The Disney film Enchanted is an homage to all the great classic Disney animated features. They even included cameos with some of the classic voice actors from those films. For instance Robert’s assistant is played by Jodi Benson, the woman who voiced Ariel in The Little Mermaid! The narrator is the incomparable Julie Andrews! The beginning of the film is animated in a magical kingdom, and then the princess falls through a magical portal (placed by an evil witch) on her wedding day. She ends up in modern (circa 2007) New York City!
Over the course of the film Giselle (played by Amy Adams) meets Robert (played by Patrick Dempsey). He is a logical man who does not understand his young daughter’s love of fairytales. At the behest of his daughter, he takes Giselle home, as the girl is convinced she is a real princess! While staying with them Giselle made a dress from the curtains. She also had animals helping her clean, a la Cinderella and Snow White!
Robert is dating a woman he feels would make a good step-mother, though his daughter dislikes her. She is played by Idina Menzel, who would go on to voice Elsa in Frozen! Giselle is the one who decided she should help Robert with his girlfriend. This scene featured the song That’s How You Know. It is also the first time in a Disney film that the romantic lead questions why everyone is singing “How does he know the song?” That will be echoed later in 2010’s Tangled, when Flynn Rider questioned the fact that everyone was singing!
Over time Robert slowly grows to like Giselle’s ways. He remains incredulous, of her stories of being from a fairytale land, as he thought her more of a woman who is having a break with reality. One thing he couldn’t deny is how much his daughter responded to Giselle. He ended up learning that she truly was from a fairytale land when her fiancé (played by Jame Marsden), and then the evil witch (played by Susan Sarandon) arrived.
The climactic party scene included references to Disney princess films. A sleeping curse, a dragon, and romantic dancing. It is one case where the princess saves the “prince,” and her ex-fiance gets together with his ex-girlfriend! Robert and Giselle get their happily ever after raising his daughter together! Giselle also opened her own clothing store, catering to making little girl’s fairytale fantasies come true!
I hope you have enjoyed my re-cap of this modern classic Disney fairytale movie. It truly is unique amongst the Disney canon of films! On a side, note Disney is currently in production on a sequel to this film set ten years later (titled Disenchanted)! It is due to be released next year. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is the poster from the film. I found the image on wikipedia.org.
Further Watching
- Enchanted (2007)
White Rose of Avalon 