Enchanted appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Though much of the transfer seemed very good, it lacked a certain expected sparkle.
Colors were a moderate disappointment. While I couldn’t say they looked flat, I thought a storybook tale like this should boast more vivacious tones. The hues tended to be clear but without consistent liveliness.
Sharpness was usually fine. Some edge enhancement made wide shots a little soft, but the majority of the elements appeared acceptably concise and distinctive. Jagged edges and shimmering were absent, and source flaws also failed to materialize. Blacks were dark and tight, and shadows showed nice delineation.
To my surprise, the brief animated sequences were lackluster. The first 10 minutes or so gave us 1.85:1 cartoon work that was a bit fuzzy and messy. I thought those scenes were less vibrant than the live-action material; they seemed decent but not any better than that. I figured enough of the flick looked good enough to merit a “B” grade, but I felt somewhat unenthusiastic about the visuals.
On the other hand, I thought the audio of Enchanted consistently satisfied. For this DVD, we got both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks. The DTS mix was mastered at a noticeably higher volume level than the DD track, so expect to adjust the settings if you flip between them. Otherwise I felt the pair sounded virtually identical.
Since both excelled, that was fine with me. Audio quality pleased. Speech remained natural and concise, with no edginess or other issues. Music was quite dynamic and vibrant, as both score and songs showed positive range and clarity. Effects were also very good. Those elements always sounded accurate and clean, and some louder bits – like a thunderstorm – boasted solid bass response.
Across the board, the soundfields were lively and involving. I heard a surprising amount of directional speech and singing, and the music boasted fine stereo delineation. Both used the surrounds in a nice manner, and effects broadened across all five channels well. The various elements blended together in a smooth way and they created a clean, engaging setting for all the different sequences. I can’t say I expected a ton from this movie’s audio, but the two mixes really impressed me.
Despite Enchanted’s success at the box office, we don’t get a lot of extras here. Under Fantasy Comes to Life, we get three featurettes: “Happy Working Song” (6:26), “That’s How You Know” (5:55), and “A Blast at the Ball” (5:28). Across these, we find movie clips, behind the scenes bits, and interviews with lyricist Stephen Schwartz, composer/lyricist Alan Menken, director Kevin Lima, visual effects supervisor Thomas Schelesny, editor Gregory Perler, choreographer John O’Connell, associate choreographer Maria Torres, producer Barry Josephson, executive producer Chris Chase, stunt coordinator George Aguilar, visual effects producer David Dranitzke and actor Amy Adams, Robert Dempsey, and Susan Sarandon.
In the featurettes, we get some notes about songs and choreography, visual effects, and various scene specifics. These cover the three sequences quite well, especially in the case of “Working”. I like the way that featurette details all the work required to show insects and animals as they clean an apartment; the dailies that show Adams without the critters are particularly fun. These three pieces are quite fun and informative.
Six Deleted Scenes run a total of seven minutes, 51 seconds. We find “A Lock of Prince Edward’s Hair” (2:28), “Leaving Karate” (1:28), “I Am Not Waiting for My Prince” (0:57), “Hotdogs on the Bridge” (0:42), “Nathaniel’s Revelation” (1:15) and “Exit with a Twist” (1:01). “Lock” offers a storyreel since it never got to final animation, while the others provide live-action clips. All are interesting to see, but none seem very useful. They made sense as cuts.
Note that the running times also include introductions from director Kevin Lima. He essentially just tells us why he eliminated the sequence, as he doesn’t add much other information in his brief remarks.
Next comes a two-minute and 11-second collection of Bloopers. Expect the standard collection of goofing around and mistakes.
We see an additional tale with the Enchanted characters in Pip’s Predicament: A Pop-up Adventure. This provides a short that tries to look like a slightly animated version of a pop-up book. Here Pip the chipmunk tries to break a spell to free Prince Edward so he can rescue Giselle. The five-minute and 35-second cartoon offers decent entertainment.
At least two Easter eggs pop up in the “Bonus Features” menu. First click on the musical note below the entry for “Fantasy Come to Life”. This reveals a music video for Carrie Underwood’s version of “Ever Ever After”. Parts of the video just show shots from the movie, but most of it posits Underwood as a Giselle-style character who comes to New York and inspires others. It’s a better than average video.
Click on the street sign with the Mickey Mouse head to see a one-minute and 19-second clip. Josephson tells us how great the Blu-ray release is, and we also get a short montage that shows Enchanted’s references to other Disney movies. The promise is that we’ll get more of that stuff on the Blu-ray disc, so this amounts to little more than an ad.
A few ads open the DVD. We get clips for Blu-ray Discs, Sleeping Beauty, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, Disney Movie Rewards and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. These also appear under Sneak Peeks along with promos for The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Beginning, Minutemen, The Jungle Book 2, Tinkerbell, Disney Parks and Hannah Montana: One in a Million. No trailer for Enchanted shows up here.
Enchanted offers an entertaining and fairly charming fable, even if it doesn’t always feel particularly original. The movie probably runs a little long, but it still manages to keep us amused and involved most of the time. The DVD presents pretty good picture, excellent audio, and a modest roster of extras. There’s enough fun to be had here to earn my recommendation.
