"Happy working song"
Enchanted was a one of its kind movie. Want to know why?
NUMBER ONE: A parody of itself
Very few parody movies are a parody of things that the company who made the movie does. Enchanted totally changed the parody scenario with the fact that it was a parody of Disney by Disney. All of Disney’s own traditions, such as the songs, the people that start to dance out of nowhere, the goody goody princess, the prince that on reality cannot do anything, the apple, the animals, everything that Disney made famous on its own movies are strictly used here for comedy purposes. It’s like someone once realised what was wrong with his life and decided to write a book about it- only the fact that on Enchanted’s case, its not what has gone wrong- but what has gone… good.
Where have I seen this before?
NUMBER TWO: “What if this was real”?
Sometimes when you play a game, or read a book, or see a movie that is set in a imaginary place, in a ficticional setting, you often think “What if this was real?” or even “What if these characters really existed?” Enchanted hit that really hard. When I first saw Little Mermaid, I thought: “Man, what if there really were mermaids”? Would the things portrayed in the movie really happen? I think not, and thats where Enchanted wins. Giselle is basically a mish mash up of every single Disney Princess. She has the naive feeling of Ariel, the wish to know the unknown from Belle, the adventure spirit from Jasmine and much much more. This leads me to the number three reason.
Uhm... Do I kiss her or eat this apple?
NUMBER THREE: Wake up, Sleeping Beauty
Even if Disney fairytales were real, do you think that things would work out like they did in the movies? Think for a moment, do you think Ariel would get Eric’s love? Or do you think Tiana would come back to being human? To every single belief (taken from each Disney Princess) that Giselle has, Robert is there to contradict everything? True love’s kiss? Working song? Singing and dancing out of nothing? No phrase can describe what Giselle goes through on Enchanted than the phrase “Wake up, Sleeping Beauty”.
I'm on a bubble, doo doo...
NUMBER FOUR: Music!
What was my surprise when I discovered that the score was made by Alan Menken and the songs were made by Alan Menkend and Stephen Schwartz? Who better to work on a Disney parody of Disney than some of Disney’s best composers and songwriters? Every single song on the music is catchy, satyrical and celebratory. From True Love’s Kiss to Ever, Ever After, the musics carry the movie along so well. I mean, come on, who didn’t notice that True Love’s Kiss was a parody of EVERY single love song in Disney movies? And Happy Working Song a parody of Whistle While You Work? And How Do You Know a parody of Under the Sea? And to my surprise, the non-satyrical songs made by Jon McLaughlin and Carrie Underwood were as good as the main songs? Talking about songs…
Dancing with the dinosaur- I mean, the beast.
NUMBER FIVE: Stuck in the 90′s
Everything that made those Disney movies from the 90′s so famous is back here. While Princess and the Frog is the full fledged return to 2D hand drawn animation, Enchanted was the pre-return with its animation sequences. Its funny, right? Who Framed Roger Rabbit had 2D animation and sparked the interest on it again, leading to the creation of the Disney 90′s movies. So I can say that if it wasn’t for Enchanted, there would be no Princess and the Frog. And while it’s simply downright STUPID to compare Princess and the Frog to a Disney 90′s movie, if you do that with Enchanted, eh, you’re probably right.
Nooo, this is totally not an overused trope!
NUMBER SIX: Amy Adams, a Disney Princess for real
Amy Adams was the star of Enchanted and boy did she do the role. Better yet, Adams was so good that she can be one of the best Disney Princesses ever. I am not kidding you. She just looks like Disney decided to create an animation to real life machine and throw Ariel, Belle, Snow White, Cinderella and Aurora in there. The result was Giselle, and if Giselle wasn’t portrayed by Amy Adams, I don’t think the movie would have gotten as much praises as it got. Amy Adams is definitely the first real person to deserve joining the ranks of the Disney Princesses.
Aha! Heartshot!
NUMBER SEVEN (AND THE LAST ONE): Cameos cameos cameos!
Enchanted created two new types of cameo: the music cameo and the written cameo! Not only do you have physical cameos such as Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel, as Robert’s secretary, and Paige O’ Hara, the voice of Belle, as an soap novel actress, but you also have musical cameos, with snippets of songs such as Part of Your World, Colors of the Wind, Beauty and the Beast, Once Upon a Dream and more thrown in the fantastic Alan Menken score of the movie. And you have the written cameos, such as the firm that Robert works on being named Churchill, Harline and Smith. Those are the names of the three men that created the Snow White’s score and music!
Enchanted may probably be one of the best- if not THE best- movie of the bad section of the Eisner era.
