Enchanted, the Movie

We just came back from an afternoon with the grandparents Sweetie: we sorted toys and books for Gramma Sweetie's mission project (providing toys, food & clothing for underprivileged people in Kansas), lunch at a classic KC barbecue restaurant, and then a movie.

We've been looking forward to Enchanted for a while, and knew that it would be fun to take Gramma Sweetie with the girlies as well. We went to a theater at the Legends shopping center, a themed open air mall that you could drop right into Frontierland at Disney World with hardly any trouble. The theater is humungous, with 14 theaters, a balcony bar, and "VIP" seating where you can get food and drink--including alcoholic beverages, I think. The theater we were in was enormous--totally reversing the trend where theaters subdivide so small that you end up watching a wide screen TV with 50 friends. This screen was easily three times the size of most screens I am used to, and the seats! Leather seats! I bet the one theater would seat about 400 people, not counting the VIP balcony. Even cynical, jaded old me was impressed.

The movie was charming as well. It was a gentle ribbing of the conventions of fairy tales, without actually mocking them. Idina Menzel--perhaps most famous for portraying Elphaba in Wicked--articulates the movie's tone in a line where she says "Wow. The way you said that. So straightforward and not ironic. It was. . .romantic." And it is. There are some delightful Disney references--when the evil queen enters the real (non-animated) world, she disguises herself as an old hag and she looks EXACTLY like the hag from Snow White. The Queen's henchman looks almost exactly like Cogswell or Lumiere in human form from Beauty and the Beast.

There is a delightful homage to Snow White when Amy Adams' Giselle wakes up in Patrick Dempsey's apartment and is dismayed at the mess. She opens the window and sings out to call the animals in to help, just as Snow White did. However, since she is in New York City, the animals that respond are not the charming woodland animals we are used to seeing. When the cockroaches swarm up from the drain. . .well, even Giselle seems a bit put off, although she steels herself and points out that it is "always nice to make new friends."

I came out of the theater with my face sore from all the smiling. Even my almost jaded 14 year old really enjoyed it. Mr. Sweetie did opine that it is "definitely a chick flick" and I would have to agree. It is a chick flick, but a charming one and a delightful way to spend a couple of hours.