Another long awaited sequel arrived this weekend, this time on Disney + as the follow up to 2007’s Enchanted hit the streaming service. Disenchanted was set ten years ahead of Enchanted and we see that there are real challenges to “Happily Ever After.”

We meet back up with Giselle (Amy Adams) and her real life prince Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his now teenage daughter Morgan (Gabriella Baldacchino) as they were moving out of New York City and into the suburbs. Giselle was tying to come to grips with her life, missing the fairy tale magic that once engulfed her.

Morgan was unhappy leaving NYC, her friends and school, to start over in the small town of Monroeville in a “castle” that could be called a fixer-upper. A series of unfortunate events happen leaving Giselle forlorn. So when Edward (James Marsden) and Nancy (Idina Menzel) visited from the Kingdom of Andalasia and presented Giselle’s newest baby, Sofia, with a magic wand with the power of granting wishes, things were set up for trouble.

Disenchanted was somewhat of a mixed bag. The story was fun and the music was fine (especially a song between Amy Adams and Maya Rudolph called “Badder”). The problem was everything felt so familiar, as if we had seen it all before. It was a combination of the original Enchanted, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and Frozen.

Amy Adams stepped right back into the role of Giselle without flaw and she embraced the shift that her character took. She brings so much life to the one time animated princess.

Maya Rudolph’s Malvina was a cool villain and brought some new energy to the trope of the evil queen and the way that the wish affected the whole town and the characters was a creative twist. However, some of the other sub plots felt tagged on and like a waste of time (such as Robert’s quest to be a hero).

Simply put, there was just not enough of James Marsden, who completely dominated every moment he was on screen with the portray of Edward. I could have used much more of him.

Disenchanted does not measure up to the original film, but that should not be held against it. Disenchanted is an enjoyable and fun watch with some clever moments and another excellent performance from Amy Adams. It certainly has its flaws as many sequels do, but nothing bad enough to take away from the pleasure of the film.

3.3 stars