Enchanted came out in 2007 from Disney studios. It was directed by Kevin Lima and starred Amy Adams (Julie and Julia) as Giselle, a young woman from the animated land of Andalasia, and Patrick Dempsey (Grey's Anatomy) as Robert, a single-father divorce lawyer in New York.
Giselle is from a world where of course you meet your one true love and marry him the next day without even knowing him. You sang a song together! That’s true love right there. Of course, because she lives in a Disney animated feature, there is a wicked stepmother who is out to ruin Giselle’s life. On the day of Giselle’s wedding, the soon-to-be-bride is pushed down a wishing well to a place where there are no happy endings: New York City.
This movie is about the mixing of fantasy and reality and getting a happy-ever-after. One of the first things spoken to Giselle when she’s transported to New York is “Are you for real?” to which she answers “Yes,” making her position on reality clear. She is the sort of girl who will break out into song in the middle of Central Park and have everyone join in, and she won’t think it’s the least bit strange. She also talks to birds like it’s the normal thing to do, because for her it is. Giselle is a little bit magic, even when in the real world. She can bring a bitter couple back together with a simple comment about glittering eyes.
While Giselle has magic, Robert has no magic at all. He doesn’t believe in fairy tales or in happy-ever-after. Throughout the movie, though, Giselle’s magic passes on, if not in any sort of physical manifestation (he never talks to any animals, which is a pity), then in accepting the magic inherent in Giselle and conforming to some of the tropes of the genre of which he’s now a part. When his relationship with his girlfriend, Nancy, is in jeopardy, Giselle suggests that he sing his feelings for her. During Giselle’s song “That’s How You Know,” he tells her that he doesn’t sing and that he doesn’t dance. Despite these claims, however, during the climactic King and Queen’s Ball he both dances and sings gently in Giselle’s ear, taking that magic that Giselle has and turning it into something far more intimate and real.
One of my very favorite bits of Enchanted is the fact that at the end, Giselle is the one who saves Robert from the clutches of the dragon. Earlier, during Giselle’s first morning in New York, she had still been very much your traditional Disney princess, the sort of girl who will wake up in a strange place, in a strange city, with no friends and no clue what she’s going to do, and will immediately starts cleaning while wearing a wedding dress, with a smile on her face and a song in her heart, because that’s what the classic princesses did. By the end of the movie, though, Giselle has been hanging out in reality, has read the Strong Women in History book that Robert got his daughter, and has felt anger. The Giselle at the end of the movie is completely ready to take up a sword and slay a dragon, conventions of the genre be damned. It’s raining like her first night in New York, but instead of her falling into Robert’s arms, Robert falls into hers. She’s defeated the evil stepmother and she goes on to be a good stepmother to Robert’s daughter. She runs her own business and it’s all very empowered of her. Yay!
I’m madly in love with Amy Adam’s performance. I mean, she is totally an animated character come to life. She has the facial expressions and hand movements of her animated counterpart. No one does the hand motions she does in real life, but on her they are totally believable. It’s wonderful to watch.
Growing up with Disney as I did, it is great to see how it references its classic animated features. So many of the shots are shots from Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast. The old hag is directly from Snow White and there is no way that Queen Narissa (the wicked stepmother) can be anyone but Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty. While Giselle looks at fish in a tank, “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid plays in the background, which is made better by the fact that Edward’s assistant, who was in the room at the time, is played by Jodi Benson, the original voice of Ariel. The poison apple and Giselle’s treatment of it is again from Snow White. She bites into it the same way that Snow White did, and when she collapses, her hand falls into frame and the apple rolls away like it did in the original. It’s great.
Of course, after watching Enchanted, I want to go back and watch the entire Disney canon. Which was probably one of the points of the movie.
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