Facts Continue Reviewing Enchanted

What makes me so scatterbrained?
Is that the same as Hatter-brained?
Baby birds are chatter-trained.
Baker's clothes are batter-stained.
Pop-rockstars are flatter-pained.
I find this poem matter-strained.

Matter-strained, adj.
Having little significance and mattering hardly, as of an amateur poem created for filler material in a blog.

Yesterday, I forgot to review the messages or themes of Disney's Enchanted. Can you believe it? What is wrong with me? I felt especially bad since I called Enchanted "vapid" before, but it's less vapid - to a certain extent - when you take the themes into account. Unfortunately, the movie kind of botches them. The main theme is that you shouldn't get married on a whim; you should take time to get to know your significant other. The other main theme is to stay married through challenges for the good times you'll have as well. Overall, very positive messages about love and marriage...except that, at the end, the movie spoils the main theme by having Nancy run off and marry Edward after meeting him once, at the ball. I was confused to say the least.

The third theme may be to have a balance between fantasy and reality.

Botching aside, the themes brighten this movie up quite a bit.






And now for another trailer.

I don't know very much about Suckerpunch. It's about a girl who is sent to a mental institute by her evil stepfather. She creates an imaginary world in her head and dreams up how she'd escape. The trailer looks awesome though. Dark, but in a good way. Action-packed. Intense. Dramatic. I'm scared to see it on account of the abuse she apparently might face in the institute, but it might be too tempting not to see. I guess I'll wait for more trailers and information on it before I decide.

The Facts Review Enchanted

In Disney's Enchanted, a princess-to-be is transported by an evil queen from their animated wonderland into our world, reality. As the girl, Giselle, waits for Prince Edward to find her, she befriends a divorce lawyer and his daughter and avoids the evil queen's attempts to poison her.

I recently rewatched Enchanted and found it slightly better. Specifically, I appreciated Giselle’s and Robert’s relationship more. I understood better why they’d like each other. In most love stories, it’s obvious who’s going to fall in love, but it’s not obvious why. It’s not even plausible. They just do because that’s how the story goes. The Proposal, Leap Year, and others I can't think of now. Those movies might tell a bit about the characters (they had their heart broken, they’re parents died or were unreliable, and so on). It doesn’t show a deep connection between them, though. I'm left wondering why they like, let alone love, each other. Enchanted is at least a shade better.

I know why Robert would like Giselle, because over the years, I’ve grown more cynical and been surrounded by cynical people who bring me down more than I bring me down. It would be nice to have one dreaming optimist around. Not too many. They would get annoying, just as the cynics do. But I’d like one, and that’s what Giselle is for Robert. I’m less sure why Giselle likes Robert. Maybe she appreciates that he uses his greater knowledge and practicality to help her, even though she doesn't agree with his cynicism.

When I first saw Enchanted, I thought it was another “they fall in love because we told the audience this was a romance” movie, like Proposal and Leap Year. I've changed my mind about Enchanted. It has reason behind the romance, which is not as shallow as I thought but not very deep or convincing. It would be easier to believe Giselle and Robert were friends with a strong chance at romance. They fall unrealistically fast, but of course the movie was only 107 minutes, and such is the way with Disney movies. I doubt I'll change my mind about the other movies (Proposal, Leap Year), though, because they’re so shallow. In The Proposal, the leads hardly spend time together, for one thing, and both movies employ the cliché: “We hate each other. Wait, now we’re madly in love.” Ri-ight. Like a couple days and fake-kisses could make people forget they hate each other and get married. Anyone that works on is too dumb to live. Enchanted is better than that because Robert and Giselle never hate or dislike each other. They get annoyed and overwhelmed but could still fall in love.

After rewatching the movie, I realized that Giselle develops without completely changing, which is a hard balance to achieve in fiction. She’s still sweet, but by the end, she’s smarter and less giddy, more mature. For example, she becomes engrossed in a book about Great Women of our Time, and one can imagine she felt inspired to do something great.

The rest of the movie is acceptable. The animation is beautiful but not as good as Princess and the Frog’s. The songs are tuneful but not as fun as most of Menken’s work (Be Our Guest, Never had a Friend like Me, etc.). The plot IS there, barely. The acting is believable sometimes, annoying at others. The characters are nothing special but are likable. Robert is a heartbroken cynic but kind and helpful. Giselle is annoyingly happy at first but grows and matures. Prince Edward is annoyingly dumb and conceited but not in a cruel way, often showing (brainless) concern for Pip and Giselle. At first, I found Nathaniel gross and unsympathetic, which he IS when he tries to kill people. However, after imagining him as a woman and the evil queen as a man, I felt bad for him and cheered when he helped stop the evil queen. I guess I’m more sensitive to the love-related suffering of females. Don't bite my head off though. I realize I should be just as sensitive to the suffering of males.

Enchanted is entertaining but fairly vapid.


6/10