At the Movies: Enchanted

Enchanted is the story of Giselle, a girl on the verge of getting her heart desire: to marry her prince charming... until her Prince's wicked stepmother shoves her down a well and she ends up in modern-day New York City - but she might as well be in Mars since NYC is so different from her fairy tale world of Andalasia.

Confused and wearing a massive wedding dress, Giselle wanders the city until she meets Robert and his daughter Morgan. Morgan instantly takes a liking to Giselle, who represents all those fairy tale things her practical father is so against. Robert is not a bad guy, he adores his daughter, but he and Morgan's mom didn't part in the best of terms, and he is a divorce lawyer so he wants to encourage Morgan to be more practical so she doesn't get hurt like he did.

Still, at Morgan's urging, Robert lets Giselle stay with them while she waits for Prince Edward to come for her - even if he is dubious there is a Prince Edward at all. He can't help like Giselle, even though her being there is complicating things with his long-time girlfriend Nancy.

Meanwhile, Prince Edward, thanks to Giselle's best friend Pip the Chipmunk, finds out that someone sent Giselle to an strange land, so he follows her, with every intention to bringing her back, so they can get married and live happily ever after. 

But seeing life with Morgan and Robert, is changing Giselle's fairy tale perception of things, much as she still believes in true love. 

Enchanted is my go-to feel-good movie. I love it. I think I saw it four or five times at the cinema, and when it came out I made my dad buy it right away. For me, Enchanted is the best of two words: a great romantic comedy and a great good, ole fashioned Disney fairytale - it even has an amazing animated opening sequence.

I loved Amy Adams and James Marsden as Giselle and Prince Edward, because they play these cartoons-come to life with such aplomb, never becoming a joke - they are funny because they absolutely believe the things they say, but they don't go into parody. They are both naive but well meaning. And Patrick Dempsey as Robert was great too, a more reserved and practical sort of man but with a good heart and a hidden romantic streak. And the little girl that played Morgan was a darling. 

Another thing that I love is that, though it retains many 'Fairy Tale Commonplaces', it also shows how impractical some of them are - like Giselle's massive dress. And I love the compromises that both Giselle and Robert make. Giselle has to become more practical to remain with Robert and Morgan (though she's still dreamy and fun and likes to sing at the drop of the hat), and Robert becomes softer, more willing to believe in happy ever afters because he found his. 

Plus, it has big musical numbers and great songs. I even own the sound track of this movie and I'm not one to buy soundtracks, the songs are just so much fun.

A and Personal Favorite