Radio Lady's Journal: Review of "Enchanted" by Kimberly Gadette, film reviewer for LivePDX.com.

[Radio_Lady]

Are you planning to go to the movies this weekend? Perhaps you will catch a flick or two with the kids over the school vacation. I missed the press preview of the Disney movie "Enchanted," although the trailer is delightful! Patrick Dempsey is SO cute!

Recently, I recorded an audio program with Kimberly Gadette, "bon vivant" (Is there a feminine form of this French phrase -- "bonne vivante"?), a classy and sassy writer who is finishing her book while writing feature articles for Fodor's travel publications. She's a REAL film reviewer for a local website www.livePDX.com. Best of all, she gets PAID for her work! Kimberly and I had a blast talking about films and such. Thanks to Kimberly for allowing me to link to her excellent review while I make plans to "skip town" with hubby Audio Al.

Al and I will be in Florida for three weeks in December, spending the time on Sanibel Island and in Orlando. So, my attention has to necessarily turn to packing and getting ready for the onslaught of travel related issues for friends and family -- plus getting ready for 80-degree-plus weather, swimming, dining, and visiting with the two adult nephews who live there. Hey, maybe I'll get to see "Enchanted" in Orlando after all! Anyway, to all of you, please enjoy the holiday season and C U @ the DU again soon!



Official movie website: http://www.enchanted-movie.com/

Screen Savor Movie Review: Enchanted

By Kimberly Gadette
November 21, 2007

With a sweeping curtsey to all things Disney, Enchanted throws live and animated characters into the same magic cauldron and lets the fairy dust fly. It's not the visual mix that's unique — rather, it's that the 2D 'toons, once transported through a New York sewer, turn into humans who still retain their simpler fairytale souls. Their unquestionable optimism, as well as their costumes, remain intact, making for a delightful counterpoint against the defensive armor worn by modern-day Manhattanites.

The film opens as a pop-up storybook, it's "once upon a time" voiceover narration performed by the erstwhile Mary Poppins herself, Julie Andrews. In an animated scene straight out of Sleeping Beauty, the lovely Giselle creates a pretend Prince with help from her woodland creature friends, the entire interspecies crew performing a musical number. Along comes Prince Edward, and once they sing a love duet together, it's decided that they will marry the next morning.

Right on cue, the Malificent-esque Queen Narissa comes along to throw water, literally, on the impending nuptials. She pushes the bride-to-be down a magic well, sending her to a place where "there are no happy endings."

And so the flesh-and blood Giselle (Amy Adams) surfaces from under a manhole cover in the middle of Times Square, NYC. Enter jaded divorce lawyer/single dad Robert (Patrick Dempsey), unwillingly rescuing her for the night at the behest of his 6-year-old daughter, who knows a fairytale princess when she sees one.

This fish-out-of-water tale mirrors screenwriter Bill Kelly's earlier Blast From the Past, in which he throws a naïve optimist from a simpler world into modern times. In both fun scenarios, it's the optimist who prevails, melting hardened hearts with sunshine beams of love and goodwill.

Here, it's Amy Adams' Giselle who works her magic. Highlights include her transforming NYC cockroaches and rats into her helpmates, and her extemporaneous bursting into song in Central Park that ultimately turns disparate park denizens into a gloriously-choreographed whirl of enthusiastic chorines.

(snip)

If only Susan Sarandon's tart-tongued Queen Narissa had been allowed to have a say in the editing room. Though the last third concentrates on her, the filmmakers throw in too much, for too long of a time. We don't need a fireball, a CGI dragon and King Kong.

(snip)

Magic words: Like Cinderella's glass slipper forced into servicing a giant foot — though the film is magical and lovely, it shatters in the end from all the excess weight.

More of Kimberly's fine work at Live PDX movie review location: http://www.livepdx.com/Portland-Movies/

Full review of Enchanted at: http://www.livepdx.com/Articles/Portland-Movies/?launch_pg=AritclePage&launch_sel=1005934&title=Screen+Savor+Movie+Review%3A+Enchanted

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Radio Lady Ellen Kimball is a pioneer talk show host – one of the first women in the United States to present her own daily AM radio call-in talk shows in both Miami and Boston. Ellen and her husband, DU member Audio Al, who is a software and audio engineer, storyteller, photographer extraordinaire, and travel guru, are now actively retired in Oregon for the past ten years. Radio Lady contributes her reviews on film, DVDs, theater, and books to Oregon Public Broadcasting's Accessible Information Network. This 24/7 audio service is heard locally in Oregon, and southern Washington on HD Radio, as well as on the Internet. You can read Ellen's complete journal and find a link to her program, now broadcast each Wednesday at 5pm Pacific Time, at: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Radio_Lady

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[Audio_Al]

1. Your comments gratefully accepted. This was the top movie last weekend.

[ironflange]

2. We saw it last Friday, when it opened

What a great show! I haven't had that much fun at a movie in a long long time; Amy Adams is absolutely stunning. Check this Wikipedia article out:

http://tinyurl.com/2eb68c

At the bottom is a long list of references to other Disney movies.

edited to fix Wiki link that didn't work.

[Radio_Lady]

3. Hi Ironflange! I really want to see this one. Looks like it will be an activity

on our Florida vacation with our family and friends starting Dec. 9th.

Thanks so much for that link -- great information!

Have a wonderful holiday season -- you have such a beautiful, sparkly tree!

In peace,

Radio Lady in Oregon

[ironflange]

4. You're going to Florida too?

We've booked ten days in Orlando, arriving Dec. 26. It's going to be really nice.

[Radio_Lady]

5. Please see my PM. This is the annual flight to sunnier climes we do pretty much every year.

Go to Hail in Portland (2006)



March 2006 total snowfall all year:



We have to go at Christmas break because of the grandkids' school schedule.