Unit 26: Task 3 - Enchanted

Director: Kevin Lima

Producers: Barry Josephson, Barry Sonnenfeld

 

Enchanted is a Disney hybrid film, it includes both animation in the traditional hand-drawn style as well as live action. It is a typical Disney film was singing and dancing but it does include some twist elements. The film starts off in the animated land known as Andalasia and focuses on Giselle (played by Amy Adams) who is a typical Disney princess singing about a true love’s kiss, we see her create a mannequin of what she wishes her prince to look like; this is foreshadowing as we see a real person looking very much like the mannequin. Giselle then meets her prince and they agree to marriage, shortly before the wedding Giselle is pushed down a ‘wishing’ well to a place where there are no happy endings – New York City in real life. This is when Giselle’s life takes a huge turn and is met with real life problems. She soon finds out that true love is not necessarily the first prince that she meets and ends up falling in love with and being saved by her real true love – Robert (played by Patrick Dempsey) who befriends and helps Giselle when she finds herself lost in NYC and feels like she can trust any and every one due to her nativity. While Robert is helping Giselle understand the truth about love and marriage Giselle’s animated prince, Edward (played by James Marsden), jumps into the real world to find her and bring her back to fantasy land. By the end of the film Giselle ends up becoming the hero saving Robert and they stay together whereas Edward takes Robert’s girlfriend Nancy to Andalasia and marries her instead. The film pays homage to and self-parodies all Disney films, making numerous references to previous Disney films through the combination of live-action traditional animation and CGI. The film brings something different as there is a large amount of comedy from Giselle as a character and her situation where as Robert’s misunderstanding and disbelief of true love is also comical. Like all Disney films there is a villain and in this film, like other Disney films, is the evil step-mother; she pushed Giselle down the well and sends Nathaniel to stop Edward and hurt Giselle, in the end as Nathaniel was unsuccessful in his mission step mother Queen Narissa goes to NYC herself to complete the task, being unsuccessful herself as Giselle’s life is saved but her wish becoming true as Edward does not marry Giselle.

The producers identified the audience to be children and parents; the film features lots of comedy that will appeal to parents as well as the typical Disney that children like. Since the film is a Walt Disney production it got an inherited audience of all Disney fans and the reliability of how good and successful Disney films are, however the stellar cast – Patrick Dempsey, Amy Adams, Susan Sarandon, Timothy Spall, Idina Menzel and James Marsden added star reputation with an older audience going to watch it for the actors involved. Amy Adams was a lesser known actress however since this role she has gone on to play more and bigger roles. Patrick Dempsey was cast for the role as he was more well known that Adams and this is what the producers wanted, he was nicknamed McDreamy from his role on Grey’s Anatomy which assisted on the producers and director’s decision to cast him so much so that director Kevin Lima called him “a modern day Prince Charming to today’s audience”. Idina Menzel, who despite being known for her incredible singing talent and Broadway roles was hired for her acting talents alone, and has gone to play Queen Elsa in Disney’s Frozen. The film included many cameos from actors who had already been in Disney films as well as recreating well known scenes from other films creating intertextuality.

The film’s script was originally wrote in 1997 however needed to undergo numerous script changes before it was ready for production; the film took almost 2 years to complete, with the animation taking a year and the live action scenes being filmed in New York City in the summer of 2006, it took a total of 72 days to film these scenes. Despite taking a year to create the animation is only 13 minutes of the film, with 10 minutes featuring at the start showing the iconic Disney imagery. Because it was filmed in New York and in particular a big musical scene in Central Park, this will have gained lots of interest and publicity meaning when the film was finished and released people who had seen it being filmed will be interested in watching it just because they had watched it be filmed. The producers and creators chose NYC because of how opposite to the animated world it was but also because it is a very well known landmark and can be identified across the world allowing international audiences to understand the location.

After completion the film was distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures to over 3000 cinemas in the US and to over 50 different countries around the world, topping the box office in several countries including the UK and Italy. Prior to the release a series of 7 promotional posters were released with 4 focusing on the different main characters and 3 others showing different aspects of the film – the animated vs real life, Giselle and Robert’s relationship and one showing the main characters in New York City. The posters all feature a similar style and the same font and will have been shown on billboards and especially bus stops; the posters would be placed where kids could see them, social media was not as big back then and children will not have been on it therefore they wouldn't have been advertised on there; they would be placed in cinemas too before and after the release so that families would be influenced to go see that film. Also, by placing them in cinemas they attracted a different type of audience members, those who decide to go to the cinema but don't have a film in mind to watch therefore the content of the posters was very important as they could influence decisions to watch the film.



The main cast – Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey and James Marsden conducted lots of interviews with a range of websites that were posted on their websites and YouTube released as written articles. These will not be read/watched by the target audience (children) but possibly parents but most importantly fans of the cast members, in particular fans of Patrick Dempsey. This means that these videos are important for the producers gaining a different range and age of audience members who might not have children therefore, although the majority of the whole audience will be previous Disney viewers these audience members might not be and allows the producers a different reach

There was one trailer that was released; it was uploaded to YouTube as well as being played in cinemas before other films that were released that year such as Ratatouille and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. It will have also been played before films certificated at a 12 in cinemas because there is a cross over audience age range, because of this different audiences will be attracted generating more interest and possible audience members.

Like most Disney films merchandise was available to create synergy and further promotion, video games were released for different platforms as well as the standard merchandise for the princess – dolls, costumes etc. Children will see the new merchandise and ask their parents to see the new film, it also is a means of advertising as when one child gets a toy all of their friends want that toy too.

In 2008 the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray, topping the sales charts in numerous countries. The DVD included lots of bonus features, including bloopers, behind the scenes, deleted scenes and a look at how it was created appealing to fans who had watched it at the cinema and want to know more about the creating of a hybrid film as well as children who will want to watch the film again and again.

The BBFC gave Enchanted a 'PG' rating because it contains mild scary scenes and innuendo. The rating is very important as it tells the audience who the film is appropriate to, therefore parents will need to make sure they are taking their child to a film that is appropriate for them and that they will like it, as if they don't parents will talk to other parents and give the film bad reviews by word of mouth which will affect the film's success. The producers know how important that rating is so they will ensure that the film is right for the certificate, lots of other Disney films are 'U' certificate so the producers may feel that the 'PG' may put off prospective audience.

Overall the promotional and marketing plan was successful as the film did very well at the box office having the number 1 place on Thanksgiving in the US and ended us generating over $340 million dollars. The film received a very good response from critics getting a 93% from Rotten Tomatoes; it was nominated for 2 Golden Globes and 3 Academy Awards as well as others. Although it did not have a large upscale market strategy what they did have worked and the film was a hit, it may not be Disney’s most successful film but for a hybrid film (something that it does not done often) it was impressive and made money.