Reviewing "Disenchanted" and its "Wicked Good" Quartet of Villainesses

I remember how excited I was when the news broke that a sequel to the 2007 film, Enchanted, was coming. It was in May of 2022 that the sequel, Disenchanted, became official, and it was announced for a November premiere date on Disney+. Finally, on New Year's Eve, right before I watched the College Football Playoff games, I hit Disney+ to watch this. I had seen the first film 15 years ago at the theater, and I remember enjoying it so much, so I figured that the sequel would totally shine as well, and lo and behold, I was right.

Despite coming out a decade and a half after the original, the film takes place just 10 years after the first film's events, which has our girl Giselle living her best life with husband Robert Philip, and stepdaughter Morgan Philip in Manhattan. Or, at least, she thought it was her best life. The happily ever after did start out as that, and it even includes a new addition to the family: baby Sofia. However, life in Manhattan starts to drag, and Giselle decides to uproot the family to the small town of Monroeville (interesting name).

Robert's all in with Giselle, though Morgan isn't too thrilled. Upon moving into the town, Giselle meets Malvina Monroe, who is the head of the town's council, and like all big bosses, she has underlings--in the form of Rosaleen and Ruby. The family's later visited by King Edward (as we recall, Edward ended up with the throne at the end of the first film) and his wife Queen Nancy (also a result of the first film's ending), who later present a wish granting wand that can only be used by a child of Andalasia, with that part bringing more dismay to Morgan, as she feels disconnected to Giselle. In addition, Morgan feels like an outsider at her new school, though she does meet Malvina's son, Tyson Monroe, and makes a good impression. However, Giselle displeases Malvina with her display to help Morgan become queen of a fairy tale-themed ball, and that ends up increasing Giselle's low feelings about her new surroundings.

As she picks up the wand, Giselle wishes for a fairy tale life, and she gets it...big time. This includes even more singing than normal, everything and everyone nice and cheery, you name it. It also includes Malvina making quite a "wicked" appearance...if you catch my drift.

Speaking of wicked...

Yeah, that's not normal at all. That effect was caused by the gong of the clock tower, but there's definitely more where that came from. Morgan appears to play the typical role of princess, while Robert is a hero-type that's even more cornier than Edward, if that's possible. Mind you, that is not a shot at Edward, I do like the character. I did in the first film and do in the sequel. He definitely has his hilarious moments, he's one of the reasons why I'm a huge James Marsden fan (that and the Anchorman sequel). But let's face it, Edward is a just a tad cringe--not a whole lot, just a tad.

So Giselle goes clothes-shopping with Morgan, and gets her a new dress, before that gong hits and she starts buying the whole store. Regarding Morgan's dress, as Giselle presents the garment, it's suddenly cut up in to pieces. It's at this moment that Giselle confides in Pip and she realizes what's happening to her: she's slowly becoming a wicked stepmother. The big dress, the hairstyle, the haughty attitude, the whole nine yards. Giselle and Pip turn to the scroll connected to the wand; the scroll is hilariously voiced by Alan Tudyk, who I've been a huge fan of since Dodgeball (I seriously need to catch up on Resident Alien). Anyway, according to the scroll, a wicked stepmother has four basic traits: wickedness, vanity, cruelty, and finally, ambition. Giselle's experienced the first two, and needs to undo the wish before midnight.

One problem: the wand was gone. Malvina, with the help of her magic mirror (aka Edgar the barista, played very well by Oscar Nunez), found out about the wand and enlisted Rosaleen and Ruby to steal it, which they do. Giselle searches for the wand, but as she switches in and out of her evil persona, she sees Morgan with Tyson, as a date for the ball is set. Giselle attempts to walk away, but her evil side does take over, and she later orders Morgan to remain in the tower and do all sorts of chores that she has set for her, while later locking Morgan in her room.

As Robert fights off a dragon and a giant (must be a slow day), Morgan climbs out of the tower, only to be caught by the slowly heel-turning Giselle, who attempts to lock her up again. We are treated to a very delicious scene where Giselle switches between herself and her villainous side to a worried Morgan, but she regains herself just enough to inform Morgan of the consequences of what she had done, and later sends her stepdaughter to Andalasia to help undo everything. Afterwards, Giselle goes all in on her heel turn (as does Pip, who transformed from a chipmunk to a tabby cat) and realizes that wicked stepmothers have no true power, hence why they have to scheme, manipulate, lie, cheat, and steal to get what they want. However, without Morgan, Giselle's not a stepmother, so the next thing to do is become queen.

Giselle goes right up to Malvina and orders her to give up her throne, though Malvina's not having it. The newly evil Giselle presented evidence that Malvina stole the wand...Ruby's earring, and then reminds Malvina that only one villain(ess) can exist in this world. We are then treated to a deliciously wicked villainess song featuring Malvina and Giselle, and oh my God it was epic! Meanwhile, an animated Morgan finds Edward and Nancy, and also discovers something else: Andalasia is being transferred, bit-by-bit, into the real world, which is putting both worlds in danger. As for Giselle, she is encountered by Robert, who is looking for Morgan, with Giselle sending him on that very quest before she and Pip head to the ball to take the wand, which they do.

Giselle uses the wand to steal the crown from Malvina, and what follows is a villainess vs villainess battle using magic, though it's quite ones sided; Giselle dominates the battle with that wand. Morgan returns with Edward, Robert, and Nancy, and presents her childhood drawing of her memory tree, though Giselle cruelly rips it up. Afterwards, a wave of magic comes from that drawing, and it contains every glimpse of Giselle's memories of what she used to be. With the help of that very magic, Giselle is her sweet self once again and plans to undo that wish, as midnight is getting close.

However, there's one thing preventing Giselle from doing so: Malvina. So Malvina has no designs on giving up her throne and everything else that came with Giselle's wish, and she threatens Morgan's life in exchange for the wand. Meanwhile, everyone and everything from Andalasia is dying, but Giselle gives up the wand to save Morgan. Malvina waits for the clock to strike midnight, but Edward and Robert manage to prevent the clock from getting all 12 of those chimes in. This allowed Morgan to use the wand to undo everything, as Giselle stated that Morgan was a daughter of Andalasia, because she was Giselle's daughter.

Morgan wakes up to see everything's normal, and only she and Giselle know and remember everything that happened, while the others, including Robert, believe that it was all a crazy dream. Giselle later visits Malvina and apologizes for overstepping her bounds, while Malvina makes her own apology, admitting that she's a bit of a control freak (my words, not hers) before allowing Giselle to join her council. And of course, we get the typical fairy tale ending: Edward and Nancy are expecting, Morgan and Tyson are a couple, Robert's opening a practice in Monroeville, and Giselle breaks into song. Absolutely beautiful!

So that's that, and now to the best part, the villainesses:

Malvina Monroe

Disenchanted gave us some amazing casting additions to the franchise, and among them was Maya Rudolph as Malvina Monroe. Seriously, I'm sensing a trend here. SNL alums playing villainesses; Kristen Wiig played Cheetah in the Wonder Woman sequel. Maybe Kate McKinnon or recent alum Cecily Strong don the villainess hat in an upcoming film? So Malvina was every bit as awesome as I expected; she was quite controlling as the town's queen bee, but that "evil queen" persona was quite delicious. I loved everything about Malvina's alter-ego; the look, the attitude, the ruthlessness, and how power-hungry she was. Honestly, when I saw the trailer, I expected Malvina to have some sort of connection to Queen Nerissa (the first film's villainess).

Maya Rudolph truly showed out with this role. In the early scenes, we saw Rudolph's usual comedic timing in her scenes with Amy Adams, and in her evil queen role, Rudolph delivered such an amazing performance. I knew she would truly show out in this film, and she truly did.

Check out Malvina Monroe's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!

Rosaleen and Ruby

What's an evil queen without minions, am I right? Rosaleen and Ruby fit the minions role to a T, and even that is an understatement. I couldn't help but notice the film pointing out the various Disney stereotypes regarding films such as this one. However, there's one such stereotype that even they left out: the minions. The film did follow another trait we see in these films: though the minions are hapless, one is usually dumber than the other. Horace and Jasper are the perfect example. We definitely get that with Rosaleen and Ruby, and in this case, it's the latter half of that duo who is more dimwitted. These characters were absolutely hilarious, and we have Yvette Nicole Brown and Jayma Mays to thank for this.

As usual, Yvette Nicole Brown shows why she's in everything, from sitcoms to films to game shows. Regarding Jayma Mays, I've been a fan of hers since Epic Movie, and she is absolutely hilarious and a delight to watch. The way they played off each other was stellar; Brown acting out Rosaleen's exasperation of the sheer ignorance of Mays' Ruby is always a treat to watch. Their individual traits definitely stood out, but we also see both of them really act out the sycophantic minion role to perfection.

Check out Rosaleen and Ruby's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!

And now, in the words of Vanessa Williams, I've "saved the best for last":

Giselle

Oh baby! You know, the biggest joy I had in 2022 was seeing the Colorado Avalanche win the Stanley Cup. This may be very close behind that. Something...something told me that if we got an actual sequel to Enchanted, we would see a heel turn from Giselle. I never figured out how because I never held my breath for it. Then I saw the trailer in May 2022, and I see Giselle being evil. Oh my goodness! So I eagerly waited for this, and I did take my time watching, but even so, while I was excited for Evil Giselle and knew she'd be phenomenal, she managed to exceed my immensely high expectations!

So where do I start? First off, the way Giselle's heel turn began was amazing. We see that glare in her eyes followed by moments where she switches in and out, while Giselle hilariously catches herself. Among Evil Giselle's best moments was when she saw Morgan and Tyson, and again, Giselle is really trying to keep her wicked side at bay, but it's a strong hold. I really love that it was treated in the same breath as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as each side is cognizant of the other's existence. Second, after Giselle's heel persona fully takes over, we get the villain song with Malvina, and the big evil queen vs evil queen battle. Wonderful! Small note: I also love that as a villainess, Amy Adams deepened Giselle's voice for that haughty tone. Very nice touch!

Third, and last of all, the dresses. Now, I am the last person to talk fashion; I know nothing about it. I consider myself sharp-dressed when I wear blue jeans and my Colorado Avalanche Reverse Retro jersey. But I do know a great look when I see it. Amy Adams donned three amazing gowns while acting out Giselle's wicked persona, and out of all of them, the gold one (the first one) is the best one. That gown, IMO, brings out Giselle's heel persona very, very well, though the feathered number (the second one) and the red dress (the third and last one) do so as well. Adams was terrfic in the first film, and she truly, truly showed out in the second one. I absolutely think she loved playing the villainess; she definitely did a phenomenal job acting out that persona!

Check out Giselle's profile on Villainous Beauties Wiki!

Now is the door open for a third film? It's possible. I can see Disney ekeing out a third (and possibly final) film for Disney+ to air. I read a suggestion that a potential third film could be all animated and take place in Andalasia. If Monroeville is the setting, maybe Morgan becomes the centerpiece and she's targeted by some evil Gen-Z queen bee? Oh, the possibilities!

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