The Movie Rant from the Grump

We were watching ENCHANTED on the night before Easter, when I suddenly exclaimed “I hate this movie!” to the amazement of wife and daughter. I walked out. This is almost unheard of for me.
Here’s the substance of my dislike of what was highly acclaimed as a great Disney family movie: For me it trashed some of the great movies in Disney’s past production.
If I were a shareholder in Disney I would demand the disemployment of every one who worked on the movie as well as anyone who okayed it for release after it was made.
Because it trashes the idea and charisma of Disney and says, “OK, we’re all about the money,” which it never was in Walt Disney’s day. If they can’t regain some of that spirit that animated (pun intentional) the company when he was alive, then they should sell off intellectual and real property and disband the corporation now: it has no more to contribute.
Yes, the SHREK movie(s) trashed Disney and got away with it and made millions. So what? I am not a big fan of those movies although they had one or two decent ideas; Eddie Murphy as the donkey was one of the best.
But SHREK was not made by Disney; in fact, it was made by a major competitor of Disney, Dreamworks. Which lists on its board a former Disney Powerful Guy.
Most of its trashing was aimed at generic cartoon characters because otherwise they would have had copyright problems.
However, that doesn’t apply to the people who made ENCHANTED and apparently had license to do whatever they wanted with beloved characters and situations from past Disney movies.
As such, it was a very cheap attempted-suicide.
Redeemed by humor? It wasn’t funny enough. (The one point in which the movie had a touch of redemption was that it turned the actor of "Peter Pettigrew" in the Harry Potter movies and let him become a good guy after all. He must have paid Disney money to let him do that.)
The point where I walked out is the one where the Princess says she needs a new dress for the ball and can’t find a fairy godmother. The 6-year-old girl-friend produces a credit card with an upbeat burst of music.
And they go shopping.
HOWEVER, nothing was made of the “magic” of using the credit card in real life (i.e., shots of simply waving the card and getting the goods). It was just to depict a fantasy shopping trip for girl viewers. Bah, humbug!
I might go on listing the things I despised about it. But why bother? Either you saw it and got your own opinions or you didn’t. If the latter, I advise you to keep your distance. NEVER show it to your own 6-year-old. Never, never, never, never...