After
watching a couple of times, Enchanted
still holds a place as a favorite film of 2007. It's not
perfect. The ending works a little better second time around,
but still feels rushed. A couple of plot complications still
seem odd. But the overall charm and exuberance of the film,
combined with that star-making performance by Amy Adams,
completely conquers its shortcomings.
So the DVD release is most welcome. If
you missed it in theaters, here's your chance. The transfer
to video loses none of its luster, and the 5.1 mix plays
better than it did in the theaters. You don't have to strain
to pick up Director Kevin Lima's clever little sound cues.
As Disney realizes that most people buy
their DVDs strictly for the movie, this edition is relatively
sparse on extras. Instead of commentary, Lima gets relegated
to a few featurettes. However, the focus does seem to be
on the things that most people would want to know about.
"The Happy Working Song" features animal wranglers, which
should keep kids attentive. Of course, you have to see behind-the-scenes
on "That's How You Know," if only to pay proper tribute
to the massive coordination of dancers it took. Even stopping
and starting for rehearsals and mistakes, the sheer exuberance
of that number keeps coming through.
Naturally enough, the most special effects-heavy
section gets reserved for a featurette on the closing segment.
Nothing in it will be terribly surprising to people who
already understand CG work, but it does reveal that Patrick
Dempsey did a lot more of his own stuntwork than you might
have thought. And even without special effects, Susan Sarandon
still commands the scene with sheer regal posture.
The disc comes with both deleted scenes
and a blooper reel. Though his introductions get a little
repetitive - and he knows it - Lima explains why each scene
got cut from the film, and though he's obviously right in
his final decisions, one cut scene does give a little more
depth to Morgan, the daughter of Dempsey's lawyer character.
For a nice change, the music video included
features someone people that don't listen to Radio Disney
has actually heard. Carrie Underwood performs and gets animated
in a video that had some rotation at the time of the film's
release; while it's not quite an easter egg, it might be
hard to spot the musical note on the DVD menu.
Also check out the mouse ears. That's a
bonus and a taunt, in which a producer comments on how easy
it is to integrate features in Blu-Ray; case in point, an
option in which all the parallels to earlier Disney movies
are pointed out. It works just fine as an extra here in
a regular edition, but it does underscore that if Blu-Ray
does become a must-have in my house, Enchanted will
have to be one of the first upgrades.
The best extra is aimed directly at kids,
not parents wondering about technology changes. In "Pip's
Predicament," the disc tells the story of what happened
in Andalasia before Prince Edward followed Giselle into
the real world. It's a fill in the blank story, told through
a similar pop up device to the film's end titles. But because
it's all computer animated, it also looks like the layout
for a Magic Kingdom ride, and the few times that Disney
home video has done this have always been fun. Get a big
screen and a vibrating easy chair - it could be quite a
virtual experience.
But that's not why you should get Enchanted.
I won't make the obvious pun again, but it's simply true.
This is a classic, worth watching again and again.
