Out of all of the Disney movies we were expecting sequels for, “Enchanted” was not on the list. Though the movie brought viewers into a state of childhood nostalgia, “Enchanted” had such a perfect fairy-tale ending that left us satisfied with the plot and in disbelief to hear about an upcoming sequel. “Disenchanted” throws fairytale twists under a suburban spotlight. However, the characters seem to be solely repetitive of other Disney classics instead of having their plot, personalities and story development like in “Enchanted.”

Cast and characters

Still shining under the spotlight, actors Amy Adams and Patrick Dempsey returned to play their characters, Giselle and Robert. Throughout “Disenchanted,” their characters undergo multiple personality changes that take a toll on their overall chemistry and affect aspects of their relationship. 

Robert has dramatically changed into a happy husband and is uncharacteristically optimistic about the move to the suburbs, which is a far cry from the normal Robert we know. He briefly seems unhappy about his job and commuting to work, but he doesn’t outwardly show it to Giselle. Later, due to Giselle’s wish, Robert turns into what we can only imagine is supposed to be a charming prince. His new habit of oddly-timed heroism and sudden ability to burst into song remind us of Edward from the first movie. The cringey Prince Charming was not played well by Dempsey and displays that there should certainly be a limit to how much facepalming a character causes us to do. Furthermore, there is little to no relationship shown between Giselle and Robert. Adams and Dempsey did not do as good of a job playing these characters and developing the romance between them as they did in the first movie; the original spark we saw between them in the first movie is lost. As Giselle’s role delves into the mother-daughter relationship between her and Morgan, Robert disappears into the plotline, and we find ourselves asking, where is Robert? 

In the beginning, the movie introduces Giselle and Robert’s new baby girl, Sofia, played by Mila and Lara Jackson. Sofia is unessential to the plot, only there to create an excuse for the existence of a magical wand used in the final battle and initiate the jealousy we see from Morgan. However, as Giselle’s character changes throughout the movie, Sofia gets less and less screen time, where we were expecting her to have greater importance. In general, Sofia seems like a justification for Morgan’s attitude and that conflict in this movie, which is a waste of a character that could have had a much more significant role. 

Rachel Covey, who played Morgan in the first movie, did not reprise her role in the sequel. Although we did not care for the cast switch, we were surprised to find a cameo of Covey halfway into the movie. Morgan, now played by Gabriella Baldacchino, follows the grumpy, isolated teenager stereotype that we too often see in movies. Quite frankly, this actor change is upsetting and unrealistic; she looks much older than Morgan’s projected age as a high school student. It was upsetting to see Morgan, a character who was previously a bright and happy young girl, turn into a disobedient and gloomy teenager. We know she’s supposed to have grown up, but her personality changed so much that it is extremely off-putting for viewers who expected the characters to stay in character. 

Many returning characters seemed to get a bit lost in the convoluted plot line, including Robert, Edward and Nancy. When we discovered that Idina Menzel, who plays Nancy, was going to have a song, we expected a bigger role in this movie, but she is another character that gets lost in the storyline. Nancy and Edward come to Monroeville to drop off the Magic Wishing Wand as a present from Sofia. We do not see them until the end when Nancy shows Morgan the importance of the memory tree in Andalasia. Though we wished to see more from her, her character transition between the two movies was the most natural among all the characters.

Another character we wanted to see more from was Pip, who Griffin Newman voiced. In “Enchanted,” Pip is Giselle’s sidekick like Mushu is to “Mulan” and Meekoo is to “Pocahontas.” Pip also provides a lot of comedic relief to more serious or dramatic scenes in “Enchanted.” However, in “Disenchanted,” Pip becomes more of a forgotten character than a sidekick, and his comedic effect disappears. Pip could have been a piece of the narrative that tied this story together, but he ended up being turned into an evil cat. 

In total, too many characters played major roles in this movie, while others disappeared and reappeared without transition. A lot of the character development was not done to our satisfaction and left many questions behind about specific characters and their actions, beliefs and character traits in general. 

Plot points and critiques

Continuing the trend from “Enchanted,” Pip, the returning chipmunk, is reading the storybook to his kids, and he explains that the end of “Enchanted” was not the “happily ever after” of Robert and Giselle’s story. Fast-forwarding 10 years from the finale of “Enchanted,” the couple welcomed a baby, Sofia, and is planning to move to Monroeville, a suburban town outside New York City. Forcing them into suburbia is an interesting take on the fairytale-reality mashup; it could have been the start of a very family-centered movie that develops all of the relationships between Giselle, Robert, Morgan and Sofia. This was a good concept, just one that was not executed very well due to rushed plotlines and changing character roles. 

The family moves into a charming two-story house with a turret that models a mini castle. We are quickly introduced to the town “queen,” Malvina Monroe, who is just Maya Rudolph playing a glorified soccer mom. Morgan has a media-stereotypical first day of a new school, which is about as corny as they can make it. We’ve seen this teenager plotline in about 30 other Disney movies, so we were wholly unimpressed with this carbon-copy routine.

As Giselle realizes their life is not as perfect as she imagined it would be, she uses an “Andalasian Wishing Wand” — a poorly introduced tool in the movie — to turn their life into a fairytale. She wakes up to birds chirping and her family singing, and after some musical numbers, we learn that the town has transformed into “Monrolasia,” a combination of Monroeville and Andalasia. Each character falls into a certain role: Robert, a brave prince, Malvina, an evil queen and Morgan, a Cinderella copycat. 

But despite already having a villainous character in the film, Giselle finds herself becoming a cloned evil stepmother, finding pleasure in talking down to her daughter. However, we found it hard to believe that Giselle’s excessive optimism could be taken from her so quickly. This evil stepmother act is uncharacteristic of Giselle and more a characteristic of Lady Tremaine from “Cinderella” or the evil queen from “Snow White.” Although we did enjoy several Disney fairytale references along the way, the “taking advice from a magic scroll” and “trying to find the stolen magic wand” plot points left us lost mid-movie. 

Towards the end of the movie, returning characters Prince Edward and Nancy — now King and Queen of Andalasia — who have had very small roles so far suddenly become much more relevant in the climax. It becomes apparent that the magic being used to transform Monroeville has been draining the life out of Andalasia. Nancy and Morgan team up to become the story’s heroes as evil Giselle and Malvina face off in their poorly explained villain rivalry. There is no given exposition as to why Malvina is the main villain in this movie, and she has no change or character development after she is defeated, making her an extremely weak and boring villain. 

At this point, the movie’s ending felt rushed through, and many plotlines — like Robert’s prince-like heroism and Morgan’s on-and-off love interest — were left unresolved. While we liked that Morgan saved the day and mended her relationship with Giselle, this felt unrealistic. There didn’t seem to be any sort of solution to the problem. It just dissolved in the chaos of the plot. Robert and Giselle’s relationship also gets completely lost in the behemoth of this plot, leaving us feeling like we had lost the entire point of the original movie. Ultimately, we are forced to believe these problems went away on their own. 

“Disenchanted” had too many plotlines to fit into two hours. This movie would have been much more enjoyable if it focused on fewer plotlines and revisited the simplicity of “Enchanted” rather than cramming everything in and hoping for a mediocre turnout, which is how it ultimately turned out.

Soundtrack

This soundtrack brings so many new songs to the table as a Disney musical; however, the quality of these songs are underwhelming, and the quantity is overwhelming, which assembles a forgettable soundtrack. 

“Even More Enchanted” — an encouraging song that attempts to persuade Morgan that life will be better in the suburbs — sounds a lot like the song “That’s How You Know” in “Enchanted,” causing the song to feel overdone and monotonous. In both songs, Giselle teaches someone about hopes and dreams for the future, ending in a jarring moment that interrupts the song. It was a nice callback to the first movie, but in the end, the lyrics did not stand out enough to be memorable. 

A song that we have been looking forward to hearing since “Disenchanted’s” announcement was “Love Power” because we knew Idina Menzel sang it. Originally worried about the song sounding too much like Elsa, played by Menzel, from “Frozen,” we were pleasantly surprised that this song sounded like its own independent production. 

With random breaks in the songs to incorporate a speaking scene, someone always seemed to be in the middle of a song. Compared to “Enchanted,” this soundtrack is longer but less replayable. The songs in “Enchanted” are better executed and play a more significant role in the story’s development than the songs in “Disenchanted” do. We expected more from this soundtrack and were disappointed to receive these bland and unvaried songs. 

Pathfinder’s Ranking: 4.5/10

As little kids, we loved the original movie and wanted to like this sequel, but in the end, this was another Disney sequel that no one needed. The first movie’s ending flawlessly brought the plot to a close, and we were left needing nothing more from the plot. There are a lot of great ideas in this movie that were not executed to our liking. It was hard to follow, yet the cliches follow every other Disney classic like clockwork. The villain felt weak, and we wish it had focused on some of the recurring characters rather than introducing so many new roles. The characters — at least, those that returned enough to show a bit of personality — seemed so far off from the first movie. After eight years of production, this movie should have been better. But for nostalgia, we enjoyed watching this movie, which is why we cannot wholly pan it.