The sequel to the classic Disney movie “Enchanted” has finally been released fifteen years after the original release. The new film, “Disenchanted,” kept all the original enchantment from the first film. However, “Disenchanted” fell below my expectations for the sequel of such a classic movie.

To recap the first movie, Giselle (Amy Adams), an animated princess from the kingdom of Andalasia falls through a portal to 21st-century New York City. Before falling through the portal, she is engaged to Prince Edward (James Marsden). She spends the first half of the movie trying to make her way back to Edward. The man that takes her in when she arrives in New York City, Robert (Patrick Dempsey), soon realizes that he’s falling for Giselle, and they end up living happily ever after. Edward meets Robert’s former girlfriend, Nancy (Idina Menzel), and they fall in love and return to Andalasia together.

“Disenchanted” picks up several years after the end of the first. Robert and Giselle are now married with a new baby girl, along with Robert’s daughter from his former marriage, Morgan (Gabriella Baldacchino).

The film begins with Giselle and Robert deciding to move the family to a new house in the suburb of Monroeville. Giselle finds herself trying to help Morgan fit into her new school, but she comes face-to-face with the head of the school’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA), Malvina Monroe (Maya Rudolph). 

Edward and Nancy, return to give Giselle and Robert’s new baby the gift of a magic wand that pulls magic from Andalasia. After a fight between Giselle and Morgan, Giselle wishes to have a fairytale life again.

Her wish backfires when she realizes she’s slowly turning into an evil stepmother. Giselle also attempts to take over the new kingdom of Monrolasia from its new queen, Malvina Monroe. Giselle barely has enough of herself left in her (before the evil stepmother alter ego takes over) to tell Morgan how to reverse the spell and sends her to Andalasia to fix it.

Although this has to be one of the corniest movies I’ve seen in a while, it’s the most Disney-type movie I’ve ever watched. It combined plot points from so many different classic fairytales, like the evil stepmother (Cinderella), the magic mirror-wielding evil queen (Snow White), and even some fairy godmothers (Sleeping Beauty). 

With a production budget of $85 million, the film was extremely vibrant and felt a lot like the first one. The costumes before Giselle cast her spell were questionable, to say the least. Giselle was styled mostly in dresses from the 1950s, which was a strange choice likely made to keep her princess fashion style. After the spell was cast, the costumes were extremely extravagant with shimmery gold and deep red gowns.  

The only thing that was truly disappointing about this sequel was the beginning. The plotline didn’t pick up until around halfway through the film and before that point, I was struggling to stay engaged in what was going on. The first bit of a movie should be the hook, like an essay: it grabs the attention of the viewer and holds it. The beginning of the movie is told like a storybook by Giselle’s animal sidekick from the first movie and isn’t as engaging as I hoped it would be.

So many parts of the movie could’ve been improved. Everything from acting to wardrobe to the plotline could’ve been enhanced to make the movie better. To be completely honest, the only thing that saved “Disenchanted” was the cinematography and the nostalgia. 

Overall, the movie did meet my expectations as a subpar Disney sequel. There were some good elements of “Disenchanted,” but many more that fell below my expectations. Fifteen years is a really long time to wait to put out a sequel and many fans didn’t even think there was one coming. While the movie isn’t necessarily bad, there were too many elements that could’ve been improved immensely.

Contact Macey Thaxton at [email protected]