DVD Fight: Enchanted vs. Sweeney Todd
Star TrekStargate:AtlantisFireflyBy Lisa Fary
Those of you who know me know that my greatest dream (in addition to being a lunar colonist, owning a jetpack, and keeping a zoo of my TV boyfriends) is to live my life as a musical. But, not just any musical - if I had to live life as a Disney musical, I’d puke. Constantly. The constant puking would make the singing really difficult.
Enchanted, while being every bit a Disney musical, is not the least bit puke inducing. It manages to follow the conventions while simultaneously lampooning them. It also managed to get me rooting for that fantasy racket of true love and happy endings.
It’s your typical fish out water story - an animated Disney princess is forced out of her animated world and into the harsh reality of Manhattan, where the conventionality of her wedding dress is challenged, as is her belief that her fiance is her one true love. Most importantly, she learns to take matters into her own hands, rather than waiting to be rescued.
Amy Adams is nothing short of genius in her role as Giselle, the displaced princess. She captures all the hammy plasticity of a Disney princess without playing it as tongue in cheek. She’s what makes Enchanted work.
It’s so charming and funny that it melted my icy, cynical heart.
For a whole ten minutes.
Then I popped in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, which is probably the starkest possible contrast to Enchanted. Sweeney Todd is dark and bloody and no one gets a happy ending. However, everyone in the movie is so horrible, none of them really deserve one.
There is a lot to appreciate about Sweeney Todd. The sets, the costumes, and the musical numbers are all very well done. But, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter look like goth refugees, which is distracting. I’m sorry, but anyone who gets a shave from a guy who looks like Sweeney Tood deserves to have his throat cut. Anyone who buys a meat pie from a woman who looks like Mrs. Lovett deserves to eat soylent green.
Sweeney’s and Mrs. Lovett’s actions aren’t horrifying because they look like horrifying people. You expect them to murder people and bake them into juicy, meat pies.
Even though Sweeney Todd was good, it wasn’t as engaging as Enchanted. It also left me feeling bleak. Sometimes it’s a nice to feel joyful for a change. Enchanted wins.
The winners’ circle so far. . .
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Lisa Fary is a graduate of the English program at Florida State University and holds an advanced degree in Special Education. Her early exposure to classic Battlestar Galactica in 1979 is largely responsible for her lifelong interest in science fiction and her childhood ambition of being an intergalactic space cowgirl.
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