critique du New York Times (25/11/07):
The Line Between Homage and Parody
By BROOKS BARNES
Published: November 25, 2007
“ENCHANTED,” a Walt Disney musical comedy that opened Wednesday, would have been labeled as treason in the Magic Kingdom just a few years ago. The grounds: mocking classic Disney characters.
The lavishly filmed movie tells the story of Giselle, an animated princess who comes to life in modern-day Manhattan. Along the way, it parodies Snow White’s housekeeping and pokes fun at Sleeping Beauty’s rather hasty romantic decisions. A troll wears scraps of Cinderella’s ball gown as a loincloth.
“It was time to be revisionist in a certain way,” said Kevin Lima, the movie’s director.
Yes, Disney made this movie. Creating a hit was the primary goal, but this $50 million film also serves the company’s continuing effort to find clever ways to make its animated icons more accessible. Since Disney doesn’t exactly lay out its playbook, “Enchanted” offers a rare window into the company’s thinking about how one of the world’s most powerful brands is best managed.
When Robert A. Iger took over as chief executive two years ago, one question was how his Disney would approach a portfolio of franchises spanning from the 1920s (Mickey Mouse) to today (Buzz Lightyear). Would he keep the classics in one corner and the new guys in another? Mix everybody up and give Tinker Bell a new hairdo? Or find a way to bridge the gap?
Because Disney’s characters are so well known, tweaking them even slightly could result in indelible damage. A decade ago, Disney updated the birds in the Enchanted Tiki Room attraction at Walt Disney World and still hasn’t heard the end of it.
DreamWorks Animation, run by Jeffrey Katzenberg, has built an entire business around taking potshots at Disney movies, but Disney’s brand turns on consumers viewing these classic characters as pristine. Poking fun, however gently, could dilute the franchises, experts say.
On the other hand, Princess Aurora and her pals risk irrelevance if they stay frozen in amber. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Pinocchio” were landmark films, but next to the computer-generated behemoths of today, they start to look a little geriatric. (Relax. I said a little.)
Projects like “Enchanted” indicate that Mr. Iger’s team is trying to take a route down the middle: resisting adding modern touches but referencing them in fresh settings and winking at their old-fashioned charismas.
“It’s a very smart approach,” said Robert K. Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, a customer-loyalty and brand consultant in New York. “Losing a bit of the preciousness keeps these franchises relevant and alive.”
Modifying the classics, much less poking fun at them, has long topped the sacrilegious list at Disney — something that has served the company well. Tight control of its characters has allowed Disney to build a $35.5 billion theme park, consumer products and cable television business on their backs. Cinderella, to put it mildly, is one hard-working woman.
“Enchanted” represents a big step forward for Disney, considering how the “to modernize or not to modernize” debate has roiled the Magic Kingdom in the past. Most prevalently, Roy E. Disney, nephew of Walt, complained bitterly about the creation in 2000 of a line of merchandise that brings together Disney’s most famous female characters in one setting — called the Princess Line.
To get an idea of how big a deal it is for Disney to evolve just a little, a heated debate raged inside the company over whether to even use the word “princess” on the packaging.
But the Princess Line has become one of Disney’s biggest successes, generating $4 billion in retail sales last year.
Emboldened by that experience, Disney decided to gamble on “Enchanted.” Richard Cook, the chairman of Walt Disney Studios, said part of the goal of the movie was to create a new franchise — Giselle will become a character at Disney’s theme parks — while fanning the flames of older ones. In ultimate success, “Enchanted” might even prompt a resurgence in hand-drawn animation.
“The movie is a great bridge to the classics,” Mr. Cook said. “It will hopefully remind audiences of how much they love the Snow Whites.”
Still, Disney didn’t come running to the concept. “The studio was always quite nervous about the tone in particular,” said Mr. Lima, the director.
And it took 10 years for Disney to finally film and release the movie, according to Barry Josephson, an executive producer who initially took the script to Disney and shepherded the project throughout. “I was like a dog who wouldn’t give up his bone,” he said.
Mr. Josephson, whose other credits include “Men in Black,” said the delay was partly attributable to technology — the movie oscillates between traditional and computer-generated animation and live action — and partly attributable to executive turnover at the studio. Finally, Mr. Josephson and the creative team massaged the story and concept into a form that got Disney’s attention.
Giselle, played by
Amy Adams, lives in a blissful animated land called Andalasia, where people and forest creatures freely break into song. An evil queen, portrayed by
Susan Sarandon, pushes Giselle down a wishing well, and she resurfaces in the flesh in Times Square. As the princess tries to make sense of her chaotic new surroundings, she falls in love with a divorce lawyer, played by
Patrick Dempsey. Musical numbers follow, along with the second coming of the queen.
Aside from sending up some of the stereotypes that have long been Disney’s stock and trade, the finished movie bends some of the company’s franchise management rules, notably the “same room” doctrine that got Roy Disney so perturbed. The company has long avoided mingling characters from its classic fairy tales in other narratives, worrying that it would weaken the individual mythologies.
An exception was made for “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” in 1988, because it was aimed at adults and didn’t carry the Disney label. Animators have also occasionally inserted a character in background shots, a Disney spokeswoman said — Donald Duck, for instance, zips by in a crowd shot in “The Little Mermaid.”
But “Enchanted” has Archimedes the owl from “The Sword in the Stone” openly tut-tutting next to Crush the surfer turtle from “Finding Nemo.” Thumper and Flower of “Bambi” fame make cameos.
“You have to hand it to Disney for making fun of some of their iconic moments,” said Ms. Sarandon in a television interview.
BUT this is still Disney. The studio nixed scenes that it felt crossed the line into crass. For instance, a run-in between Giselle and a hooker was cut, Mr. Josephson said, and a scene where three poisoned apples magically appear in a toilet was rewritten; they now appear in a soup pot.
And Disney executives, it should be noted, do not necessarily agree with Ms. Sarandon’s word choice. “It’s not a parody and it’s not making fun of anything,” Mr. Cook said. “It’s a giant love letter to Disney classics.”
Where does Disney go from here? The company knows the concept behind “Enchanted” will grow thin if overused, so don’t expect to see Mickey cavorting with Capt. Jack Sparrow anytime soon. Indeed, for its upcoming “Rapunzel,” Disney decided to dump a modern twist involving two real-world teenagers for a traditional, character-driven fairy tale.
Well, nobody expected Disney to change completely overnight. As Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother cautioned, “Even miracles take a little time.”
(désolée pr les non-anglophones, j'ai pas le courage de traduire... Peut-être plus tard
)