Enchanted is Certified Fresh and It Should Be

Taken from my Rotten Tomatoes blog: A 20-Something Guy with the Entertainment Taste of a 14 Year Old Girl

Twelve days and $70 million later, it looks like much of the world agrees with the 93% and RT Certified Fresh stamp given to the latest effort from The Mouse factory.

Baaaallinnnnn'

I was in line buying tickets to Enchanted on its November 21, 2007 release date at 10:45AM (who knew theaters opened that early?) in a theater filled with parents and excited pre-teen girls who already knew the whole plot of the movie from Intarweb spoilers before they even stepped foot in the theater.

Cha-ching!

In comparison, I knew that the movie mixed live action and animation, looked funny, starred a hot Amy Adams, was Disney's next great hope for a franchise (that Zac Efron can't stay in High School forever... I won't get started on Vanessa Anne Hudgens), and featured my favorite celebrity hottie Carrie Underwood ("Ever Ever After") on the soundtrack.

Animated Carrie...

Meet tanned and underexposed real-life Carrie...

Sorry, just one more.

Let me just say that it's been years since I've loved an animated movie that came out of the Disney studios. I didn't like fellow Certified Fresh fraternity member Ratatouille (97%)because I didn't feel like anything happened (and I thought the rats should sing a number or two, to which everyone says "THERE'S NO SINGING IN PIXAR MOVIES, STUPID!!!" It makes me sad when they say that). And while it was good, I really wasn't crazy about another Certified Fresh ballerific film The Incredibles (97%), though I attribute this to the fact that I saw it on an airplane and wasn't able to give it my full attention due to the narcolepsy I experience the second I snap on my awkward airplane seatbelt. The last Disney movie that I can remember really liking was Finding Nemo (98%), even though it had no singing fish.

Why the long intro? Because I think many dismiss people who enjoy Disney movies as being Disney fanboys who cannot live without sleeping with cuddled up next to our Pumbaa doll, listening to "Be Our Guest" a couple times a week, while wearing our Ariel-replica shell bikini top made out of two pieces of purple construction paper that resembles an elementary school Thanksgiving hand-turkey. I am not one of these fanboys.

Watch me be awkward and watch you love it.

However, after seeing Enchanted, I will admit that I have turned into an Enchanted fanboy. While any Disney fanboy could rattle off reason after reason why they thought the movie was "fab," I present reasons why the common man might find The Mouse's latest franchise worthwhile.

1) Amy Adams - At this point, this is a no brainer. Critics and movie watchers alike have been raving about Amy Adams' performance as Giselle, the new hottest Disney princess (dethroning Beauty and the Beast's Belle). At a time when the word "awkward..." is a favorite amongst college girls and awkward humor, situations, and silences are some of the most popular and well-received gags in television and movies today, Amy Adams personifies the idea of being lovingly awkward as Princess-to-be Giselle.

You got nothing, Belle. Get back to your books. There's a new hottie in town.

From her hilarious interactions with real life animals to her disgustingly sweet nature taking on the streets of Manhattan in a flowing princess dress, everything about Giselle is awkward and for that reason, everything about her is great. She is exactly what you would envision when you wondered, "What would happen if Cinderella/Belle/Ariel/Nala/Jasmine/Snow White ever really existed in real life?" on many a sleepless night while lying in your bed trying to figure out this mystery. Her acting is spot-on and they play with the gag just enough that it doesn't get old.

2) Eye Candy - We're done talking about Amy Adams and how I think she is hot along the same lines as Jenna Fischer from The Office (ok, tough to promise).The kind of eye candy that I'm talking about is how the musical portions of Enchanted come to life and bring all the choreographed and synchronized dancing magic of a Disney movie together in a way that is as irresistible as it is a visual feast.

Much less cheesy than this picture would indicate.

Picture all the magic of a "Be Our Guest" or a "Just Can't Wait to be King" (minus the large animals) brought to life and that is many of the scenes of Enchanted. Pair the dancing and choreography with some catchy songs and the confused expressions of those humans not participating in the Giselle-led dancing fun and you get a fantastic display of Disney showing that it really is possible to bring animation to life, instead of pseudo-life through its Pixar tag-teamed animated films. If you've ever seen Wicked, or any other musical that has some pretty big dance numbers and props, and couldn't help but smile at the spectacle of it, that's what I would compare my feelings toward many of the numbers in Enchanted.

3) Disney Poking Fun at Itself - In a way, Enchanted does its own version of B. Rabbit's final freestyle in 8 Mile by taking all the jokes and ribbing that people throw at its films and using them before anyone else can use them toward its latest effort. From the disgustingly sweet princesses to the lavish wardrobes and talking animals, Disney weaves them all into the story in a way that doesn't feel forced, nor obnoxious at any time. While you know that Disney values its franchises and wants them to remain pure (Little Mermaid boners and "SEX GRASS" from The Lion King aside), it's a lot of fun to see The Mouse making fun of itself in an upbeat way that didn't have any attitude behind it. Even if you hate Disney movies, you'll like the way that Disney addresses the idea that its movies aren't really for everyone.

4) Susan Sarandon's Refusal to Age - While this list can go on and on, this last one couldn't go without mention. The well-decorated actress plays the role of the "The Evil Stepmother" in this one and seems to have somehow gotten younger. It's weird to say it, but not only did her face look great, but her boobs looked great.

On that note, I'm out. Go see Enchanted. It's Certified Fresh and it should be.

My desktop is a floortop

Despite everyone telling me that "moving sucks," it actually hasn't been all that bad so far. I would say that I'm about 50% done after a couple days and am actually really looking forward to the less cluttered layout of my new room! I am driving boxes over and walking large furniture over, so it's definitely been a workout trying to get all this done. In the end, it'll be for the better because not only is it a cheaper place, but I'll also actually be using a desk so it'll be easier for me to type (right now, I type while sitting on the edge of my bed, which makes it really uncomfortable to do anything).

So while my computer has lost its shelf and is now sitting on the floor and my TV/monitor is now about 8 inches from my face while I type this, I'll do as much of a catch up as I can stand doing while nearly going blind looking at the screen.

1) Enchanted - A Quick Movie Review

Honestly, I thought I was done with Disney movies. I didn't like Ratatouille, nor did I really think The Incredibles was all that good (even though both got great reviews). But I saw Enchanted on its opening day and absolutely loved it. While Amy Adams (Giselle) steals the show and has been generating quite the buzz in her role as the latest (and greatest) Disney princess, I thought that Grey's Anatomy's Patrick Dempsey did a great job as well. Seeing as Dempsey is now known as "McDreamy" to a large portion of the American public, his performance was good enough that I didn't think of him that way throughout the movie and I actually watch Grey's Anatomy.

In terms of story, yes, it's a little bit predictable. If people complain that the story was really predictable, people need to remember that at the end of the day, Enchanted IS A DISNEY MOVIE. Was anyone guessing wrong about what would happen when Simba returned to Pride Rock? Did anyone think that Sleeping Beauty was just going to sleep forever? I get annoyed when people talk about that plot lines of Disney/teen movies and complain about them being predictable because these movies are much less about the outcome and more about the journey to get there. In Enchanted, the characters take a journey from the animated world to the real life world in a story about princesses, princes, evil stepmothers, poison apples, and facing reality - same story as always, but it's a lot of fun to see the two worlds collide.

No, I didn't think the movie had a lot of laugh out loud parts, but I did think that it had a lot to like. The whole movie is very upbeat and I enjoyed watching Disney poke a little bit of fun at itself and its animated movies with this one. The movie isn't filled with singing (thank the lord that it wasn't overkill), but there is one song where they have a huge cast of people dancing around in the streets of New York City the same way that you have seen people, cookware, animals, etc., dance in other animated Disney movies. Seeing one of these HUGE dance numbers come to life was really a sight to behold and I thought it was one of the highlights of the whole movie that almost made it worth the price of admission for that part alone. I would definitely recommend the movie to anyone who needs a break from the killing sprees (I also saw Hitman last week) and just wants to sit back and enjoy what will definitely be the biggest movie this holiday season.

And of course, Carrie Underwood's "Ever Ever After" (which I'll post again, because I want to see it again) is the theme to the movie.

2) Marie' Digby and Kelly Clarkson concerts

Last weekend, I saw both Marie' Digby (Troubadour) and Kelly Clarkson (Gibson Amphitheatre) in concert. If I'm being completely honest, I actually liked Marie's show a lot more than I did Kelly's.

This guy (Dave Kim) accompanies Marie' songs on the violin and I think it's pretty fly.

Marie' was performing in front of a sold out crowd at the famed Troubadour in Los Angeles after a tour around the country and it felt good to welcome her back to her home turf. She put on a great show and her set was a bit longer than normal as she was headlining a show with two opening acts. Highlights of the show were her performance of "Beauty Walking Away" and "Spell," which was recently featured on the TV show Smallville. Her vocals are so pure and songs are just so good every time. I got to catch up with Marie' a little bit after the show and can't wait to see her again soon!

Love Marie'.

Kelly Clarkson put on a good show, though she did forget the words to "Miss Independent" and "Breakaway," which was a bit of a bummer to me! I also wish that she would have performed "A Moment Like This," but something tells me that she's trying to stay far far away from American Idol while she's on tour. Here's the best moment of the show, where she performed Miss Independent with an intro from AC/DC's "Back in Black."


3) Spice Girls Taping for BBC

In one of the more random things I've done lately, I got to see the Spice Girls perform live at CBS studios for a fundraiser that was airing on the BBC. I am not exaggerating when I say that the audience was about 90% female, 8% gay male, and 2% straight male (so probably me and about 4 other guys). It was a ton of fun, even though we had to wait outside for two hours before making it in. I can't say too much about it because I'm no Spice Girls fanatic, but I will say that I did really enjoy it and that they are all the hottest moms EVER.

4) Hell's Kitchen

I went to a taping for Hell's Kitchen: Season 5 this past Saturday, which was quite the experience. The show's set was much larger than I ever expected and seeing Gordon Ramsey in real life was a big thrill! I can't say anything about it because of the NDA I signed, but it was preeeetty sweet.

I'm going to do some writing over on Rotten Potatoes, but that's what's been going on!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
I'll be down in San Diego for the day today.

Unfortunately, real life threw me a bit of a curveball and we're being forced out of our current apartment so I've been dealing with finding a new apartment (success) and starting to get everything packed up. Because I am bitter, if anyone stumbles on here by doing a search on Lido Equities Management, know that they raised our rent by 22% spontaneously after we've been paying rent on time in this apartment for years. I understand that they want to make more money, but man, that's cold-blooded. Anyways!

Lots of fun stuff to blog about when I get back from SD. I went to a Spice Girls taping for the BBC (yes, it was fab), Marie' Digby concert, and Kelly Clarkson concert last weekend, which was all kinds of exciting. Apparently, Blogger can take video uploads now, so I tried to use it here, but it just took too long and the upload failed. What's weird is Google owns Blogger and Google owns YouTube, but Blogger just took 20 minutes of my life trying and failing to do what I just successfully did on YouTube over the course of two minutes.

Dark room + zoom = poop video.

On Wednesday, I caught the 10:45 AM showing of Enchanted, which made me believe that Giselle is now the "new Belle" (aka: Hottest animated character ever... people always give me weird looks when I say that).


I picked up Jordin Sparks' debut album, which I wrote about on Americanidol.com. In a pleasant surprise, the album is pretty good! I don't think that there's necessarily any songs that I'm going to listen to over and over, but the whole CD is pretty decent overall. Somehow, "This Is My Now" has also grown on me as well in the studio version. One way or another, the CD will be accompanying me via iPod on my way down to SD.

Again, happy Thanksgiving!

Carrie Underwood "Ever Ever After" music video from new Disney Movie Enchanted

As if I needed further proof that Carrie Underwood is the most beautiful woman to ever walk the face of the planet, the music video for "Ever Ever After," off the Enchanted soundtrack will make anyone a believer.



Initially, I wasn't crazy about the song, but when you pair it with animated and real life Carrie, you can't not love it.