2007.
Positive reviews praised the film's take on a classic Disney story, its comedy and musical numbers as well as the performance of its lead actress, Amy Adams
. Roger Ebert
of Chicago Sun-Times
gave the film three stars out of four, describing it as a "heart-winning musical comedy that skips lightly and sprightly from the lily pads of hope to the manhole covers of actuality" and one that "has a Disney willingness to allow fantasy into life". Film critics of Variety
and LA Weekly
remarked on the film's ability to cater for all ages. LA Weekly described the film as "the sort of buoyant, all-ages entertainment that Hollywood has been laboring to revive in recent years (most recently with Hairspray
) but hasn't managed to get right until now", while Todd McCarthy of Variety commented, "More than Disney's strictly animated product, Enchanted, in the manner of the vast majority of Hollywood films made until the '60s, is a film aimed at the entire population – niches be damned. It simply aims to please, without pandering, without vulgarity, without sops to pop-culture fads, and to pull this off today is no small feat." Enchanted was the Broadcast Film Critics Association
's choice for Best Family Film of 2007, while Carrie Rickey of The Philadelphia Inquirer
named it the 4th best film of 2007.
Rolling Stone
, Premiere
, USA Today
, and The Boston Globe
all gave the film three out of four, while Baltimore Sun gave the film a B grade. They cited that although the story is relatively predictable, the way in which the predictability of the film is part of the story, the amazingly extravagant musical numbers, along with the way in which Disney pokes fun at its traditional line of animated movies outweighs any squabbles about storyline or being unsure of what age bracket the film is made for. Michael Sragow of Baltimore Sun remarked that the film's "piquant idea and enough good jokes to overcome its uneven movie-making and uncertain tone", while Claudia Puig of USA Today stated that "though it's a fairly predictable fish-out-of-water tale (actually a princess-out-of-storybook saga), the casting is so perfect that it takes what could have been a ho-hum idea and renders it magical."
Amy Adams herself garnered many favorable reviews. Reviewers praised her singing ability and asserted that her performance, which was compared by some to her Academy Award-nominated performance in Junebug
, has made Adams a movie star, likening it to Mary Poppins
effect on Julie Andrews
' career. Similarly, film critics Richard Roeper
and Michael Phillips, who gave the film positive reviews on At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper, emphasized the effect of Adams' performance on the film with remarks like "Amy Adams is this movie" and "Amy Adams shows how to make a comic cliché work like magic." However, both agreed that the final sequence involving the computer-generated dragon of Narissa "bogged down" the film.
Empire
stated that the film was targeted at children but agreed with other reviewers that the "extremely game cast" was the film's best asset. It gave the film three out of five. TIME gave the film a C-, stating that the film "cannibalizes Walt's vault for jokes" and "fails to find a happy ending that doesn't feel two-dimensional". Similarly, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian
commented that the film "assumes a beady-eyed and deeply humourless sentimentality" and that Adams' performance was the "only decent thing in this overhyped family movie covered in a cellophane shrink-wrap of corporate Disney plastic-ness". Bradshaw gave the film two out of five.
, which earned $80.1 million over the five-day holiday in 1999, Enchanted is the first film to open at #1 on the Thanksgiving frame in the 21st century.
In its second weekend, Enchanted was also the #1 film, grossing a further $16,403,316 at 3,730 locations for a per theater average of $4,397. It dropped to #2 in its third weekend, with a gross of $10,709,515 in 3,520 theaters for a per theater average of $3,042. It finished its fourth weekend at #4 with a gross of $5,533,884 in 3,066 locations for a per theater average of $1,804. Enchanted earned a gross of $127,807,262 in the United States and Canada
as well a total of $340,487,652 worldwide. It was the 15th highest-grossing film worldwide released in 2007.
, notably beating out Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and three Saturn Award
s: Best Fantasy Film
, Best Actress for Amy Adams
, and Best Music
for Alan Menken
.
Enchanted dominated the Best Original Song
category at the 80th Academy Awards
with three nominations but did not win. The nominated songs were "Happy Working Song
", "So Close" and "That's How You Know
", all three of which were written by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz
. "That's How You Know" was also nominated at the 65th Golden Globe Awards
for Best Original Song
and the film's lead actress, Amy Adams, was nominated in the category of Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
At the 13th Critics' Choice Awards, Adams was nominated for Best Actress, Menken was nominated for his film score in the category of Best Composer and "That's How You Know" was nominated for Best Song. Enchanted received two nominations at the 12th Satellite Awards
: Best Actress – Musical or Comedy
for Amy Adams' performance and Best Visual Effects
for the visual effects work done by Thomas Schelesny, Matt Jacobs and Tom Gibbons. Gibbons, along with James W. Brown, David Richard Nelson and John Koester, were nominated for a Visual Effects Society
Award in the Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture category for the animated chipmunk, Pip. Costume designer Mona May received a nomination in the category of Excellence in Fantasy Film at the 10th Costume Designers Guild Awards
but lost to The Golden Compass, while music editors Kenneth Karman, Jermey Raub and Joanie Diener were nominated for a Golden Reel Award
in the category of Best Sound Editing: Music in a Musical Feature Film.
The film also received three nominations at the MTV Movie Awards
and four nominations at the Teen Choice Awards
, which are voted upon by the general public. The three MTV Movie Award nominations were Best Female performance (for Amy Adams), Best Comedic Performance (for Amy Adams) and Best Kiss (for Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey
). The nominations at the Teen Choice Awards were Choice Movie: Chick Flick, Choice Movie Actress: Comedy (for Amy Adams), Choice Movie Actor: Comedy (for James Marsden
), and Choice Movie: Villain (for Susan Sarandon
). Menken and Schwartz were nominated twice at the 51st Grammy Awards
in the category of Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
for "Ever Ever After" and "That's How You Know". For its trailer
, the film received a 2008 Golden Trailer Award for Best Animation/Family feature film preview.
to greenlight the production of the film because it "was always quite nervous about the tone in particular". As Lima worked with Bill Kelly
, the writer, to inject Disney references to the plot, it became "an obsession"; he derived the name of every character as well as anything that needed a name from past Disney films to bring in more Disney references.
While Disney animators have occasionally inserted a Disney character into background shots, for example, Donald Duck
appears in a crowd in The Little Mermaid
, they have avoided "mingling characters" from other Disney films for fear of weakening their individual mythologies. In Enchanted, characters from past Disney films are openly seen, such as the appearances of Thumper
and Flower from Bambi
in the 2D animation portion of the film. Disney references are also made through camera work, sets
, costume
s, music and dialogue. Obvious examples include the use of poisoned apples from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
and True Love's Kiss from Snow White and Sleeping Beauty
. Dick Cook
, the chairman of Walt Disney Studios, admitted that part of the goal of Enchanted was to create a new franchise (through the character of Giselle) and to revive the older ones.
' image. While Giselle is not being marketed as one of the Disney Princesses, Enchanted merchandise was made available in various outlets with Adams' animated likeness being used on all Giselle merchandise. Giselle led the 2007 Hollywood Holly-Day Parade at Disney's Hollywood Studios
. She was also featured in the 2007 Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade
in the Magic Kingdom
with the official Disney Princesses.
A video game based on the film
was released for Nintendo DS
and mobile phones in addition to a Game Boy Advance
title, Enchanted: Once Upon Andalasia, which is a prequel to the film, about Giselle and Pip rescuing Andalasia from a magic spell.
reported that Walt Disney Pictures planned to film a sequel with Barry Josephson and Barry Sonnenfeld producing again. Jessie Nelson was attached to write the screenplay and Anne Fletcher
to direct. Disney hoped the cast members from the first film would return and for a release as early as 2011.
On Jan. 12, 2011, composer Alan Menken was asked about the sequel in an interview. His reply was, "I’ve heard things but there's nothing yet. I don’t know much about what’s happening with that. Honestly, I don’t know what the studio wants to do next. I presume there will be some future projects for me to work on. I love doing that, I really do. But I’m not frustrated that this isn’t one of them. At the moment I have a lot of stage things happening and I’m busy enough with that, so I really don’t need more on my plate."
On March 28, 2011, in an interview for his latest film, Hop, James Marsden was asked about the sequel.
Fantasy film
Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...
-musical
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...
film, produced and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
in association with Barry Sonnenfeld and Josephson Entertainment. Written by Bill Kelly
Bill Kelly (writer)
Bill Kelly is an American screenwriter.-Filmography:* Premonition * Enchanted * Blast From the Past -External links:...
and directed by Kevin Lima
Kevin Lima
Kevin Lima is an American film director who has directed a number of Disney films including his debut film A Goofy Movie in 1995, Tarzan, 102 Dalmatians, and Enchanted. He is married to Brenda Chapman, an animation Director at Pixar.-Life and career:Lima studied film and animation at the...
, the film stars Amy Adams
Amy Adams
Amy Lou Adams is an American actress and singer. Adams began her performing career on stage in dinner theaters before making her screen debut in the 1999 black comedy film Drop Dead Gorgeous...
, Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Galen Dempsey is an American actor, known for his role as neurosurgeon Dr. Derek Shepherd on the medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Prior to Grey's Anatomy he made several television appearances and was nominated for an Emmy Award...
, James Marsden
James Marsden
James Paul Marsden is an American actor, singer and former Versace model. He is known for playing the superhero Cyclops in the first three X-Men films and for his roles in other commercially successful films such as Hop, Superman Returns, Hairspray, Enchanted, The Box, and 27 Dresses.-Early life...
, Timothy Spall
Timothy Spall
Timothy Leonard Spall, OBE is an English character actor and occasional presenter.-Early life:Spall, the third of four sons, was born in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. , was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker...
, Idina Menzel
Idina Menzel
Idina Kim Menzel is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She is widely known for originating the roles of Maureen in Rent and Elphaba in Wicked.-Early life:...
, Rachel Covey
Rachel Covey
Rachel Covey is an American child actress best known for her role as Morgan Philip in the Disney movie Enchanted. She also appeared in the film Duane Hopwood as the daughter of David Schwimmer's character....
, and Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
. The plot focuses on Giselle, an archetypal Disney Princess, who is forced from her traditional animated world of Andalasia into the live-action world of New York City.
This is the first Disney movie to be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures instead of Buena Vista
Buena Vista (Walt Disney Company)
Buena Vista is a brand name frequently used for divisions of The Walt Disney Company, whose primary studios and offices are located on Buena Vista Street in Burbank, California. It was originally created by Walt Disney in 1953 after the release of Peter Pan to distribute his film and television...
, due to Disney semi-retiring the name in May 2007, making all other future Disney movies permanently distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
The film is both an homage
Homage
Homage is a show or demonstration of respect or dedication to someone or something, sometimes by simple declaration but often by some more oblique reference, artistic or poetic....
to, and a self-parody of, conventional Walt Disney Animated Classics, making numerous references to Disney's past and future works through the combination of live action filmmaking, traditional animation
Traditional animation
Traditional animation, is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand...
and computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
. It heralds the return of traditional animation to a Disney feature film after the company's decision to move entirely to computer animation in 2004. Composer Alan Menken
Alan Menken
Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...
and lyricist Stephen Schwartz
Stephen Schwartz (composer)
Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over four decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell , Pippin and Wicked...
, who had written songs for previous Disney films, produced the songs of Enchanted, with Menken also composing its score.
The animation sequences were produced at James Baxter Animation in Pasadena. Filming of the live action segments took place around New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. It premiered on October 20, 2007, at the London Film Festival
London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is the UK's largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries. The festival, , currently in its 54th year, is run every year in the second half of October under the umbrella of the British Film Institute...
before its wide release on November 21, 2007, in the United States. Enchanted was well-received critically, and received two nominations at the 65th Golden Globe Awards
65th Golden Globe Awards
The 65th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television of 2007, were scheduled to be presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on January 13, 2008...
and three nominations at the 80th Academy Awards
80th Academy Awards
The 80th Academy Awards ceremony honored the best films in 2007 and was broadcast from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California on ABC beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST/8:30 p.m. EST, February 24, 2008 . During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards in 24...
. The film earned more than $340 million worldwide at the box office.
Plot
Giselle (Amy AdamsAmy Adams
Amy Lou Adams is an American actress and singer. Adams began her performing career on stage in dinner theaters before making her screen debut in the 1999 black comedy film Drop Dead Gorgeous...
) lives in Andalasia, an animated fairy tale world with talking animals, characters breaking into song and "happily ever after" a foregone conclusion. Prince Edward (James Marsden
James Marsden
James Paul Marsden is an American actor, singer and former Versace model. He is known for playing the superhero Cyclops in the first three X-Men films and for his roles in other commercially successful films such as Hop, Superman Returns, Hairspray, Enchanted, The Box, and 27 Dresses.-Early life...
), her designated true love, saves her from a troll
Troll
A troll is a supernatural being in Norse mythology and Scandinavian folklore. In origin, the term troll was a generally negative synonym for a jötunn , a being in Norse mythology...
and they plan to get married the next day. Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
), Edward's evil stepmother, schemes to protect her throne, which she will lose once Prince Edward is married. She throws Giselle into a portal that transports her to a world where there are no "happy ever afters
Happy ending
A happy ending is an ending of the plot of a work of fiction in which almost everything turns out for the best for the protagonists, their sidekicks, and almost everyone except the villains....
", also known as New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Giselle emerges in the middle of Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
. After a number of misadventures, including causing a minor car accident, accidentally being caught in a crowd and getting on the subway, and having her tiara stolen by a homeless man in the Bowery
Bowery
Bowery may refer to:Streets:* The Bowery, a thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York City* Bowery Street is a street on Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.In popular culture:* Bowery Amphitheatre, a building on the Bowery in New York City...
, she meets Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Galen Dempsey is an American actor, known for his role as neurosurgeon Dr. Derek Shepherd on the medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Prior to Grey's Anatomy he made several television appearances and was nominated for an Emmy Award...
), a hardened, yet friendly divorce lawyer. At his daughter Morgan's (Rachel Covey
Rachel Covey
Rachel Covey is an American child actress best known for her role as Morgan Philip in the Disney movie Enchanted. She also appeared in the film Duane Hopwood as the daughter of David Schwimmer's character....
) insistence, Robert lets Giselle stay at their apartment. Following the ways of her fairy-tale world, Giselle recruits urban animals (of the breeds generally believed to be household pests) – pigeons, cockroaches and rats – to clean his apartment while she fashions a dress out of his curtains. Robert's girlfriend whom he was going to propose to, a fashion designer named Nancy (Idina Menzel
Idina Menzel
Idina Kim Menzel is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She is widely known for originating the roles of Maureen in Rent and Elphaba in Wicked.-Early life:...
), misunderstands the situation and runs off after arguing with Robert.
At Robert's law firm, his secretary Sam (Jodi Benson
Jodi Benson
Jodi Marie Benson is an American actress, voice actress, soprano singer, and Disney Legend. She is best known for providing both the speaking and the singing voices of Disney's Princess Ariel in The Little Mermaid and its sequels. In 2002 and 2006, she reprised the role of Ariel in the English...
) tries to find Giselle transportation home, but cannot locate Andalasia. Deciding he must part with Giselle in Central Park
Central Park
Central Park is a public park in the center of Manhattan in New York City, United States. The park initially opened in 1857, on of city-owned land. In 1858, Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they entitled the Greensward Plan...
, Robert offers her some money. However, Giselle almost immediately gives it to an old woman who remembers Edward stabbing an MTA bus in Times Square (while under the delusion that the bus was a giant steel beast). Deciding that Giselle needs his protection, Robert rejoins her. While walking through the park, Giselle questions Robert on how he displays his affection for Nancy, before launching into a big song-and-dance number that gets the whole city singing and dancing. Giselle eventually helps Robert reconcile with Nancy by sending flowers to her, along with tickets to the King's and Queen's Ball.
Meanwhile Narissa's henchman Nathaniel (Timothy Spall
Timothy Spall
Timothy Leonard Spall, OBE is an English character actor and occasional presenter.-Early life:Spall, the third of four sons, was born in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. , was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker...
) follows Prince Edward and a talking chipmunk named Pip, who have journeyed to New York to rescue Giselle. Nathaniel is given three poisoned apples, and is told to make sure Giselle takes a bite out of it. He makes his first attempt on Giselle's life while she and Robert are in Central Park - here, he disguises himself as a vendor and hands her the apple (made to look like an ordinary caramel apple on a stick) - the attempt fails when Giselle inadvertently throws the apple in the air and it gets lodged in a bicyclist's helmet, burning through his helmet and leaving a round bald spot on his hair. Nathaniel and the prince then spend a night at a cheap motel, where Nathaniel questions his adoring but servile relationship with Narissa after watching a soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
on the TV (which Edward thinks is a magic mirror
Magic Mirror
Magic Mirror is a lithograph print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher which was first printed in January, 1946.It depicts a mirror standing vertically on wooden supports on a tiled surface. The perspective is looking down at an angle at the right hand side of the mirror. There is a sphere at each...
). Finding Giselle and Robert at an Italian restaurant, Nathaniel does his next attempt: he serves her a poisoned apple martini while disguised as a waiter. Although Pip is unable to speak coherently in the real world, and has trouble alerting the Prince to Nathaniel's intentions, he foils Nathaniel's plot. Infuriated by these failures, Narissa goes to New York to kill Giselle herself.
As Giselle and Robert spend more time together, Giselle discovers that the real world is much more complicated than she realized, while Robert is affected by her optimism and idealism. After a brief argument with Robert, Giselle realizes her own emotional growth and her growing feelings toward him. Edward continues to look for Giselle, eventually finding her at Robert's apartment. While Edward is eager to take Giselle home and marry, she insists that they first go on a date, which she has learned is customary in the real world. They end their date at the King's and Queen's Costume Ball. After Nancy and Prince Edward pair off to dance, Giselle dances with Robert. Giselle realizes that Robert is her true love as he, very softly, sings the lyrics of the song to her. Edward and Nancy seem to realize the attraction between Giselle and Robert also discover a mutual attraction. Using her old hag's disguise, Narissa poisons Giselle, but is stopped by Edward before she can escape with her comatose victim.
Nathaniel exposes Narissa's plot, admits his deeds and reveals that one must kiss Giselle by midnight to break the poison apple's spell. After Edward's kiss fails to wake Giselle up, Robert kisses her. Giselle comes out of her coma and admits that she knew Robert was her one true love. Narissa uses the distracting moment to break free. Deciding to write her own ending to the story, she transforms into a dragon. When Robert protects Giselle, Narissa takes Robert hostage, luring Giselle out the window and up to the top of the Woolworth Building
Woolworth Building
The Woolworth Building is one of the oldest skyscrapers in New York City. More than a century after the start of its construction, it remains, at 57 stories, one of the fifty tallest buildings in the United States as well as one of the twenty tallest buildings in New York City...
to kill her. However, with Pip's involvement, Narissa falls to her death. Giselle catches Robert, and they manage to keep from sliding off the roof, ending in a romantic embrace.
Edward finds Giselle's discarded shoe and places it on Nancy's foot à la Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
. They happily leave for Andalasia and later get married. Giselle uses her magical dress-making talents to run a successful boutique shop, assisted by both humans and animals. Both Nathaniel (in New York) and Pip (in Andalasia) become successful authors, writing self-help book
Self-help book
Self-help books are books written with the stated intention to instruct any readers on a number of personal problems. They take their name from Self-Help, the Victorian best-seller, but are also known and classified under "self-improvement", a term that is a modernized version of self-help...
s based on their experiences. The last scene shows Giselle, Robert, and Morgan playing and living together happily ever after.
Cast
- Amy AdamsAmy AdamsAmy Lou Adams is an American actress and singer. Adams began her performing career on stage in dinner theaters before making her screen debut in the 1999 black comedy film Drop Dead Gorgeous...
as Giselle. A princess-to-be who ends up almost having her dream of meeting her prince a reality. Adams was announced to have been cast in the role of Giselle on November 14, 2005. Although the studio was looking for a film star in the role, director Kevin Lima insisted on casting a lesser-known actress. Out of the 300 or so actresses who auditioned for the role, Adams stood out to Lima because not only did she look like "a Disney princess" but her "commitment to the character, her ability to escape into the character's being without ever judging the character was overwhelming." Hailing from Andalasia, Giselle displays similar traits to the Disney Princesses; Lima describes her as "about 80% Snow WhiteSnow White (Disney)Snow White is a fictional character and the main protagonist from Walt Disney's first animated feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,...
, with some traits borrowed from CinderellaCinderella (Disney character)Cinderella is a fictional character and is the main protagonist from Disney's twelfth animated film Cinderella and its two sequels. In the original film she is voiced by the late Ilene Woods...
and Sleeping BeautyAurora (Disney)Princess Aurora is a fictional character and the title character from Disney's 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty , as well as an official Disney Princess.The Disney version of the character was based on the French version of the tale by Charles Perrault, written in 1634 in Histoires ou Contes du...
... although her spunkiness comes from Ariel a.k.a. The Little MermaidThe Little Mermaid (1989 film)The Little Mermaid is a 1989 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name. Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, the film was originally released to theaters on November 14, 1989 and is the twenty-eighth film in...
." She is "eternally optimistic and romantic" but is also "very independent and true to her convictions". Over the course of the film, she becomes more mature but maintains her innocence and optimism. - Patrick DempseyPatrick DempseyPatrick Galen Dempsey is an American actor, known for his role as neurosurgeon Dr. Derek Shepherd on the medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Prior to Grey's Anatomy he made several television appearances and was nominated for an Emmy Award...
as Robert Philip. A cynical, New York City divorce attorney who does not believe in true love or happily-ever-after, or understand his daughter, Morgan. Lima cast Dempsey after Disney was satisfied with the casting of Adams but had wanted more well-known actors in the film. Dempsey, whose starring role on TV series Grey's AnatomyGrey's AnatomyGrey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
had earned him the nickname "McDreamy", was described by Lima as "a modern-day Prince Charming to today's audience". The role was challenging for Dempsey because he had to play the straight manDouble actA double act, also known as a comedy duo, is a comic pairing in which humor is derived from the uneven relationship between two partners, usually of the same gender, age, ethnic origin and profession, but drastically different personalities or behavior...
to Adams' and Marsden's more outrageous characters. - James MarsdenJames MarsdenJames Paul Marsden is an American actor, singer and former Versace model. He is known for playing the superhero Cyclops in the first three X-Men films and for his roles in other commercially successful films such as Hop, Superman Returns, Hairspray, Enchanted, The Box, and 27 Dresses.-Early life...
as Prince Edward. A narcissistic and athletic prince who ends up confused with the world of New York once entering it. Marsden was announced to have been cast on December 6, 2005. At the time Marsden was auditioning, the role of Robert had not been cast but he decided to pursue the role of Prince Edward because he was "more fun and [he] responded more to that character." Edward is a prince in Andalasia and the stepson of Narissa. He is "very pure, very simple-minded and naive, but innocently narcissistic."
- Timothy SpallTimothy SpallTimothy Leonard Spall, OBE is an English character actor and occasional presenter.-Early life:Spall, the third of four sons, was born in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. , was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker...
as Nathaniel. Nathaniel is a servant of Queen Narissa, who controls him through his infatuation with her and his own lack of self-esteem. He initially does Narissa's bidding, but ultimately realizes her true nature and rebels against her. He has a penchant for disguises. This is the first of two Disney films Timothy Spall has been in, the other being Tim Burton's Alice in WonderlandAlice in Wonderland (2010 film)Alice in Wonderland is a 2010 American computer-animated/live action fantasy adventure film directed by Tim Burton, written by Linda Woolverton, and released by Walt Disney Pictures...
in which he was the voice of Bayard the Bloodhound. - Idina MenzelIdina MenzelIdina Kim Menzel is an American actress, singer and songwriter. She is widely known for originating the roles of Maureen in Rent and Elphaba in Wicked.-Early life:...
as Nancy Tremaine, Robert's fiancee. Once Giselle falls in love with Robert, she falls for and leaves with Edward. Menzel, who is well known for her Broadway musical roles in WickedWicked (musical)Wicked is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and a book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , a parallel novel of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic story The Wonderful Wizard...
(whose composer, Stephen SchwartzStephen Schwartz (composer)Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over four decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell , Pippin and Wicked...
, wrote the lyrics to the film's songs) and RentRent (musical)Rent is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème...
, was offered the role of Nancy Tremaine. Since the role did not require any singing, Menzel said in an interview that "it was a compliment to be asked to just be hired on [her] acting talents alone." Nancy is a fashion designer and Robert's girlfriend. She is named after Lady Tremaine, the stepmother from CinderellaCinderella (1950 film)Cinderella is a 1950 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "Cendrillon" by Charles Perrault. Twelfth in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film had a limited release on February 15, 1950 by RKO Radio Pictures. Directing credits go to Clyde Geronimi,...
. - Rachel CoveyRachel CoveyRachel Covey is an American child actress best known for her role as Morgan Philip in the Disney movie Enchanted. She also appeared in the film Duane Hopwood as the daughter of David Schwimmer's character....
as Morgan Philip. Morgan is Robert's six-year-old daughter. Despite her father misunderstanding her and telling her otherwise, she believes in fairy tales and believes that magic exists. - Susan SarandonSusan SarandonSusan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
as Queen Narissa. An evil sorceress with a hatred for Giselle; Edward's stepmother and the film's main antagonistAntagonistAn antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
. Sarandon had been attracted to the project prior to Lima's involvement as director. Since Sarandon's on-screen time was relatively short, it took only two weeks to film her scenes. Narissa's mannerisms, characteristics, powers, and physical features were inspired by such classical Disney villainesses as the Evil Queen and MaleficentMaleficentMaleficent is a fictional character and the main antagonist in Walt Disney's 1959 adaptation of Sleeping Beauty. She is the self-proclaimed "Mistress of All Evil" who, after not being invited to the baby's christening, curses the infant Princess Aurora to "prick her finger on the spindle of a...
. Sissy SpacekSissy SpacekSissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
, Anjelica HustonAnjelica HustonAnjelica Huston is an American actress. Huston became the third generation of her family to win an Academy Award, for her performance in 1985's Prizzi's Honor, joining her father, director John Huston, and grandfather, actor Walter Huston. She later was nominated in 1989 and 1990 for her acting in...
and Mary SteenburgenMary SteenburgenMary Nell Steenburgen is an American actress. She is best known for playing the role of Lynda Dummar in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard, which earned her an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.-Early life:...
were in close competition for the part. - Jeff BennettJeff BennettJeffrey Glenn "Jeff" Bennett is an American voice actor and musician, listed "among the top names in the voice-over field", best known as the voice of Johnny Bravo in the series of the same name...
and Kevin LimaKevin LimaKevin Lima is an American film director who has directed a number of Disney films including his debut film A Goofy Movie in 1995, Tarzan, 102 Dalmatians, and Enchanted. He is married to Brenda Chapman, an animation Director at Pixar.-Life and career:Lima studied film and animation at the...
as Pip. Bennett provided the voice for the 2D-animated Pip in the animated segment while Lima provided the voice for the computer-generated Pip in the live-action segment. Pip, a chipmunk friend of Giselle who has no trouble expressing himself through speech in Andalasia, loses his ability to speak in the real world and must communicate by acting. - Jon McLaughlinJon McLaughlinJon McLaughlin is a pop rock singer-songwriter and pianist from Anderson, Indiana. His debut album Indiana was released on May 1, 2007, preceded by his first EP Industry, also known as Jon McL, in February 2007...
as Himself, singing "So Close" at the ball while Robert and Giselle dance. - Fred TatascioreFred TatascioreFrederick "Fred" Tatasciore is an American voice actor who portrays secondary characters as well as monstrous-looking types...
as the Troll from Andalasia who tried to eat Giselle - Several actresses who have played characters in Disney films have cameosCameo appearanceA cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
:- Paige O'HaraPaige O'HaraDonna Paige O'Hara is an American Broadway singer, actress, and Disney Legend best known for her voicework as Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast.-Personal life:...
as Angela, a soap opera character. O'Hara provided the speaking and singing voice of Belle in Beauty and the BeastBeauty and the Beast (1991 film)Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...
. - Jodi BensonJodi BensonJodi Marie Benson is an American actress, voice actress, soprano singer, and Disney Legend. She is best known for providing both the speaking and the singing voices of Disney's Princess Ariel in The Little Mermaid and its sequels. In 2002 and 2006, she reprised the role of Ariel in the English...
as Sam, Robert's secretary. Benson provided the speaking and singing voice of Ariel in The Little MermaidThe Little Mermaid"The Little Mermaid" is a popular fairy tale by the Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about a young mermaid willing to give up her life in the sea and her identity as a mermaid to gain a human soul and the love of a human prince...
as well as the voices of the various Barbie dolls in Toy Story 2Toy Story 2Toy Story 2 is a 1999 American computer animated film directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Lee Unkrich and Ash Brannon. It is the sequel to the 1995 film Toy Story, released by Walt Disney Pictures and the third film to be produced by Pixar...
and Toy Story 3Toy Story 3Toy Story 3 is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated comedy-adventure film, and the third installment in the Toy Story series. It was produced by Pixar and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Lee Unkrich. The film was released worldwide from June through October in Disney Digital...
. - Judy KuhnJudy Kuhn-Life and career:Kuhn was born in New York City and grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. She attended Georgetown Day School in Washington, D.C.She entered Oberlin College in 1976. Although she was very interested in singing and theater, she began Oberlin in the College, not the Conservatory. After taking...
as Pregnant Woman with Kids. Kuhn provided the singing voice of the title characterPocahontas (Disney)Pocahontas is one of the main characters of Disney's 1995, thirty-third animated feature, Pocahontas, and its direct-to-video sequel, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World...
in PocahontasPocahontas (1995 film)Pocahontas is the 33rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and was originally released to selected theaters on June 16, 1995 by Walt Disney Pictures...
and its sequelPocahontas II: Journey to a New WorldPocahontas II: Journey to a New World is a 1998 straight-to-video sequel to the 1995 Disney film Pocahontas. The film is inspired by true events in the life of Pocahontas which took place several years after her encounter with John Smith and the founders of Jamestown...
, as well as appearing in the original BroadwayBroadway theatreBroadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
cast of Les MisérablesLes Misérables (musical)Les Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz , is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo....
. - Julie AndrewsJulie AndrewsDame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
as Narrator. Andrews played the title characterMary Poppins (character)Mary Poppins is a fictional character and the protagonist of P. L. Travers' Mary Poppins books and all of its adaptations. She is a magical nanny of unknown origins who arrives at the Banks home in Cherry Tree Lane where she is given charge of the Banks children and teaches them valuable lessons...
in Mary PoppinsMary Poppins (film)Mary Poppins is a 1964 musical film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, produced by Walt Disney, and based on the Mary Poppins books series by P. L. Travers with illustrations by Mary Shepard. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, with songs by...
as well as appearing in The Princess DiariesThe Princess Diaries (film)The Princess Diaries is a 2001 comedy film produced by singer and actress Whitney Houston and directed by Garry Marshall. It is based on Meg Cabot's 2000 novel of the same name...
series as Queen Clarisse Renaldi.
- Paige O'Hara
Development
The initial script of Enchanted, written by Bill KellyBill Kelly (writer)
Bill Kelly is an American screenwriter.-Filmography:* Premonition * Enchanted * Blast From the Past -External links:...
, was bought by Disney's Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures
Touchstone Pictures is an American film production label and is one of several film labels of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group. Established in 1984, its releases typically feature more mature themes and darker tones than those that are released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner.Touchstone...
and Sonnenfeld/Josephson Productions for a reported sum of $450,000 in September 1997. However, it was thought to be unsuitable for Disney because it was "a racier R-rated movie". To the frustration of Kelly, the screenplay was rewritten several times, first by Rita Hsiao and then by Todd Alcott
Todd Alcott
Todd Alcott is an American screenwriter, playwright, actor, and director.- Writer :* 1996 : Just Your Luck* 1998 : Antz* 1999 : Curtain Call* 2000 : CyberWorld...
. The film was initially scheduled to be released in 2002 with Rob Marshall
Rob Marshall
Rob Marshall is an American theater director, film director and choreographer. He is a six-time Tony Award nominee, Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe nominee and four-time Emmy winner whose most noted work is the 2002 Academy Award for Best Picture winner Chicago.-Life and career:Marshall was...
as director but he withdrew due to "creative differences" between the producers and him. In 2001, director Jon Turteltaub
Jon Turteltaub
Jonathan Charles "Jon" Turteltaub is an American film director and producer. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the USC School of Cinematic Arts...
was set to direct the film but he left soon after, later working with Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer
Jerry Bruckheimer
Jerome Leon "Jerry" Bruckheimer is an American film and television producer. He has achieved great success in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. His best known television series are CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, Eleventh Hour, Without a Trace, Cold Case, The...
on the National Treasure
National Treasure (franchise)
National Treasure is a series of theatrical action-adventure mystery films distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and starring Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates, a treasure hunter who, with the help of his father, Patrick Henry Gates , his girlfriend, Abigail Chase...
franchise. Adam Shankman
Adam Shankman
Adam Michael Shankman is an American film director, producer, dancer, actor, and choreographer. He has been a judge on the television program So You Think You Can Dance since Season 3. He began his professional career in musical theater, and was a dancer in music videos for Paula Abdul and Janet...
became the film's director in 2003, while Bob Schooley
Bob Schooley
Robert "Bob" Schooley is an American screenwriter, television writer and television producer. He and Mark McCorkle are the creators of the animated television series Kim Possible, which aired on Disney Channel. He was also an executive producer of the series, as well as having written scripts for...
and Mark McCorkle
Mark McCorkle
Mark McCorkle is an American screenwriter, television writer and television producer. Among others, he is creator of the popular Disney cartoon Kim Possible. He frequently collaborates with fellow writer Bob Schooley...
were hired by Disney to rewrite the script once again. At the time, Disney considered offering the role of Giselle to Kate Hudson
Kate Hudson
Kate Garry Hudson is an American actress. She came to prominence in 2001 after winning a Golden Globe and receiving several nominations, including a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Almost Famous. She then starred in the hit film How to Lose a Guy in 10...
or Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon
Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon , better known as Reese Witherspoon, is an American actress and film producer. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the film The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower...
. However, the project did not take off.
On May 25, 2005, Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
reported that Kevin Lima
Kevin Lima
Kevin Lima is an American film director who has directed a number of Disney films including his debut film A Goofy Movie in 1995, Tarzan, 102 Dalmatians, and Enchanted. He is married to Brenda Chapman, an animation Director at Pixar.-Life and career:Lima studied film and animation at the...
had been hired as director and Bill Kelly had returned to the project to write a new version of the script. Lima worked with Kelly on the script to combine the main plot of Enchanted with the idea of a "loving homage" to Disney's heritage. He created visual storyboard printouts that covered the story of Enchanted from beginning to end, which filled an entire floor of a production building. After Lima showed them to the chairman of Walt Disney Studios
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
, Dick Cook
Dick Cook
Richard W. "Dick" Cook is the former Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios. At the time of his separation from the company, he was the only remaining top Disney executive who had worked for the company since before Michael Eisner took charge in 1984...
, he received the green light for the project and a budget of $85 million. Lima began designing the world of Andalasia and storyboarding the movie before a cast was chosen to play the characters. After the actors were hired, he was involved in making the final design of the movie, which made sure the animated characters look like their real-life counterparts.
Filming
Enchanted is the first feature-length Disney live-action/traditional animation hybrid since Disney's Who Framed Roger RabbitWho Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
in 1988, though the traditionally-animated characters do not interact in the live-action environment in the same method as they did in Roger Rabbit; however, there are some scenes where live-action characters share the screen with two-dimensional animated characters, for example, a live-action Nathaniel communicating with a cel-drawn Narissa, who is in a cooking pot. The film uses two aspect ratio
Aspect ratio
The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,...
s; it begins in 2.35:1 when the Walt Disney Pictures logo and Enchanted storybook are shown, and then switches to a smaller 1.85:1 aspect ratio for the first animated sequence. The film switches back to 2.35:1 when it becomes live-action and never switches back, even for the remainder of the cartoon sequences. When this movie was aired on NBC in 2010, the beginning of the movie (including the first animated sequence) was shown in standard definition; the remainder of the movie was shown in high definition when it becomes live-action. Lima oversaw the direction of both the live-action and animation sequences, which were being produced at the same time. Enchanted took almost two years to complete. The animation took about a year to finish while the live-action scenes, which commenced on location in New York City during the summer of 2006 and was completed during the animation process, were shot in 72 days.
Animation
Out of the film's 107 minutes of running time, ten of the approximately 13 minutes of animation are at the beginning of the film. Lima tried to "cram every single piece of Disney iconic imagery" that he could into the first ten minutes, which were done in traditional cel animationTraditional animation
Traditional animation, is an animation technique where each frame is drawn by hand...
(in contrast to computer-generated 3-D animation) as a tribute to past Disney fairy tale films such as Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault...
, Cinderella
Cinderella (1950 film)
Cinderella is a 1950 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "Cendrillon" by Charles Perrault. Twelfth in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film had a limited release on February 15, 1950 by RKO Radio Pictures. Directing credits go to Clyde Geronimi,...
, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
. It was the first Disney film theatrically released in America to feature traditional cel animation since Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Pooh's Heffalump Movie
Pooh's Heffalump Movie is a 2005 Winnie-the-Pooh film, released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film runs at 68 mins., This was the shortest feature-length Pooh film to be released in theaters until The 2011 Film at 63 mins.- Plot :...
(2005). This film, although quite different in terms of plot from any previous Disney film, also contained obvious homages to other Disney films of the distant past, such as Old Yeller
Old Yeller
Old Yeller is a 1956 children's novel by Fred Gipson, which received a Newbery Honor in 1957. It was illustrated by Carl Burger. The title is taken from the name of the big yellow dog who is the center of the book's story...
, The Shaggy Dog
The Shaggy Dog (1959 film)
The Shaggy Dog is a black and white 1959 Walt Disney film about Wilby Daniels, a teenage boy who is transformed into an Old English Sheepdog by an enchanted ring of the Borgias. The film was based on the story, The Hound of Florence by Felix Salten...
, Swiss Family Robinson
Swiss Family Robinson (film)
Swiss Family Robinson is a 1960 American Technicolor feature film starring John Mills, Dorothy McGuire, and Sessue Hayakawa in a tale of a shipwrecked family building an island home. The screenplay by Lowell S. Hawley was loosely based upon the 1812 novel Der Schweizerische Robinson by Johann...
, Bon Voyage!
Bon Voyage! (1962 film)
Bon Voyage! is a 1962 Walt Disney film directed by James Neilson and released by Buena Vista Distribution Company. Following their practice of the time, it was also issued as a comic book...
, and Savage Sam
Savage Sam
Savage Sam is the 1963 film sequel to Old Yeller written by Fred Gipson. It was inspired by the story of former Apache captive Herman Lehmann, whom Gipson had seen give an exhibition when he was a child....
. As most of Disney's cel animation artists were laid off after the computer graphics
CG artwork
CG is a term most commonly known in the West for its use in Japanese webpages to denote digital artwork. In traditional Japanese, it is an abbreviation of the Japanese gairaigo , used to refer to any form of digital artwork, from digitally shaded dōjinshi to legitimate cinematic art...
boom of the late 1990s, the 13 minutes of animation were not done in-house but by the independent Pasadena
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
-based company James Baxter Animation, which was started by noted lead animator James Baxter
James Baxter (animator)
James Baxter is a British character animator. He was first known for his work on several Walt Disney Animation Studios films, including various characters in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Rafiki in The Lion King, Belle in Beauty and the Beast, and Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.After Notre...
. Baxter had previously worked for Walt Disney Feature Animation, bringing to life many memorable Disney animated characters like Jessica Rabbit
Jessica Rabbit
Jessica Rabbit is a fictional character from the Roger Rabbit film-and-novel franchise.Jessica Rabbit may also refer to:* Jessica Rabbit vibrator, a sex toy* Melyssa Ford , Canadian model-See also:...
(Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a 1988 American fantasy-comedy-noir film directed by Robert Zemeckis and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film combines live action and animation, and is based on Gary K. Wolf's novel Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, which depicts a world in which cartoon characters...
), Belle (Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 American animated fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirtieth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series and the third film of the Disney Renaissance period...
), Rafiki (The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
), and Quasimodo
Quasimodo
Quasimodo is a fictional character in the novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo. Quasimodo was born with a hunchback and feared by the townspeople as a sort of monster but he finds sanctuary in an unlikely love that is fulfilled only in death. The role of Quasimodo has been played by...
(The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1996 American animated drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released to theaters on June 21, 1996 by Walt Disney Pictures. The thirty-fourth animated feature in the Disney animated features canon, the film is inspired by Victor Hugo's novel of...
).
Although Lima wanted the animation to be nostalgic, he wanted Enchanted to have a style of its own. Baxter's team decided to use Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
as a starting point. For Giselle, the 2D-animated character had to be "a cross between Amy [Adams] and a classic Disney princess. And not a caricature." Seeing Giselle as "a forest girl, an innocent nymph with flowers in her hair" and "a bit of a hippie", the animators wanted her to be "flowing, with her hair and clothes. Delicate." For Prince Edward, Baxter's team "worked the hardest on him to make him look like the actor" because princes "in these kinds of movies are usually so bland." Many prototypes were made for Narissa as Baxter's team wanted her face to "look like Susan [Sarandon]'s. And the costumes had to align closely to the live-action design."
To maintain continuity between the two media, Lima brought in costume designer Mona May during the early stages of the film's production so that the costumes would be aligned in both the animated and live-action worlds. He also shot some live-action footage of Amy Adams as Giselle for the animators to use as reference, which also allowed the physical movement of the character to match in both worlds. Test scenes completed by the animators were shown to the actors, allowing them to see how their animated self would move.
Live-action
The first scene in New York, which features Giselle emerging from a manhole in the middle of Times Square
Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
, was filmed on location in the center of the square. Because of the difficulties in controlling the crowd while filming in Times Square, general pedestrians were featured in the scene with hired extras placed in the immediate foreground. Similarly, a crowd gathered to watch as James Marsden and Timothy Spall filmed their scenes in Times Square. However, the scene Lima found the most challenging to shoot was the musical number, "That's How You Know", in Central Park. The five-minute scene took 17 days to finish due to the changing weather, which allowed only seven sunny days for the scene to be filmed. The filming was also hampered at times by Patrick Dempsey's fans. The scene was choreographed by John O'Connell, who had worked on Moulin Rouge!
Moulin Rouge!
Moulin Rouge! is a 2001 romantic jukebox musical film directed, produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. Following the Red Curtain Cinema principles, the film is based on the Orphean myth, La Traviata, and La Bohème...
beforehand, and included 300 extras and 150 dancers.
Many scenes were also filmed at Steiner Studios
Steiner Studios
Steiner Studios is the largest film and television production studio complex outside of Hollywood. Steiner Studios offers of soundstages, with air conditioning and power infrastructure, and an additional of offices, dressing and make-up rooms, mill shops, spray booths, prop lock-ups, etc. All...
, which provided the three large stages that Enchanted needed at the same facility. Other outdoor locations included the Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge
The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the oldest suspension bridges in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River...
and The Paterno
The Paterno
The Paterno is a Manhattan apartment building located at 116th Street and Riverside Drive and also known as 440 Riverside Drive. The building is noted for its curved facade, impressive marble lobby with a stained-glass ceiling, and substantial porte-cochère. Across 116th Street, The Paterno faces...
, an apartment building with a curved, heavily embellished, ivory-colored façade located on the corner of Riverside Drive
Riverside Drive (Manhattan)
Riverside Drive is a scenic north-south thoroughfare in the Manhattan borough of New York City. The boulevard runs on the west side of Manhattan, generally parallel to the Hudson River from 72nd Street to near the George Washington Bridge at 181st Street...
and 116th Street
116th Street (Manhattan)
116th Street runs from Riverside Drive, overlooking the Hudson River, to the East River, through the New York City borough of Manhattan. It traverses the neighborhoods of Morningside Heights, Harlem, and Spanish Harlem; the street is interrupted between Morningside Heights and Harlem by Morningside...
, which is the residence of the film's characters Robert and Morgan Phillip.
Costume design
The Wedding Singer
The Wedding Singer is a 1998 romantic comedy film written by Tim Herlihy and directed by Frank Coraci. It stars Adam Sandler as a wedding singer in the 1980s and Drew Barrymore as a waitress with whom he falls in love....
and The Haunted Mansion
The Haunted Mansion (film)
The Haunted Mansion is a 2003 American comedy horror family film which is based on The Haunted Mansion attraction at Disney theme parks. The film is directed by Rob Minkoff, and stars Eddie Murphy, Terence Stamp, Jennifer Tilly, Marsha Thomason, and Nathaniel Parker...
. To create the costumes, May spent one year in pre-production working with animators and her costume department of 20 people, while she contracted with five outside costume shops in Los Angeles and New York. She became involved in the project during the time when the animators were designing the faces and bodies of the characters as they had to "translate the costumes from two-dimensional drawings to live-action human proportion". Her goal was to keep the designs "Disneyesque to the core but bring a little bit of fashion in there and humor and make it something new". However, May admitted this was difficult "because [they're] dealing with iconic Disney characters who have been in the psyche of the viewing audience for so long".
For the character of Giselle, her journey to becoming a real woman is reflected in her dresses, which become less fairy tale-like as the film progresses. Her wedding dress at the beginning of the film directly contrasts her modern gown at the end of the film. The wedding dress served to provide a "humongous contrast to the flat drawings" and to accentuate the image of a Disney Princess. In order to make the waist look small, the sleeves were designed to be "extremely pouffy" and the skirt to be as big as possible, which included a metal hoop that holds up 20 layers of petticoats and ruffles. Altogether, 11 versions of the dress were made for filming, each comprised 200 yards (183 m) of silk satin and other fabric, and weighed approximately 40 pounds (18 kg). On the experience of wearing the wedding dress, Amy Adams
Amy Adams
Amy Lou Adams is an American actress and singer. Adams began her performing career on stage in dinner theaters before making her screen debut in the 1999 black comedy film Drop Dead Gorgeous...
described it as "grueling" since "the entire weight was on [her] hips, so occasionally it felt like [she] was in traction".
Unlike Giselle, Prince Edward does not adapt to the real world and James Marsden
James Marsden
James Paul Marsden is an American actor, singer and former Versace model. He is known for playing the superhero Cyclops in the first three X-Men films and for his roles in other commercially successful films such as Hop, Superman Returns, Hairspray, Enchanted, The Box, and 27 Dresses.-Early life...
, who plays Edward, had only one costume designed for him. May's aim was to try "not to lose [Marsden] in the craziness of the outfit... where he still looks handsome". The costume also included padding in the chest, buttocks and crotch, which gave Marsden the "same exaggerated proportions as an animated character" and "posture – his back is straight, the sleeves are up and never collapse".
May was delighted that Lima "went for something more fashion-forward" with Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
's Queen Narissa. She decided to make her look like a "runway lady", wearing something that is "still Disney" but also "high fashion, like something John Galliano
John Galliano
John Charles Galliano CBE, RDI is a Gibraltan-born British fashion designer who was best known as head designer of French haute couture houses Givenchy and Christian Dior , and his own self titled fashion house.-Family:He was born in Gibraltar to a Gibraltarian father, Juan Galliano, and a...
or Thierry Mugler
Thierry Mugler
Thierry Mugler is a French fashion designer and creator of several perfumes.-Childhood:Mugler was born in Strasbourg, France on 21 December 1948. His passion led him to focus more on drawing than on school and at the age of 9, he began to study classical dance...
might design". Since Narissa appears in three media: 2D animation, live-action and computer animation, May had to make sure that the costume would be the same throughout in terms of "color, shape and texture". The costume for Narissa consisted of a leather corset and skirt, which looked "reptilian", as well as a cape. Working with the animators, May incorporated parts of the dragon's form into the costume; the cape was designed to look like wings, the layers of the skirt wrap around like a tail and a crown that would turn into horns during Narissa's transformation into a dragon.
Music
The film's score was written by accomplished songwriter and composer Alan MenkenAlan Menken
Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...
, who has worked on a number of Disney
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney Pictures is an American film studio owned by The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney Pictures and Television, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Studios and the main production company for live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, based at the Walt Disney...
films previously. Fellow composer Stephen Schwartz
Stephen Schwartz (composer)
Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over four decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell , Pippin and Wicked...
wrote the lyrics for six songs, also composed by Menken. Menken and Schwartz previously worked together on the songs for Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Menken became involved with the film in the early stages of the film's development and invited Schwartz to resume their collaboration. They began the songwriting process by searching for the right moments in the story in which a song moment was allowed. Schwartz found that it was easier to justify situations in which the characters would burst into songs in Enchanted than in other live-action musicals as its concept "allowed the characters to sing in a way that was completely integral to the plot of the story." The three songs Giselle sings contain references to earlier Disney films. The first song played in the film, "True Love's Kiss", was written to be "a send-up of, and an homage to, the style of those Disney animated features", namely, "I'm Wishing" (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
) and "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes
A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes
"A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" is a song written and composed by Mack David, Al Hoffman and Jerry Livingston for the Walt Disney film Cinderella . In the song Cinderella encourages her animal friends to never stop dreaming, and that theme continues throughout the entire story.The theme of...
" (Cinderella
Cinderella (1950 film)
Cinderella is a 1950 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "Cendrillon" by Charles Perrault. Twelfth in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film had a limited release on February 15, 1950 by RKO Radio Pictures. Directing credits go to Clyde Geronimi,...
), during which Disney heroines sing about the joy of being loved. It posed a challenge for Menken and Schwartz because of the "many preconceptions with that number"; it had to be reflective of the era of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Cinderella. Accordingly, Amy Adams performed the first song in an operetta style in contrast to the Broadway style of the later songs.
Both "Happy Working Song
Happy Working Song
"Happy Working Song" is a musical number from the 2007 Disney film Enchanted, with music composed by Alan Menken and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Performed by the film's lead actress, Amy Adams, the song pays an homage to such Disney songs as "Whistle While You Work" from Snow White and the Seven...
" and "That's How You Know
That's How You Know
The song was covered by Demi Lovato on DisneyMania 6. Lovato's version deviates heavily from the original, having a very different chord progression in the background, eliminating all traces of the calypso influence, and relying heavily on electric guitars and drums. It was her first and final...
" also pay tributes to past Disney songs. "Happy Working Song" pays a lyrical homage to such songs as "Whistle While You Work
Whistle While You Work
Whistle While You Work is a song with music written by Frank Churchill and lyrics written by Larry Morey for the 1937 animated Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was performed in the movie, at least unofficially, by voice actress Adriana Caselotti...
" (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), "The Work Song" (Cinderella) "A Spoonful of Sugar
A Spoonful of Sugar
"A Spoonful Of Sugar" is a song from Walt Disney's 1964 film and the musical versions of Mary Poppins, composed by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman....
" (Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins (film)
Mary Poppins is a 1964 musical film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, produced by Walt Disney, and based on the Mary Poppins books series by P. L. Travers with illustrations by Mary Shepard. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, with songs by...
) and Making Christmas (The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to...
), and a musical homage to the Sherman Brothers (with a self-parodic 'Alan Menken style' middle eight). "That's How You Know" is a self-parody of Menken's compositions for his Disney features, specifically such big production numbers as "Under the Sea
Under the Sea
-Parodies:In 1991, this song was parodied by musician Tom Smith with his song, "On The PC". This song was re-written in 1999 as "PC99".The song was parodied on the TV show Kappa Mikey where Mikey tries to convince a squid to live on land with him....
" (The Little Mermaid) and "Be Our Guest
Be Our Guest
"Be Our Guest" is a 1991 Academy Award-nominated song from the animated film, Beauty and the Beast. The music was written by Alan Menken and lyrics by Howard Ashman. The song was sung by Jerry Orbach, Angela Lansbury, and other singers in the background chorus. The song was nominated for an Academy...
" (Beauty and the Beast). To achieve this, Schwartz admitted he had to "push it a little bit further in terms of choices of words or certain lyrics" while maintaining "the classic Walt Disney sensibility". However, Menken noted that the songs he has written for Disney have always been "a little tongue-in-cheek". As the film progresses, the music uses more contemporary styles, which is heard through the adult ballad "So Close" and the country/pop number "Ever Ever After".
Out of the six completed songs written by Menken and Schwartz, five remained in the finished film. The titular song "Enchanted", a duet featuring Idina Menzel and James Marsden, was cut from the movie.
Effects
The majority of the visual effects shots in Enchanted were done by Tippett StudioTippett Studio
Tippett Studio is a visual effects company specializing in computer-generated imagery for movies and television commercials. Phil Tippett founded the studio in 1984, which employs effects artists who work with his partners Jules Roman and Craig Hayes....
in Berkeley, California, who contributed a total of 320 shots. These shots involved virtual sets, environmental effects and CG
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
characters that performed alongside real actors, namely the animated animals during the "Happy Working Song" sequence, Pip and the Narissa dragon during the live action portions of the film. CIS Hollywood was responsible for 36 visual effects shots, which primarily dealt with wire removal
Wire removal
Wire removal is a visual effects technique used to remove wires in films, usually as a safety precaution or to simulate flying in actors or miniatures....
s and composites. Reel FX Creative Studios did four visual effects shots involving the pop-up book page-turn transitions while Weta Digital
Weta Digital
Weta Digital is a digital visual effects company based in Wellington, New Zealand. It was founded by Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, and Jamie Selkirk in 1993 to produce the digital special effects for Heavenly Creatures. In 2007 Weta Digital’s Senior Visual Effects Supervisor, Joe Letteri, was...
did two.
Out of all the animals that appear in the "Happy Working Song" sequence, the only real animals filmed on set were rats and pigeons. The real animals captured on film aided Tippett Studio in creating CG rats and pigeons, which gave dynamic performances such as having pigeons that carried brooms in their beaks and rats that scrubbed with toothbrushes. On the other hand, all the cockroaches were CG characters.
Pip, a chipmunk who can talk in the 2D world of Andalasia, loses his ability to communicate through speech in the real world so he must rely heavily on facial and body gestures. This meant the animators had to display Pip's emotions through performance as well as making him appear like a real chipmunk. The team at Tippett began the process of animating Pip by observing live chipmunks which were filmed in motion from "every conceivable angle", after which they created a photorealistic chipmunk through the use of 3D computer graphics software, Maya
Maya (software)
Autodesk Maya , commonly shortened to Maya, is 3D computer graphics software that runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Linux, originally developed by Alias Systems Corporation and currently owned and developed by Autodesk, Inc. It is used to create interactive 3D applications, including video...
and Furrocious. When visual effects supervisor Thomas Schelesny showed the first animation of Pip to director Kevin Lima, he was surprised that he was a looking at CG character and not reference footage. To enhance facial expressions, the modelers gave Pip eyebrows, which real chipmunks do not have. During the filming of scenes in which Pip appears, a number of ways were used to indicate the physical presence of Pip. On some occasions, a small stuffed chipmunk with a wire armature on the inside was placed in the scene. In other situations, a rod with a small marker on the end or a laser pointer would be used to show the actors and cinematographer where Pip is.
Unlike Pip, the Narissa dragon was allowed to be more of a fantasy character while still looking like a living character and a classic Disney villain. The CG dragon design was loosely based on a traditional Chinese dragon and Susan Sarandon's live-action witch. When filming the scene which sees the transformation of Narissa from a woman into a dragon, a long pole was used to direct the extras' eyelines instead of a laser pointer. Set pieces were made to move back and forth in addition to having a computer-controlled lighting setup and a repeatable head on the camera that were all synchronized together. In the film's final sequence, in which Narissa climbs the Woolworth Building
Woolworth Building
The Woolworth Building is one of the oldest skyscrapers in New York City. More than a century after the start of its construction, it remains, at 57 stories, one of the fifty tallest buildings in the United States as well as one of the twenty tallest buildings in New York City...
while clutching Robert in her claws, a greenscreen rig was built to hold Patrick Dempsey in order to film his face and movements. The rig was a "puppeteering" approach that involved a robotic arm being controlled by three different floor effects artists.
Distribution
The film was distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures to 3,730 theaters in the United States. It was distributed worldwide by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International to over 50 territories around the world and topped the box office in several countries including the United Kingdom and Italy.Enchanted was released on standard DVD and Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on March 18, 2008, in the United States. While Enchanted topped the DVD sales chart on the week of its release in the United States, narrowly defeating the DVD sales of I Am Legend
I Am Legend (film)
I Am Legend is a 2007 post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Will Smith. It is the third feature film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel of the same name, following 1964's The Last Man on Earth and 1971's The Omega Man. Smith plays virologist Robert...
, the Blu-ray Disc sales of I Am Legend were nearly four times the number of Blu-ray Disc sales of Enchanted. The DVD was released in United Kingdom and Europe on April 7, 2008, and in Australia on May 21, 2008.
The bonus features included on both the DVD and Blu-ray Disc are "Fantasy Comes to Life", a three-part behind-the-scenes feature including "Happy Working Song", "That's How You Know" and "A Blast at the Ball"; six deleted scene
Deleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
s with brief introductions by director Kevin Lima; bloopers; "Pip's Predicament: A Pop-Up Adventure", a short in pop-up storybook style; and Carrie Underwood's music video for "Ever Ever After". Featured on the Blu-ray disc only is a trivia game entitled "The D Files" that runs throughout the movie with high scoring players given access to videos "So Close", "Making Ever Ever After" and "True Love's Kiss". In the United States, certain DVDs at Target
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
stores contain a bonus DVD with a 30-minute long making-of documentary titled Becoming Enchanted: A New Classic Comes True. This DVD is also sold with certain DVDs at HMV stores in the United Kingdom.
Critical response
The film received very positive reviews from critics. The movie review aggregate website Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
tallied the film at an overall 92% approval rating (based on 156 reviews, with 144 "fresh" and 12 "rotten"), while Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave it a 75% rating based on 32 reviews. Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film as the ninth best reviewed film in wide release of 2007 and named it the best family film of 2007.
Positive reviews praised the film's take on a classic Disney story, its comedy and musical numbers as well as the performance of its lead actress, Amy Adams
Amy Adams
Amy Lou Adams is an American actress and singer. Adams began her performing career on stage in dinner theaters before making her screen debut in the 1999 black comedy film Drop Dead Gorgeous...
. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
gave the film three stars out of four, describing it as a "heart-winning musical comedy that skips lightly and sprightly from the lily pads of hope to the manhole covers of actuality" and one that "has a Disney willingness to allow fantasy into life". Film critics of Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
and LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
remarked on the film's ability to cater for all ages. LA Weekly described the film as "the sort of buoyant, all-ages entertainment that Hollywood has been laboring to revive in recent years (most recently with Hairspray
Hairspray (2007 film)
Hairspray is a 2007 musical film produced by Kolaja Productions and distributed by New Line Cinema. It was released in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom on July 20, 2007. The film is an adaptation of the 2002 Broadway musical of the same name, which in turn was based on John...
) but hasn't managed to get right until now", while Todd McCarthy of Variety commented, "More than Disney's strictly animated product, Enchanted, in the manner of the vast majority of Hollywood films made until the '60s, is a film aimed at the entire population – niches be damned. It simply aims to please, without pandering, without vulgarity, without sops to pop-culture fads, and to pull this off today is no small feat." Enchanted was the Broadcast Film Critics Association
Broadcast Film Critics Association
The Broadcast Film Critics Association is the largest film critics organization in the United States and Canada , representing approximately 250 television, radio and online critics....
's choice for Best Family Film of 2007, while Carrie Rickey of The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United States. The newspaper was founded by John R. Walker and John Norvell in June 1829 as The Pennsylvania Inquirer and is the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the...
named it the 4th best film of 2007.
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, Premiere
Premiere (magazine)
Premiere was an American and New York City-based film magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., published between the years 1987 and 2007. The original version of the magazine, Première , was started in France in 1976 and is still being published there.-History:The magazine originally...
, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
, and The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
all gave the film three out of four, while Baltimore Sun gave the film a B grade. They cited that although the story is relatively predictable, the way in which the predictability of the film is part of the story, the amazingly extravagant musical numbers, along with the way in which Disney pokes fun at its traditional line of animated movies outweighs any squabbles about storyline or being unsure of what age bracket the film is made for. Michael Sragow of Baltimore Sun remarked that the film's "piquant idea and enough good jokes to overcome its uneven movie-making and uncertain tone", while Claudia Puig of USA Today stated that "though it's a fairly predictable fish-out-of-water tale (actually a princess-out-of-storybook saga), the casting is so perfect that it takes what could have been a ho-hum idea and renders it magical."
Amy Adams herself garnered many favorable reviews. Reviewers praised her singing ability and asserted that her performance, which was compared by some to her Academy Award-nominated performance in Junebug
Junebug (film)
Junebug is a 2005 American comedy-drama film directed by Phil Morrison. It was released on August 3, 2005 and stars Amy Adams, Alessandro Nivola, Embeth Davidtz, and Benjamin McKenzie...
, has made Adams a movie star, likening it to Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins (film)
Mary Poppins is a 1964 musical film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, produced by Walt Disney, and based on the Mary Poppins books series by P. L. Travers with illustrations by Mary Shepard. The film was directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, with songs by...
effect on Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
' career. Similarly, film critics Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Richard E. Roeper is an American columnist and film critic for The Chicago Sun-Times and now a co-host on The Roe Conn Show on WLS-AM...
and Michael Phillips, who gave the film positive reviews on At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper, emphasized the effect of Adams' performance on the film with remarks like "Amy Adams is this movie" and "Amy Adams shows how to make a comic cliché work like magic." However, both agreed that the final sequence involving the computer-generated dragon of Narissa "bogged down" the film.
Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
stated that the film was targeted at children but agreed with other reviewers that the "extremely game cast" was the film's best asset. It gave the film three out of five. TIME gave the film a C-, stating that the film "cannibalizes Walt's vault for jokes" and "fails to find a happy ending that doesn't feel two-dimensional". Similarly, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
commented that the film "assumes a beady-eyed and deeply humourless sentimentality" and that Adams' performance was the "only decent thing in this overhyped family movie covered in a cellophane shrink-wrap of corporate Disney plastic-ness". Bradshaw gave the film two out of five.
Box office performance
Enchanted earned $7,967,766 on the day of its release in the United States, placing at #1. It was also placed at #1 on Thanksgiving Day, earning $6,652,198 to bring its two-day total to $14.6 million. The film grossed $14.4 million on the following day, bringing its total haul to $29.0 million placing ahead of other contenders. Enchanted made $34.4 million on the Friday-Sunday period in 3,730 theaters for a per location average of $9,472 and $49.1 million over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday in 3,730 theaters for a per location average of $13,153. Its earnings over the five-day holiday exceeded projections by $7 million. Ranking as the second-highest Thanksgiving opening after Toy Story 2Toy Story 2
Toy Story 2 is a 1999 American computer animated film directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Lee Unkrich and Ash Brannon. It is the sequel to the 1995 film Toy Story, released by Walt Disney Pictures and the third film to be produced by Pixar...
, which earned $80.1 million over the five-day holiday in 1999, Enchanted is the first film to open at #1 on the Thanksgiving frame in the 21st century.
In its second weekend, Enchanted was also the #1 film, grossing a further $16,403,316 at 3,730 locations for a per theater average of $4,397. It dropped to #2 in its third weekend, with a gross of $10,709,515 in 3,520 theaters for a per theater average of $3,042. It finished its fourth weekend at #4 with a gross of $5,533,884 in 3,066 locations for a per theater average of $1,804. Enchanted earned a gross of $127,807,262 in the United States and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
as well a total of $340,487,652 worldwide. It was the 15th highest-grossing film worldwide released in 2007.
Awards
In total, Enchanted was nominated for 19 awards presented by various critics associations and movie industry groups, five of which it won: Best Live Action Family Film at the 8th Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards, Best Family Film at the 13th Critics' Choice AwardsBroadcast Film Critics Association Awards 2007
The 13th Critics' Choice Awards were given on 7 January 2008 to honor the finest achievements in 2007 filmmaking.-Winners and nominees:The nominees in each of the 18 categories are listed below :-Best Actor:...
, notably beating out Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and three Saturn Award
Saturn Award
The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...
s: Best Fantasy Film
Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film
The following are a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Fantasy Film:...
, Best Actress for Amy Adams
Amy Adams
Amy Lou Adams is an American actress and singer. Adams began her performing career on stage in dinner theaters before making her screen debut in the 1999 black comedy film Drop Dead Gorgeous...
, and Best Music
Saturn Award for Best Music
The following is a list of Saturn Award winners for Best Music.-Multiple Winners:*John Williams - 7 awards*Danny Elfman - 5 awards*James Horner - 3 awards*Alan Silvestri - 3 awards*Alan Menken - 2 awards*John Ottman - 2 awards*Miklós Rózsa - 2 awards...
for Alan Menken
Alan Menken
Alan Menken is an American musical theatre and film composer and pianist.Menken is best known for his numerous scores for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. His scores for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and Pocahontas have each won him two Academy Awards...
.
Enchanted dominated the Best Original Song
Academy Award for Best Original Song
The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...
category at the 80th Academy Awards
80th Academy Awards
The 80th Academy Awards ceremony honored the best films in 2007 and was broadcast from the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California on ABC beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST/8:30 p.m. EST, February 24, 2008 . During the ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Academy Awards in 24...
with three nominations but did not win. The nominated songs were "Happy Working Song
Happy Working Song
"Happy Working Song" is a musical number from the 2007 Disney film Enchanted, with music composed by Alan Menken and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Performed by the film's lead actress, Amy Adams, the song pays an homage to such Disney songs as "Whistle While You Work" from Snow White and the Seven...
", "So Close" and "That's How You Know
That's How You Know
The song was covered by Demi Lovato on DisneyMania 6. Lovato's version deviates heavily from the original, having a very different chord progression in the background, eliminating all traces of the calypso influence, and relying heavily on electric guitars and drums. It was her first and final...
", all three of which were written by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz
Stephen Schwartz (composer)
Stephen Lawrence Schwartz is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over four decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as Godspell , Pippin and Wicked...
. "That's How You Know" was also nominated at the 65th Golden Globe Awards
65th Golden Globe Awards
The 65th Golden Globe Awards, honoring the best in film and television of 2007, were scheduled to be presented by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association on January 13, 2008...
for Best Original Song
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song was awarded for the first time in 1962 and has been awarded annually since 1965 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.-1960s:...
and the film's lead actress, Amy Adams, was nominated in the category of Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
At the 13th Critics' Choice Awards, Adams was nominated for Best Actress, Menken was nominated for his film score in the category of Best Composer and "That's How You Know" was nominated for Best Song. Enchanted received two nominations at the 12th Satellite Awards
Satellite Awards 2007
The 12th Satellite Awards, honoring the best in film- and televisionmaking in 2007, were given on 16 December 2007.-Film: Best Actor – Drama* Viggo Mortensen – Eastern Promises**Christian Bale – Rescue Dawn...
: Best Actress – Musical or Comedy
Satellite Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
The Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy is one the Satellite Awards, given annually by the International Press Academy.- 1990s :- 2000s :- 2010–2019 :...
for Amy Adams' performance and Best Visual Effects
Satellite Award for Best Visual Effects
The Satellite Award for Best Visual Effects is one of the annual Satellite Awards given by the International Press Academy.- 1990s :- 2000s :...
for the visual effects work done by Thomas Schelesny, Matt Jacobs and Tom Gibbons. Gibbons, along with James W. Brown, David Richard Nelson and John Koester, were nominated for a Visual Effects Society
Visual Effects Society
The Visual Effects Society is the entertainment industry's only organization representing the full breadth of visual effects practitioners including artists, animators, technologists, model makers, educators, studio leaders, supervisors, PR/marketing specialists and producers in all areas of...
Award in the Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture category for the animated chipmunk, Pip. Costume designer Mona May received a nomination in the category of Excellence in Fantasy Film at the 10th Costume Designers Guild Awards
Costume Designers Guild Awards 2007
----Contemporary: Blades of Glory ----Fantasy: The Golden Compass ----Period: Sweeney Todd The 10th Costume Designers Guild Awards, honouring the best costume designs in film and television for 2007, were given in 2008...
but lost to The Golden Compass, while music editors Kenneth Karman, Jermey Raub and Joanie Diener were nominated for a Golden Reel Award
Motion Picture Sound Editors
Founded in 1953, Motion Picture Sound Editors is an honorary society of motion picture sound editors. The society's goals are to educate others about and increase the recognition of the sound editors, show the artistic merit of the soundtracks, and improve the professional relationship of its...
in the category of Best Sound Editing: Music in a Musical Feature Film.
The film also received three nominations at the MTV Movie Awards
2008 MTV Movie Awards
The 2008 MTV Movie Awards broadcast the 17th annual movie awards show live on Sunday, June 1, at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California...
and four nominations at the Teen Choice Awards
Teen Choice Awards
The Teen Choice Awards, are an annual awards show that air on the Fox cable channel, that honor the year's biggest biggest achievements in music, movies, sports, television, fashion and more, voted by teen viewers aged 14 through 17. Winners receive an authentic full size surfboard designed with...
, which are voted upon by the general public. The three MTV Movie Award nominations were Best Female performance (for Amy Adams), Best Comedic Performance (for Amy Adams) and Best Kiss (for Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Galen Dempsey is an American actor, known for his role as neurosurgeon Dr. Derek Shepherd on the medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Prior to Grey's Anatomy he made several television appearances and was nominated for an Emmy Award...
). The nominations at the Teen Choice Awards were Choice Movie: Chick Flick, Choice Movie Actress: Comedy (for Amy Adams), Choice Movie Actor: Comedy (for James Marsden
James Marsden
James Paul Marsden is an American actor, singer and former Versace model. He is known for playing the superhero Cyclops in the first three X-Men films and for his roles in other commercially successful films such as Hop, Superman Returns, Hairspray, Enchanted, The Box, and 27 Dresses.-Early life...
), and Choice Movie: Villain (for Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
). Menken and Schwartz were nominated twice at the 51st Grammy Awards
51st Grammy Awards
The 51st Annual Grammy Awards took place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA on February 8, 2009. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss were the biggest winners of the night, jointly winning five awards including Album of the Year and Record of the Year...
in the category of Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
The Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media has been awarded since 1988 and is awarded to songs written for films, television, video games or other visual media...
for "Ever Ever After" and "That's How You Know". For its trailer
Trailer (film)
A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the...
, the film received a 2008 Golden Trailer Award for Best Animation/Family feature film preview.
Disney references
According to director Kevin Lima, "thousands" of references are made to past and future works of Disney in Enchanted, which serve as both a parody of and a "giant love letter to Disney classics". It took almost eight years for Walt Disney StudiosThe Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
to greenlight the production of the film because it "was always quite nervous about the tone in particular". As Lima worked with Bill Kelly
Bill Kelly (writer)
Bill Kelly is an American screenwriter.-Filmography:* Premonition * Enchanted * Blast From the Past -External links:...
, the writer, to inject Disney references to the plot, it became "an obsession"; he derived the name of every character as well as anything that needed a name from past Disney films to bring in more Disney references.
While Disney animators have occasionally inserted a Disney character into background shots, for example, Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
appears in a crowd in The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid (1989 film)
The Little Mermaid is a 1989 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the same name. Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, the film was originally released to theaters on November 14, 1989 and is the twenty-eighth film in...
, they have avoided "mingling characters" from other Disney films for fear of weakening their individual mythologies. In Enchanted, characters from past Disney films are openly seen, such as the appearances of Thumper
Thumper (Bambi)
Thumper is a fictional rabbit character from Disney's animated movie Bambi. He appeared again in Bambi II. He is known and named for his habit of thumping his left hind foot...
and Flower from Bambi
Bambi
Bambi is a 1942 American animated film directed by David Hand , produced by Walt Disney and based on the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten...
in the 2D animation portion of the film. Disney references are also made through camera work, sets
Set construction
Set construction is the process by which a set designer works in collaboration with the director of a production to create the set for a theatrical, film or television production...
, costume
Costume
The term costume can refer to wardrobe and dress in general, or to the distinctive style of dress of a particular people, class, or period. Costume may also refer to the artistic arrangement of accessories in a picture, statue, poem, or play, appropriate to the time, place, or other circumstances...
s, music and dialogue. Obvious examples include the use of poisoned apples from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated film based on Snow White, a German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It was the first full-length cel-animated feature in motion picture history, as well as the first animated feature film produced in America, the first produced in full...
and True Love's Kiss from Snow White and Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)
Sleeping Beauty is a 1959 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the fairy tale "La Belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault...
. Dick Cook
Dick Cook
Richard W. "Dick" Cook is the former Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios. At the time of his separation from the company, he was the only remaining top Disney executive who had worked for the company since before Michael Eisner took charge in 1984...
, the chairman of Walt Disney Studios, admitted that part of the goal of Enchanted was to create a new franchise (through the character of Giselle) and to revive the older ones.
Merchandising
Disney had originally planned to add Giselle to the Disney Princess line-up, as was shown at a 2007 Toy Fair where the Giselle doll was featured with packaging declaring her with Disney Princess status, but decided against it when they realized they would have to pay for life-long rights to Amy AdamsAmy Adams
Amy Lou Adams is an American actress and singer. Adams began her performing career on stage in dinner theaters before making her screen debut in the 1999 black comedy film Drop Dead Gorgeous...
' image. While Giselle is not being marketed as one of the Disney Princesses, Enchanted merchandise was made available in various outlets with Adams' animated likeness being used on all Giselle merchandise. Giselle led the 2007 Hollywood Holly-Day Parade at Disney's Hollywood Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort. Spanning 135 acres in size, its theme is show business, drawing inspiration from the heyday of Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s...
. She was also featured in the 2007 Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade
Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade
The Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade is an American television special that airs on Christmas Day on the ABC, taped primarily inside the Magic Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, approximately one month prior to Christmas Day...
in the Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom Park is one of four theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort located near Orlando, Florida. The first park built at the resort, Magic Kingdom opened Oct. 1, 1971. Designed and built by WED Enterprises, the park's layout and attractions are similar to Disneyland in Anaheim, California...
with the official Disney Princesses.
A video game based on the film
Enchanted (video game)
Enchanted is a video game based on the 2007 film of the same title.-Playable characters:* Princess Giselle* Prince Edward* Pip...
was released for Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
and mobile phones in addition to a Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
title, Enchanted: Once Upon Andalasia, which is a prequel to the film, about Giselle and Pip rescuing Andalasia from a magic spell.
Sequel
In February 2010, VarietyVariety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
reported that Walt Disney Pictures planned to film a sequel with Barry Josephson and Barry Sonnenfeld producing again. Jessie Nelson was attached to write the screenplay and Anne Fletcher
Anne Fletcher
Anne Fletcher is an American film director and choreographer.Fletcher took dance lessons as a child. At the age of 15, she appeared on the show Salute to the Superstars; later she moved to California, where she was trained by Joe Tremaine. She worked as a choreographer and worked in this capacity...
to direct. Disney hoped the cast members from the first film would return and for a release as early as 2011.
On Jan. 12, 2011, composer Alan Menken was asked about the sequel in an interview. His reply was, "I’ve heard things but there's nothing yet. I don’t know much about what’s happening with that. Honestly, I don’t know what the studio wants to do next. I presume there will be some future projects for me to work on. I love doing that, I really do. But I’m not frustrated that this isn’t one of them. At the moment I have a lot of stage things happening and I’m busy enough with that, so I really don’t need more on my plate."
On March 28, 2011, in an interview for his latest film, Hop, James Marsden was asked about the sequel.