Enchanted - Happily Ever After

HAPPILY EVER AFTER?  ,

An “ENCHANTED” Mingling of Fantasy and Reality...

PRODUCTION  HISTORY

Release  date:-  21^st November 2007.                                                                                     Directed by:- Kevin Lima                                                                                                 

Written by:- Bill Andrews                                                                                                   

 Production:- Walt Disney                    Pictures                                                                             

 Running time:- 107 minutes

 Language:- English

Casting : Amy Adams (as Giselle)

               Patrick Dempsey (as Robert)

               James Marsden (as Edward)

              Susan Sarandon (as Narissa)

The Story in a Nutshell

       In the animated fairy tale world of Andalasia lives the beautiful princess-in-waiting, Giselle, who dreams of true love’s kiss. However, when dashing prince Edward hears her song, he declares, they shall be married the next day. Meanwhile, evil queen Narissa feels threatened by the princess stealing her crown. So, Before the wedding, the old hag sends Giselle down the wishing well, which is really an abyss to her banishment to another world, where “there is no happily-ever-after”. The other world is present day, live in action, busy, disenchanted, and a non animated gritty New York city, Manhattan. Giselle is now adrift in a chaotic world badly in need of enchantment. And then she meets six year old Morgan Philip, who like most girls of her age love fairy tales. She also befriends the father of Morgan, a cynical divorce lawyer, Robert Philip, who isn’t so sure the her prince charming would come for her rescue. Giselle’s spontaneous singing and fairy tale demeanor enchant everyone around her as she waits for Prince Edward. But she gets to discover that love in the real world isn’t always as easy as sharing a single “ true love’s kiss”. Subsequently, as when she begins to fall in love with the charmingly flawed divorce lawyer, even though she is already promised to a perfect fairy tale prince back home, Edward with his trusty chipmunk Pip comes down the abyss to look for his love. But Narissa has her own plans in light of Edward’s action. She succeeds in tempting Giselle take the poison apple ,and die. Meanwhile, Robert remembers the power of “true love’s kiss” and asks Edward to act accordingly. After several failed attempts, Edward realises his inability to be her true love and hands her over to Robert, who came to be the long awaited “ true love”. Giselle, at the end realises that she’ll need courage, spunk and may be just a little enchantment to find her own happily-ever-after………..

INTERMINGLING OF FANTASY AND REALITY

    A fantasy is an idea with no link to reality and is basically one’s unrestricted imagination, whereas reality is the state of things as they exist. It’s what one can see, hear, and experience.

In the movie:  The passage which connects the Wishing well of  Andalasia  and the manhole on the streets of New York is a representation of the transformation from fantasy to reality.                                                                                                                        Later, after Giselle’s visit to Robert,Giselle cleans Robert’s apartment with the help of rats, flies, cockroaches and pigeons, which can only be thought of ‘in fantasy’.  After having a ‘magical shower’ in the washroom, she innocently asks Robert about the running water coming out of the pipes.  In the course of the movie, Edward, the prince to rescue ‘his princess’, is seen fighting with the” hulking metal dragons” which in real, are the city buses in the  New York City.

 The movie itself is full of such instances to aptly denote the intermingling of the two worlds. Which makes it questionable about the fact of ‘happy ending’ in the real world, though the movie has a happy ending with two subsequent love stories of the ‘real’ prince and princess.

‘Enchanted’ and the other ‘Fairy Tales’

Many instances are shown in the movie which resembles quite a few known ‘stories’, from the other Fairy Tales.

SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS:-

Narissa, the mother of the prince Edward, back in Andalasia, is both the evil queen and the step mother, just like the villainous ‘step mother’ queen in SNOW WHITE.

As in Snow White, the evil queen disguised herself as a hag and poisoned snow white with an apple, Queen Narissa does the same and succeeds in poisoning Giselle in her third attempt. 

There was a reference to a ‘magic mirror’ in SNOW WHITE, which is subverted in ENCHANTED with the prince Edward calling the hotel’s t.v screen as the ‘magic mirror’ as he was able to find his princess in it.

The “spell” also unites the two movies.  In SNOW WHITE, the evil spell was broken by the “True Love’s Kiss” from the prince charming. Here in ‘ENCHANTED, Giselle’s spell was broken by the “true love’s kiss” from Robert.

CINDERELLA:-

AS the  Prince found Cinderella, his true love by putting the ‘lost’ glass slipper on her foot,  the prince Edward found his love by using Giselle’s left over slipper on Nancy’s foot.

Giselle’s well decorated steel carriage can be considered as the substitute to Cinderella’s Pumpkin Carriage.

The artistic sense of both the princesses can be seen respectively, where Giselle used Robert’s flowery curtains and Morgan’s rug to make her new dress, as Cinderella  and her mice friends did prepare her dress with her step sister’s left over clothes and jewelries.

 SUBVERSION:-

In Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, Jack Zipes says, "the fairy tale is the most important cultural and social event in most children's lives. But until Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion, little attention had been paid to the ways in which the writers and collectors of tales used traditional forms and genres in order to shape children's lives- their behaviour, values and relationship to society. As Jack Zipes convincingly shows, fairy tales have always been a powerful discourse, capable of being used to shape or destabilize attitudes and behaviour withi culture.
Herein, the film parallels scenes from Snow White, Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty and every other fairy tale which is perfect. The musical numbers are of unmatched excellence, perfectly blending fairy tale and reality. The plot of having a Disney princess go to New York city as "the place where there are no happily ever afters" is a kind of genius. The movie displays a very contemporary set-up against the traditional fairy tales. It provides tons of great comedic moments as fairy tale characters clash with disgruntled New Yorkers. It adds a twist to typical fairy tales, having the princess save the prince. It's super self-aware and pokes fun at classic Disney-tropes, like "love at first sight" and the "innocence" of Disney princesses. Giselle learns that anger and sadness are totally normal and necessary emotions to have. Robert's story arc is unusually complex for a "knight in shining armour". He's grouchy and neurotic before Giselle, but once he meets her, he softens up and opens himself up to love. Giselle changes a lot too, learning to want more from life than just a fairy tale. More importantly the sexual tension between them is so REAL and relatable. And so much of the movie is grounded in a world we can all relate to. It also proves that not everything has to be a fairy tale to be special or important- like when Robert gives his daughter a book about Rosa Parks and Marie Curie and teaches her about empowering women. And it also shows that real life can be just as magical if approached with an open heart.

The movie ENCHANTED uses the transformation of its characters , ideas and themes from other popular Disney movies and the flaws of both fantasy and reality to put the fairytale world and the real world on even playing fields.

                                               - Third Year English Honours (Batch: 2016-17)