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(Trailer can be downloaded as QT and MPG)

Enchanted is a crossover movie. It combines styles and ideas, just as sometimes musicians will expand their work by crossing over into different genres. Enchanted’s crossings are done in a variety of ways, some that work, some that don’t.

The most obvious crossover is the splitting of the film into animated and live action. The film opens (and occasionally returns to) classic Disney animation reminiscent of Snow White or Sleeping Beauty (video featurette: The Characters). Giselle, with a cohort of woodland animals, is waiting to meet her true love and be made complete by true love’s kiss. When she and Prince Edward hear each other singing and recognize that their songs are each part of a duet, they meet and plan to marry the next day. Edward’s witchy stepmother won’t allow this to happen and drive her from her position of power. On the way into the wedding, she pushes Giselle into a well that falls forever—or at least until it comes out into the real world by way of a manhole in Times Square. Here the live action begins as Giselle must navigate the strange new world she finds herself in.

That first crossover leads to the next, a crossover between fairy tale and real world. Giselle has no understanding of what life in Manhattan is like. She is from an entirely different world where there is always a happily ever after. The New York she climbs into seems to be devoid of happiness. Not only that, but all the things that fit into fairy tales, especially the Disney versions of fairy tales, are not present here. There are no castles, talking animals, or peaceful woodlands. Everything here is fast and unfriendly. She seems hopelessly naïve as she tries to find someone to help her, finally meeting Robert, a divorce lawyer, and his daughter Morgan, who at least take her to their apartment to get cleaned up.

Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey

The central conflict in the film isn’t really Giselle’s inability to cope with the real world. It is about cynicism. Of course, we know that in the end all will be well—it is a fairy tale after all—but what she has to battle is the negativity that she encounters more than learning how to live in this world. In one exchange, as Robert is talking about his ex-wife, he says, “[Love] is complicated.” Giselle replies, “It doesn’t have to be.” In her fairy tale land, it isn’t complicated. As the story progresses, she learns a bit about how complicated it is in real life, but she teaches Robert how uncomplicated it can be as well.

Another crossover is the dichotomy between homage and parody. In many ways this film pays tribute to the long history of Disney animation (video featurette: The Legacy). It could easily keep a viewer occupied just looking for all the little references (some obvious, some subtle) to earlier Disney films. At the same time, by putting the fairy tale princess into the real world, it makes a parody of the fairy tales they seek to honor. A prime example of this is a scene in which Giselle sings while various animals help her clean the apartment. It’s cute in fairy tales. When it is being done by rats, flies, pigeons and cockroaches, it is a bit gross. Even the “Happy Working Song” she sings as these pests clean the apartment in some rather disgusting (but humorous) ways reminds us of “Whistle While You Work,” but includes the lines: “We adore each filthy chore that we determine/ So friends even though you’re vermin . . . .” Even as this pays homage, it parodies. (The unfortunate part of this well done parody in the song is that it flies by as you’re overwhelmed with the visuals of the vermin at work.)

James Marsden in Enchanted on Broadway

This film is designed to crossover in other ways as well. This film is designed to be the start of a franchise. As I watched the film, I could tell that this is next in line to be made into a stage version of a Disney story. I have no doubt that plans are already underway to have Enchanted on Broadway as soon as it can be arranged. The music and lyrics are by Broadway musical veterans. Even the production numbers often remind us of theatrical musicals like Godspell (lyrics by Stephen Schwartz) or Beauty and the Beast (music by Alan Menken - video interview w/ Menken and Schwartz). I’m sure they hope to score big with Enchanted toys as well.

Like Robert, I’m a cynic (at least when it comes to this film). It’s not that I don’t like stories in which a princess can be saved by true love’s kiss—it’s fun and enjoyable. But there is also a down side to such fairy tales—especially when told in a real world setting. In Enchanted, Giselle isn’t helped on the way to her true love by a fairy godmother, but by a six-year old with a gold card. Maybe you can’t buy love, but you can apparently buy all the trappings that will help you find it, and create a parent/child bond by shopping together. My cynicism tells me that Disney is looking for a payday with Enchanted that counts, not on a six year-old’s gold card, but on her parents’.