“Enchanted” – Walt Disney’s Apocalypse Now
-Helicopters and Dragons-

by Daniel Mallock, BookFolks

Sometimes a movie hits just the right notes (espcecially a musical), and is released at just the right time – that it is on its way to massive box office returns by the first day of release. Disney’s “Enchanted” is such a movie. The last time a movie was so perfectly timed, and of such high quality, might have been Francis Ford Coppolla’s “Apocalypse Now”. This is not to say in any way, of course, that “Enchanted” has anything in common with “Apocalypse Now”… wait. Hold on. Now that I think about it – they have so much in common.

Apocalypse Now documents the shattering of a country and the two male leads (Brando and Emelio Estevez’s dad) through the Vietnam War, a complete upheaval that sucks up everything in its path and spits it out again all broken and battered, or just plain dead. Lots of folks end up waking up dead in “Apocalypse Now”. Enchanted is a kind of apocalypse, too- a potentially life shattering event for a cartoon princess in which the heroine could well find herself waking up dead! Great stories are about watching interesting characters go through changes. The more intense and cinematic the change, the better! Few films have come close to the shattering images in Apocalypse Now, for example the image of Marlon Brando making a million dollars a minute for his fairly average performance is hard to forget. Much like the disturbing and artsy images from Coppolla’s violence-fest, Disney’s “Enchanted” has equal number of bright, happy, and sometimes “ewwwww!” inspiring moments to match.

While helicopters thump and whirr overhead and shriek across village’s blowing them to bits in Coppola’s helo homage, Amy Adams twitters and flits and bobs and dances and smiles her way into almost every viewer’s heart in “Enchanted”. Met with almost universal affection from viewers and pointy headed critics alike, There are exceptions, of course. These folks can find help easily. Some folks just haven’t got any joy. One unhappy reviewer even suggests that “…the movie becomes pedantic and predictable, proceeding from fanciful to boring in about ten minutes flat.” So wrong. So sad. So many people scratch their heads and wonder aloud about critics – how they can appear in print when they are so often utterly mistaken or deluded in their grasp of art and the artists who perpetrate it!? The value of critics and criticism is outside the purview of this particular post; needless to say, most critics have little merit. A by-line doesn’t make one insightful. However, even the most clueless of critics can have moments of accuracy. Roger Ebert, for example, so notorious for being so wrong, so often, is favorable to the movie. So, where critics are concerned, fantasies can come true! [For a great illustration of how deeply confused most critics are take a look at their utterly pathetic wrong misinterpretations of "Running With Scissors". A superb and disturbing movie almost completely misunderstood by critics.]

“Apocalypse Now” has Emiolio Estevez’ dad, while “Enchanted” has the by far more talented and lovely Amy Adams. Both films were just right for the times in which they were released, both were box office hits and critically acclaimed (not that that matters). It was the right time in 1979 for Coppolla’s movie. It was right for him-he needed money for his vineyard and winery, and he got it. It was right for the movie-going public-folks were ready for a serious artistic review of the Vietnam War. Apocalypse Now was there when it was needed and wanted. In a sense it provided a service. Now, folks are ready for a more whimsical tour de force. “Enchanted” is perfectly timed, and has just the right mix of charm, humor, drama, action, music, and romance. This is the combination that America needs now. And boy do we need it bad!

Some will say, including me, that “Enchanted” may be the best Disney movie since Julie Andrews’ stole America’s hearts in with her attitude heavy portrayal of Mary Poppins. The country is ready for “Enchanted” – America now has more than enough real apocalyptic activity going on right about now what with the vanquishing of evil, mysogonist, reactionary, cruel and heartless, self-aggrandizing Islamo-Fascists over in Iraq and Afghanistan and on our own shores currently underway. “Enchanted” is a much deserved break from the harsh realities of our lives. And its timing couldn’t be better.

The foundation of good drama, good art is watching folks change. The more change, the more real the change, the better! What could be more traumatic to watch (other than repeated viewings of Rocky Horror Picture Show) than a lovely cartoon princess being thrown into the real-life (at least from her perspective) bizarre, shocking, and dirty world of current day Times Square? Not much! That is exactly the predicament sweet Princess Giselle finds herself in. But she handles this existential change not by being shattered or violently blowing things up, but by handling herself with panache, positivity, music, and meeting new animal friends! Princess Giselle then has to fight Susan Sarandon, of all the horrors the film makers could throw at the young lass, did they have to be so cruel as that? Well, yes. And despite Ms. Sarandon’s lack of “clue”, the ensuing conflict works. Princess Giselle grows into a perfectly decent, always stunning and talented New York gal of the current day. Patrick Dempsey of Grey’s Anatomy is lucky enough to find her wandering in the rain in Times Square and takes her home so that his five year old girl can explain how life really works to him. Male leads in Disney films are often incredibly daft. And over time, we see Dempsey change and grow and learn that his cynical approach to life can be quickly overturned when the right princess is dropped in his life to muck up his very tight schedule, which doesn’t include cleaning his very expensive west side apartment. All the leads are quite good except for Sarandon whose obvious obsession with Frank N. Furter leads her far far astray.

While a critic (not me, of course) could readily blame the director for allowing Ms. Sarandon to so muck up her role, it’s more fun to directly heap criticism upon her. But it’s not all bad with Ms. Sarandon. Taking a much needed break from her seeming endless agitprop silliness Ms. Sarandon may well have put her most memorable role on celluloid with this movie. A small hint regarding her questionable performance can be found here in this interview in which she says that she never was really “into” the princess thing and doesn’t really understand why so many little girls are so intrigued by them. In answering the question “Why do you think the princesses still resonate with a new generation of girls today?” Ms. Sarandon uses the term “I don’t know” four times. Clearly, she is being honest. Looking a cross between Nora Desmond and Rocky Horror’s FrankNFurter Ms. Sarandon is so far over the top that the plummet to the bottom of the fountain for Giselle is but a quick dip compared to the endless millenia it will take for Sarandon’s Princess Narissa to fall her own distance to bottom.

“Apocalypse Now” had helicopters spitting fire from on high, “Enchanted” has a dragon doing the same. Both are scary in some primal way. But as our helicopters were silent during the release of “Apocalypse Now” – they are very much in action again today. Now is the time for “Enchanted” with it’s personal upheavals and battles and profound multiple apocalypses for a battle and war weary public.

This is not an anti-war film by any stretch, it recognizes as so many in our country do not, that there are times when force and evil must be met with an overwhelming force response so that the princess and the kingdom can be preserved. Believing that our enemies will desist in their evil because we request them to do so, or because we hope they will, or because we apologize to them is more a fantasy than anything in “Enchanted”.