Movie Analysis Of Walt Disneys Enchanted Film Studies Essay

A film from Walt Disney pictures, Enchanted, is a fantasy musical film starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Timothy Spall, Idina Menzel, Rachel Covey and Susan Sarandon. It is directed by Kevin Lima and written by Billy Kelly. Enchanted garnered two nominations at the 65th Golden Globe Awards and three nominations at the 80th Academy Awards. The film earned more than $340 million worldwide at the box office.1

The movie starts with a storybook showing the story in the magical kingdom of Andalasia. There is an evil queen named Narissa (Susan Sarandon) who tries to prevent her step son from marrying a maiden in fear that she will lose her throne. On the other hand, there is a girl named Giselle (Amy Adams), who hopes that a prince will come for her and share true love’s kiss. Still, no matter how hard the evil queen prevents the prince from ever meeting a maiden, Prince Edward (James Marsden) still meets Giselle when he heard her singing “True Love’s Kiss”. They fell in love at first sight and decided to marry each other.

On the day of their wedding, an old lady showed up and said that she has a wedding gift for Giselle. But, it is a trap set by the evil queen. The queen pushed Giselle into the well which led her to Earth, a place which the queen called as a place where there is no happily ever afters. The comical character of Giselle became a real lady in the real world. She comes out of a manhole and, knowing nothing about the real world, is surprised with what she saw. She tries to find help on how to go back to Andalasia but ended up getting her tiara stolen by an old guy. She walks until she finds a billboard with the picture of a palace which she thought was a real one. On the way home after work of Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey) with her daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey), Morgan told her dad that there is a princess in the castle and goes out of the cab. Giselle falls down from the billboard and fortunately Robert caught him. Seeing that Giselle had no place to stay, Robert let Giselle stay in their home for the night.

In search for Giselle, Prince Edward goes into the real world, together with the chipmunk Pip. They also came out of the manhole which made people wonder where they are coming from.

Waking up in the morning and seeing how messy the place was, Giselle called her animal friends and they cleaned the house together. Nancy (Idina Menzel) who is Robert’s fiancee‚ saw Giselle in his home and she got mad at him.

Queen Narissa sent Nathaniel to search for Prince Edward to prevent him from finding Giselle. Nathaniel met the Prince and Pip tried to say to the Prince what the Queen plans to do to Giselle but the Prince could not understand it because the chipmunk cannot talk on earth.

In the meantime, Robert came with Giselle to their office. They went for a stroll in the park where Nathaniel gave Giselle a poisonous apple which she luckily did not get a chance to eat. Giselle asked Robert how Nancy knows he loves her. Giselle started singing a song which Prince Edward has luckily heard. Giselle sent Nancy a heart-shaped flowers with doves to help Robert in expressing his love for Nancy.

On a restaurant where Giselle and Robert ate, Nathaniel, in an attempt to poison Giselle, gave her a poisonous drink. When she was about to drink it, Pip kicks the glass and successfully told Giselle that Prince Edward is there too. Nathaniel saw Pip so it hid under the pizza which Nathaniel threw in the fire. It made the news that Pip was still alive. Giselle was interviewed in the television where Prince Edward saw him. Prince Edward went to that place and searched for Giselle.

By this time, Giselle and Robert have fallen in love with each other but they just could not admit it since they both have lovers. In the morning, the Prince met Giselle and they are both glad to see each other again. Prince Edward and Giselle went on a date so she has to say goodbye to Robert and Morgan. But Giselle went back because she has to go to the ball. Morgan helped her buy clothes with the help of her daddy’s credit card. Queen Narissa could not accept that Prince Edward and Giselle are together again so she followed to the real world.

At the ball, she showed up as an old lady and gave Giselle an apple which made Giselle fall asleep with just one bite. Prince Edward kissed Giselle to try to wake her up, but she did not. When Robert kissed Giselle, she woke up which means that Robert is her true love. Queen Narissa turned into a dragon and fought with Giselle but Queen Narissa fell and was burned in fire.

The film ends with each page of the storybook telling what happened to each character in the story at the end. Prince Edward and Nancy went back to Andalasia and got married. Nathaniel has been a well-known writer in the real world while Pip has been a well-known writer in Andalasia. Robert, Giselle and Morgan became a happy family in the real world.

The excellent acting skills of the actors and actresses in the movie made it possible for the movie to win awards. Amy Adams showed how good she is not only in acting but also in singing. James Marsden also did a good job in portraying a prince, who also sings. Though Patrick Dempsey’s role did not require him to sing, he still did well in acting.

Almost all of the casts gave justice to their roles. For the editing, I can say that it was perfect. The scene where there are even cockroaches and rats helping Giselle do the cleaning was edited nicely. Also, the transition from the fairytale to the real world was blameless. The effects used in the scene where the Dragon, Narissa, falls down the building while burning with fire and disappears magically was superbly done. I liked the costume designs of the characters especially Amy Adams’ and James Marsden’s which shows real prince and princess outfit. The background music chosen for each scene was very appropriate. When the fight scene at the top of the castle was shown, the background music added a lot to the atmosphere of the said scene.

Since this is a musical film, there has to be production numbers. I can say that they have allotted so much time in practicing for the major production number for the song “That’s How You Know” since we can see how coordinated everyone is and how perfect their movements are. It was a colorful one. There are old couples, brides and grooms, and even construction workers dancing too.

The melody was good and was made even better by the beat of the drums and the voice of Amy Adams. There are also humorous scenes injected in the movie. One can laugh at the scene of Prince Edward when he asks the television like it was a mirror to tell him where the place Giselle was and the reporter actually said the location then Prince Edward thanked the television. Another is when Giselle made a dress out of the curtains which left a trace of the outline of the dress.

Overall, I can say that I really liked this movie for it combines fairytale, which everyone has liked in their childhood, and the real world where we are. I also loved all the songs played in this movie.