Accepting the challenge of making a sequel to a film that has taken on an entire generation is perhaps a herculean task. So, Adam Shankman decided to do it twice in one year. And, according to the filmmaker, the real challenge of making a sequel is realizing that fans don’t always want a lot of development in their characters.
First, he executive produced “Hocus Pocus 2” for Disney+, and now, he’s celebrating the release of “Disenchanted,” which he directed. Of course, he celebrated far from social media in the days that followed, so he may have avoided seeing a lot of the reactions, good or bad. He’s happy with what he made, and he just hopes that the people who came on “Enchanted” are happy too.
“The reality is — and it’s kind of, this weird feather in the movie — everything I do about this whole part of the process, you know, I’ve made something up. For a million reasons. It is what it is,” Shankman explained to TheWrap. “And then it’s done, and what happens in the world after that, I can’t control. And so it’s not in my best interest to try to control it, to try to control the narrative.
She continued, “Because I can’t. And that’s really what the movie’s really about.” With that Gisele says, ‘I can’t control anything, so I try to control it. And if I try to control it, I’ll just make things worse,’ you know? And so, my feeling is, walk away.
In the case of “Disillusioned” though, it was a scenario Shankman had participated in more than 10 years earlier. Because, he reveals, he was being looked at to direct “Enchanted” when he first came to Disney. But at that time, what happened on the screen was not the same.
According to Shankman, the original “Enchanted” had a more PG-13 feel. No cast had yet been attached, and the script was nowhere near being finalized. He was coming off “Bringing Down the House” with Queen Latifah and Steve Martin, and notes that “I was moving in that direction psychologically at the time”. So, when “Enchanted” became a bit more family-oriented, he walked away — and still beats himself up about it.
“And, you know, big mistake. Congratulations Kevin Lima. Everyone,” Shankman said. “I saw it, and then I saw what Amy was and did, the cast, and [James Marsden] Who came to me to do ‘Hairspray’ right after I made ‘Enchanted’! It was wild.
You can watch TheWrap’s full conversation with Adam Shankman below.
Obviously, ‘Mantmugdh’ is a big film and important to many people. So does this mean that when “frustrated” came along, you jumped on it?
Well, that was because, by now, I’ve become everyone’s friend. as i am, i directed [James Marsden], I am friends with Jimmy. I have known Patrick for many years. Amy is a very close friend of mine who we really bonded with through her fearless love of musical theatre. In fact, we met at a benefit where she actually met him right after he did ‘Enchanted’. And she and Jimmy performed a duet at a benefit directed by me. So I staged a number for him. And that’s how we met. And our bonding was really rooted in our deep, almost indecent love of musical theatre.
And so now I’m friends with Amy and Idina [Menzel] For years And I, when I went to Disney, I was always curious what was happening with the project. and, you know, barry josephson [the producer of “Enchanted”] Trying to take it forward—I think like the two administrations that we went through at the time. From Dick Cook to Oren Aviv, to Rich Ross, you know, to Shawn [Bailey], where we are now. And he’s been trying to push the rock up the hill for so long. It is really difficult to push projects through the shackles of administration.
So when I got there, I knew it was kind of in this no-man’s land, but I asked Sean about it. And they said, ‘Well, that’s something we’re still kicking the tires on.’ And he told me the story, and there were elements of it like I was like, ‘Oh!,’ and then I was like, ‘Oh’. As such, there are other elements where it didn’t feel like they weren’t true or fair to the characters. I said, ‘Can you give me the script you have now?’ And I just want to read it. And he said, yes, why not, and so he gave it to me. And I read it.
In my mind, I was like, well, I don’t think this should be the direction that they went in. It was like – doesn’t everyone see that Giselle is Morgan’s stepmother? And for Giselle, those words would resonate differently. Or, she’ll have an idea that a stepmother is in a very different place from what she is in the real world.
And there’s even a moment in the first movie where little Morgan makes a distinction between mother versus stepmother, and Giselle says, “I hear they’re not All bad.”
Absolutely. But again, it depends on how it will be said, and the context, and the moment. Indeed, the emotional moment it was meant to be. So really, I just went out there and made the pitch and I hit the scene. And then, Shawn actually went to Barry and Amy, and you know, and did the whole thing, and we cut to where we are!
And here we are! I know Amy Adams was a producer on this so I’m curious what your conversation is His It felt like once you got the story. Because obviously, this character is very important to him and his career.
Well, here’s the thing. And I can frame it in a very specific way. In Hocus Pocus, it’s not hard to stick with the math and formula one for a crowd-pleasing experience. Because all you have to do is resurrect the witches who died in a very specific place. And so when they come back, they will be just as they were. In such a situation, it is going to be very crowd pleasing for the fans. Because even though, in my experience, fans who are always hungry or crazy for sequels want more, they want everyone to be like they were, which is very complicated.
The Problem With Giselle In “Enchanted” — And It was The conversation with Amy, and this is very important – is that Giselle is no longer a fish out of water. It would have been a decade later, she wouldn’t have just been playing the traditional game, she would have moved on. And she will no longer be the same, completely naive person she was. And it was really important. Because at the end of the first “Enchanted” he’s well on his way to integrating into the real world in a very meaningful way. He has a relationship, he’s hired, you know what I mean? He is in it.
So what does he look like now, after all these years? Because you no longer have that element of his or her personality to work with. So, where do you go from there, because it was a must [Amy] that it had evolved. She says, ‘If I had lived in the world for so long, I would have been different.’ And I said yes. And so, the challenge was to find a balance of keeping her as her optimistic self while making progress.
And it seems to have come into play with Giselle about what sarcasm is, which for me was a really fun touch.
that’s good– because Morgan is growing up and [Giselle] Don’t know how to deal with it. Because watching a little kid turn into a teenager is a bigger change than watching Robert grow up in this world, you know what I mean? So this is the most dramatic change in a person that she is seeing. And Morgan has a little speech in the movie where she was like, ‘You know, I was just a young girl who saw a princess. Of course I believed in magic.’ And then she kind of, you know, grew up and got a little bit out of it and maybe as most teenagers do, became ashamed of their parents, you know? And she says, imagine your mother did magic and sang at the drive thru. I mean, it’s almost like a teenager’s worst nightmare.
Well, I have to say, Gabriella Baldacchino, who played Morgan in “Dischanted,” was a standout for me. I loved her, and legitimately wanted to see if she played Morgan in the first movie.
I’m glad you appreciated and liked it! I think Gabby was a true – it was a real find. And for me, it was a very easy and quick decision. I mean, I saw a lot of women, and I just — you know, it’s kind of like when I saw Nikki Blonsky the first time [for Hairspray], I was like, ‘Oh, I think I found it.’ You know, my mind and my heart hit a pin right there, and I never really moved away.
She was amazing. And before we go, on behalf of the fans, I have to thank you, because Idina Menzel gets to sing in this! Everyone was very sad when the first one came out and Idina didn’t get to sing, so was it important to you guys to make sure she gets a musical number this time around?
One of the first things out of my mouth and out of Amy’s mouth. It was not a question. and, my first conversation with allen [Menken] and Stephen [Schwartz]It was like ‘This Idina—’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s write a song for her.’
And, this was in May of 2020, we were deeply, deeply, at the height of quarantine. The world was in great civil unrest. We were locked out. And everyone was afraid to come near each other, and everything was closed. And so Amy and Idina recorded those vocals — like, a guy fully covered in hazmat would come over with a briefcase, with a kit, and they’d drop it off at their house. Totally masked, like, shielded everything.
And then, Amy, and Idina would take it, and there was a computer and a microphone and other things like that. And they would have to go into the smallest closet, they could, and they had to record them in their homes, in their closets.
And those are the vocals that are in the film. Amy’s “Fairytale Life”, is an emotional one, and I would say 95% of “Love Power”.
‘Disappointed’ is now streaming on Disney+