“This movie has meant so much to me in so many ways,” Amy Adams said of Enchanted and her star-making performance as Giselle in the hit 2007 Disney live-action/animated musical. 15 years later, the award-winner has moved on to multiple career-defining roles, but for her, Enchanted is the one that started it all. “Giselle never left me. [Adam Shankman and I] were in the meeting with Disney and I just flipped right back into it, talking about where I thought she was. And I realized that it was the right time. She was in there ready to come out.” And come out she does, this time as a wicked stepmother in Disenchanted, coming to Disney+ on November 18th.
(Disney)
“I was talking to Sean Bailey, the president of [Walt Disney Studios], and he was talking about how the project was sitting there,” recalled director and choreographer Adam Shankman during a press conference for Disenchanted about the sequel’s origins. Adam pitched a villain arc for Giselle that would find her transforming from Morgan’s loving stepmother into a classic villainous one. “The whole thing starts with Amy and Giselle. I wanted to work with Amy for so long because we speak a very similar language. We're friends, and we're both musical nerds and Disney nerds. And I suddenly thought, I want to make a movie not with Amy, but for Amy as well. And I thought that would be this beautiful, beautiful thing because, as an actor, [she] inspires me so much.”
“Growing up, Enchanted was my favorite movie,” revealed Gabriella Baldacchino, who took a break from college at USC School of Cinematic Arts to take over the role of Morgan, Giselle’s stepdaughter. “This has been a dream of mine, to get to be a part of something like this. It's just completely changed my life. I'm so grateful to sing music written by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. Like, I grew up performing. I loved musical theater and singing, so that wasn't new for me. But to get to originate something that they wrote, it's an honor.” While Gabriella may have paused her formal education to join the project, it still proved to be a classroom of sorts. “I learned so much as I got to sit with Adam. Sometimes when he was directing scenes, I'd watch from the other side. Barry [Josephson]'s taught me so much, as an aspiring producer someday. And working with this incredible cast is like a master class in acting every single day.”
If the original Enchanted had one problem, it was the lack of a song for Idina Menzel as Nancy. From the sequel’s initial pitch, correcting this error was on the list of must-dos, to give the voice of Elsa from Frozen and the Tony-winning Wicked star a chance to sing. “Stephen [Schwartz] gave me an assignment, which was to do a sendup of ‘Defying Gravity,’ or an homage to ‘Defying Gravity,’” composer Alan Menken shared. The duo had actually penned two songs for Idina to sing in the first film, one of which was even filmed, but it got cut. Not only does Disenchanted give Idina’s character Nancy a big power ballad, but she also gets a duet with James Marsden as Prince Edward. “Stephen and I had the best time working together. We’ve done four movies together; Pocahontas, Hunchback, Enchanted, and now this.”
(Jonathan Hession/Disney)
“When you have someone like Alan [Menken] and Stephen [Schwartz] writing for you, it's such a gift,” gushed Idina Menzel. “They know our voices and they can write for our strengths. And then we can really shine.” Idina talked about the sadness of losing her song in the first film. “But now [Alan and Stephen] made up for it in so many ways that I'm singing a song I could barely sing live if I tried,” Idina laughed about her big song “Love Power,” which was also recorded as an end credit pop version.
Nancy isn’t the only non-singing character from the first film to get a song this time around. “It was a joy,” shared Patrick Dempsey about his song “A Hard Time for Heroes.” When Giselle’s wish comes true and brings magic to her new town, her lawyer husband chooses different types of battles, specifically those with dragons. “That whole process of going finding your voice, working with the coach on that, learning the lyrics and the dance was an extraordinary experience and something I'd never done before. And really appreciate the talent with the voices and the singing of Idina and Amy and Maya [Rudolph] and everyone. It's an extraordinary feeling you get when you sing. The vibration, it's something very intoxicating about it. So it's nice to get a taste of that.”
“Even though I've had a chance to sing in things before, it was nothing like this experience,” shared SNL alumn Maya Rudolph, who joins the cast as Giselle’s new nemesis Malvina Monroe of the Monroeville Monroes. “Knowing that I was going to get to sing this Menken & Schwartz song was really, truly almost like a life fulfillment. Like I was running in the marathon I'd been training for my whole life. And that's what it was every day. We'd go to vocal rehearsal, and we'd go to dance rehearsal, and we were working towards the day where we shot the song.” Speaking of the shoot, much of the film was made on location in Enniskerry, Ireland. “The crew was an integral part of our experience in Ireland. The people that welcomed us there and showed us where we were and what to do there were genuinely loving people who were so welcoming and kind of created a little world for us.”
(Jonathan Hession/Disney)
Filmed in the summer of 2021, traveling to another country to make a movie was difficult for all involved, but Yvette Nicole Brown had a personal tragedy during the process. “I lost my mom when we filmed this film,” Yvette revealed, who plays Rosaleen, one of Malvina’s lackeys. “Our entire crew, I got personal calls. And Maya swooped me up and took me to her house and kept me for a weekend. And Jayma [Mays] was like my touchstone and Adam took me to a little fair they had every Sunday. My mom died on a Saturday. I spent Sunday with him and our choreographers. I got calls from Patrick. Everyone enveloped me in love, and I felt like the toughest time of my life, there was nowhere else I would've rather been than with all of [them].” Reuniting for the press conference not only gave Yvette Nicole Brown the chance to reunite with her costars, but to thank them for their kindness. “I'm so happy that our love letter is now out in the world, and I know my mother would just wanna thank you all, too, for taking care of her baby,” she concluded.
It seems like dreams were coming true all around the production of Disenchanted. “In the first movie, I really wanted to have a magic mirror,” producer Barry Josephson shared, adding that his collaborators Adam and Amy supported the idea. He talked about how casting on the film was easy because all of their top choices were game to sign on, including Malvina’s magic mirror/barista Edgar, played by Oscar Nuñez. “Amy was on The Office,” Oscar reminisced, recalling that Amy Adams was prone to singing between takes on her three-episode arc in 2005.
“She wouldn't stop singing with a big smile on her face, so there was a lot of love there.”
“It was really just such a pleasure,” Amy Adams summed up the entire Disenchanted experience. “Getting the returning cast together, it was so fun to get to see everybody step back into it, and we were lucky enough to have everybody come join us. I can't thank them enough, and I'm very appreciative. And then for our new cast members, I was just so pleased to get everybody we have.”
Disenchanted premieres Friday, November 18th, exclusively on Disney+.