‘Disenchanted’ was an ‘exciting challenge’, says director Adam Shankman

New Delhi, Nov 20 (PTI): “Disenchanted”, the sequel to the 2007 hit “Enchanted”, was an “exciting challenge” for filmmaker Adam Shankman and he says he never treated the project as a regular job. The musical fantasy rom-com brings back lead star Amy Adams and her beloved character of Giselle, the archetypical Disney princess who finds true love in the live-action world of New York City.
The filmmaker, known for “A Walk to Remember”, “The Pacifier” and “Bedtime Stories”, said directing a sequel can be a bit “daunting”. “What made the first one very special is that Giselle was a fish out of water and all of the comedy came from that. But here, you couldn’t really use all of that because she’s lived in the world for so long. So that entire pool of comedy wasn’t really available to me. “So rethinking how to create the same tone and feeling without having any of the same comedy elements or even the genre was a challenge. And it was actually an exciting challenge because I knew I could do it,” Shankman told PTI in an interview. “Disenchanted”, currently streaming on Disney+ Hotstar, is set 10 years after the events of “Enchanted” and sees Giselle living happily with her husband Robert (Patrick Dempsey).
Grown disillusioned with life in the city, the couple move their growing family to the suburban community of Monroeville in search of a more fairytale life.
However, she realises her fairytale life may not be such a simple fix and looks towards her storybook home of Andalasia for guidance, which leads to magical mayhem. Shankman, who took over the director’s chair from Kevin Lima for the follow-up, said he had long discussions with Adams about how the film should pan out. “We talked a lot about what we were doing in each scene and where Giselle was and what was important to her about the movie and what was important to me about the movie.
“Neither of us just wanted to make it because it was a job. It felt kind of important to both of us,” he added. His overall experience on ‘Disenchanted’ has left Shankman in awe of Adams. He called the actor, known for critically-acclaimed performances in movies such as ‘The Fighter’, ‘American Hustle’, ‘Arrival’ and ‘Nocturnal Animals’, one of ‘great actors of our generation’.
“She knew the character very well. And for this movie, she had to move through so many different personality shifts. But she was just by herself and flipping personalities all over the place. It was really like we were thrown right into it.”
As a filmmaker, Shankman said he likes to keep trying his hand at the fantasy genre as he likes to present stories that provide entertainment to the audiences.
“I like these kinds of movies because I like entertaining the audience. I’ve never thought of myself as somebody who feels like he needs to beat a big drum with messages.”