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Enchanted holds a very special place in the hearts of our family. We bought tickets to see it at the London Film Festival in 2007 and on getting there discovered it was the European premiere and a full red carpet event, attended by the cast and other key film makers. Deciding that our then three and six year old daughters were not dressed for such an event we whipped them down Oxford Street to get new outfits and then while waiting for the show to start Amy Adams, who was in the auditorium a little head of us, saw my youngest in the crowd and the two of them started waving and indicating to each other that they both had the same long red hair. I was perhaps more geeked out that songwriting legend Alan Menken was there too but all in all it was a very special occasion for our children. I mean you always remember your first big film premiere, yes? It’s a rite of passage for any kid.

So it was with fond memories that we sat down to watch Disenchanted this afternoon. The setting may not have been as salubrious, our home screen is not as big as the one in the Odeon Leicester Square, and one of the daughters was missing due to being at uni (although we have since had a third who was with us) but we were keen for it to be another fun family event.

I tell you this because the first part is something I enjoy telling, but also because this new movie was always going to find it hard to measure up for me and you need to consider this when reading my opinion. I enjoyed Disenchanted, but I’m afraid I didn’t think it was a touch on its predecessor.

First off, it wasn’t as original. How could it be? The joy of seeing a Disney princess lost in real world Manhattan was new and came at a time before such figures had undergone any reinvention. Now, after Tiana, Rapunzel, Merida, Anna & Elsa and Moana, these characters are typically more able to stand up for themselves. Giselle in Enchanted was actually significant in this sea change as she transformed from that old to this new during the story. Her grabbing the sword to rescue ‘her prince’ Robert in the denouement was not subtle but it was a great feminist moment nonetheless.

I also don’t feel that this film had the same innocent charm which more than anything might be illustrated by how it brings in the references to its parent company. Aside of the whole set up, Enchanted also cast a number of the actors who had played Disney Princesses in the past. Jodi Benson who voiced Ariel was Robert’s secretary, Paige O’Hara who was Belle appeared in the soap opera Edward watches on TV, Judy Kuhn who played Pocahontas was one of the residents of the apartment building and Ilene Woods and Mary Costa who starred as Cinderella and Aurura respectively were both at the ball. It was a nice touch and one you’d not have necessarily noticed at the time. Disenchanted on the other hand is heavily sprinkled with visual and musical nods to the old back catalogue; Beauty and the Beast has a shared lyrical refrain in one of the songs (it is Menken writing them again) and there is a light shop called Lumiere’s. Maleficent and Cruella get a name check and in the least subtle moment, teen Morgan climbs up some crates and randomly get water splashed behind her like Ariel on the rocks in The Little Mermaid. This is all the product of a studio that I feel is a little too proud of itself compared to last time.

There is something else about Enchanted that none of us realised at the time. The delightful narrative shift from a cartoon world to a real one was actually a bit of a precursor to the direction Disney was shortly going to take in soullessly remaking all of their classics in live action. What felt like a celebration of animation back then now seems like a clear move away from it. Sure enough then, what we get in Disenchanted is a recreation of a fairytale land in our world. Of course there were moments of this in the first one but that was the gag; the singing and dancing was done by street sweepers, buskers, pedestrians, rodents, pigeons and bugs. Here everyone is dressed like they’re in a cartoon and the giants are in our reality now, not the drawn one. There was more pleasure in seeing vermin believably cleaning up the kitchen than there is in a singing CGI coffee machine. It could be a wry comment on the state of things but I fear it is just the state of things. My favourite part of this movie was most certainly when they went back to the cartoon land but it was too short lived. Mind you, this might also be because this is where Idina Menzel gets her song. This is one way in which this film truly wins over the last one; if you are going to have Idina Menzel in your musical you have got to give her a song.

There is another small thing that might have just been in my mind. There is a suggestion at the end of Enchanted that Giselle and Robert are not actually married as part of their happy ever after, just cohabiting. This seemed a particularly revolutionary way for Disney to go having spent years telling us that a woman’s happiness came through finding a husband. Nope though, that win for the modern family has been snatched away in the sequel with the confirmation that Giselle is indeed Robert’s wife. That clothing company she started at the close of the first film seems to have been forgotten too, apparently because she became a stay at home mother.

Yet for all of this, Disenchanted is still a suitable sequel to Enchanted, whether it has been made for commercial rather than creative reasons or not. Amy Adams is still wonderful in this part, James Masters is fun again, Chip is back and the song and dance numbers and the general easy sense of adventure are infectious. Some of this is underplayed or underused but they do try to take things and people in new directions which is enjoyable to see.

I’m sure won’t be rewatching this one as much as it’s predecessor, mostly because the kids are not little anymore but I’m not sure that’s all of it. We still had a nice afternoon watching this as a family though and that I will cherish now just as much as I did then.

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