Ep 37: Enchanted

28 responses to “Ep 37: Enchanted”

1. I completely agree with Lucy, the romance isn’t as strong as it should be. I wouldn’t call it a romantic comedy, more of a comedy with a bit of romance. It’s more about Giselle growing into her own. If you look at it more like the transformative power of Giselle’s self determination, and not that of how love came in and made her life better. She did it on her own and got a guy with great hair with a cute kid.

2. I swear, you guys are my heroes. I love this movie. I wish I could have watched it with you. Keep up the good work! 🙂

3. I found the movie quite fun and loved the references to other Disney movies. Yes, this was my first time watching it. I’m not certain how I feel about the romance as I think I prefer the fairytale land to reality, especially the option for talking animals! Go Pip!!

   This also got me to thinking about how distorted fairytales are. The strong woman who is in control or has power is always evil. The heroine needs a man to save her which they switched in this one so that Giselle saved him. The evil stepmother is never blond or grey. Random thoughts.

4. I wanted to share this with people. My friend based his proposal on the “How do you know” song from this movie. You can see it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d6XyA3Zu0g.

   (Hopefully, the blog won’t think I’m a spammer for putting in a link.)

   Anyway, he recruited 75-100 people to help. They rehearsed for 2 weekends. It was awesome.

5. I always felt like this movie could have been great but it just fell short of that potential to be merely “ok”.

   I do love the musical numbers, though. Especially the “Happy Working Song” where the pigeon eats one of the bugs. Classic.

6. First, I loved this movie. Is it perfect? No… but very few films can lay claim to perfection.

   Giselle’s transition from the cartoon world to the “real” 3D world is her motivator. Her life in the cartoon world is to uncover her true love. When she is thrust into New York and meets Robert, she gains new insights which show there are more layers to love then she had understood previously.

   Because of her observations and experiences dealing with the 3D world her character expands. For example the divorced couple at Robert’s office, how she helped Robert with his relationship to Nancy. Listening to Robert lament he doesn’t believe in true love, Giselle expands her understanding of what true love really is.

   These two belong together to balance each other out. Giselle is whimsical, trusting and believes in love, while Robert is jaded, cynical and looks at love like a business deal. In the end Robert provides Giselle with the grounding she needs to live in this world. Giselle shows Robert true love does exist while getting him to see that life can be fun.

   While Giselle would not experience this transformation without her descent into the 3D world and would most likely live happily ever where she came from. Having the real world thrust upon her in New York, allows her to grow and expand. This enables her to expand her idea of love. Which has changed since she was introduced to us at the beginning.

   Thanks for providing the podcast. It’s been a bunch of fun!

7. Loved the film, love the daughter, really loved Giselle. I still don’t get Robert as a romantic hero. I get why Giselle can’t go back to Edward. But I don’t think living with Robert is going to be any kind of fun or prize.

   Idina’s character get’s the best ending, I always thought!

8. Lani argued that Giselle would have been just as happy in the cartoon world. I’m not sure I disagree, but there’s something in me that insists that the ability to feel anger and to look to something outside of Love’s True Kiss makes for a better, richer happiness. But if she’d stayed in the two dimensional world, she’d never have known the difference. I definitely believe she improved Robert’s life, but I’m thinking that my arguments for the 3-D world being better than the 2-D may be flawed.
   Makes my head hurt.

9. talk about timing… it’s on Disney right now:)

10. I think that Lani’s argument is flawed because she DID end up in the 3D world.

    Sure, it wasn’t because she was inherently unhappy in the 2D world, but once she had come into NYC and had those experiences, she would NOT have been happy going back.

    There’s the crucial piece (for me, anyway). It’s not that she had to be unhappy or unfulfilled in the other world — it’s that her life changes in ways that make it so that she needs something more than what she had previously in order to be fulfilled. And it’s true for both of them; once they’d found that *thing* in each other, even if it didn’t work out, they would have gone on to look for it again in another relationship.

    Regardless of the initiating EVENT — whether it is internal dissatisfaction or an external shove through a portal — the emotional end result is the same. To say it doesn’t work because she would have been happy and fulfilled if none of it ever happened is to say Bunny would have been happy married to Cutler if Sumner had never come along. It doesn’t work because things DID change. (and, yes, I have developed an unhealthy obsession with Desk Set, why do you ask?)

11. I agree with everything Briana said. I rated this a 4 in the poll because I don’t think the romance is one of those perfect ones, but I still think it works.

    I think it was in the 10 Things I Hate About You podcast, you guys talked about how the relationship was transformative for both of them, and that was part of why it worked. I think you can see that here. I don’t believe it was only the 3-D world that changed her. She couldn’t have fallen off that billboard on to just anyone and become the person she did. If he hadn’t let her stay with him, hadn’t tried to help her, hadn’t shared the story of his wife leaving him, and what he thinks romantic love is, she wouldn’t have developed that new understanding of relationships. You know she’s resourceful, so she would have survived until Edward found her, but without meeting Robert, she wouldn’t have stayed. And I’m sure he and Nancy would have been fine if he hadn’t met Giselle, but she changed him too. You know, at the end (particularly when he sings), that he wouldn’t have been satisfied with the kind of practicality-oriented relationship he wanted in the beginning.

12. Nothing about Desk Set is unhealthy.

13. It was a very entertaining movie, but I agree with Lani/Lucy on the romance. It just wasn’t believable enough for me.

    I’m a latecomer to PopD, but I’ve been catching up on some of the previous podcasts. Just wanted to add to the My Big Fat Greek Wedding discussion–as difficult as this may be to believe, Greek families are actually like that. My father is from Greece and he and his family are all nuts like that (I say this with love). No joke. The only thing he doesn’t do are word etymologies or have an obsession with Windex, but he has other interesting quirks which make up for that. Your father is the paterfamilias until he’s dead. For a woman, your dad loses his control (so to speak) when you marry and are then under the aegis of your husband. Also, children living at home until they are married is very common (my cousins who are 40 and 36 years old still do) and when they do get married, living next door is also common. In fact I have at least three other cousins with their own families who live in two family houses with their respective parents. Family and family pride are of the utmost important in Greek culture, hence the very controlling nature of it all. Thankfully I have an American mother so I’m a little more balanced. 🙂

14. Except that I forsee a life of Giselle being told to “calm down” or “be sensible” ahead of her. Robert doesn’t change very far in the film – not as extensively as Giselle, because being cautious and negative has worked well for him. Learning to quietly sing when you’re on the verge of losing your girl is not a full blown transformation.

15. @KatrinaG: True. But they looked pretty happy dancing around the apartment; I have hope.

16. The thing that does is for me is that he’s so hopeless about her. He starts by patronizing her and then he’s just dazzled. I love the two curtain scenes for that. The first one he yells and the second one he laughs and then tells her she looks beautiful, very seriously.

17. I’m sorry, this of off-topic, but the weekend is roaring closer. Does anyons know how to find a copy of “The Assassination Bureau?” We even joined Netflix and can’t seem to get it.

18. I’m sorry, this of off-topic, but the weekend is roaring closer. Does anyons know how to find a copy of “The Assassination Bureau?” We even joined Netflix and can’t seem to get it.

    It would help if I could type today… Delete the misspelled Me please. 🙂

19. I’m with JulieB, I haven’t been able to find the The Assassination Bureau either

20. Annie and JulieB, I received the Assassination Bureau from Netflix last night. I wonder if they have limited copies.

21. Sorry, a bit off topic, but I just saw that The Big Hit (for Feb. 27) will be available via streaming on Netflix beginning March 4. A little late for PopD viewing. Maybe a date switch with Mr. and Mrs. Smith?

22. @Lisa: Strange, when I look up the Assassination Bureau on Netflix, it only lets me “Save to DVD Queue” as if the DVD doesn’t exist.

23. Assassination Bureau is listed as ‘short wait’ and today I got a notification that The Big Hit was coming to me instead this week so maybe we broke Netflix:)

24. Well, crap – it did the same thing to me. I had it at the top of my Netflix queue, but now I see that it’s been bumped down to the “Saved” section.

25. Hmmmm. I could well believe Netflix has limited copies. The movie’s forty years old.

    Let me talk to Lani. I have a feeling that it’s too late to switch movies now. Mr & Mrs. Smith isn’t available for streaming, either. Neither is The Killers. And the rest of the movies are obscure.

    I have no problem switching Mr. and Mrs. Smith with The Big Hit if it’s streaming on the 4th and it’s okay with everybody here and Lani, although she’s very easy-going about this stuff. They were in chronological order, but it’s not as important here as it was in the romcom survey. Mr. and Mrs. Smith is NOT streaming; will that give you all time to get it?

    Come to think of it, I’m not for sure positive I know where our Assassination Bureau is.

    ETA: Never mind. Found it.
    I think we’re stuck because it’s too late to get any of the other titles. In my defense, I did check to see if Netflix had it. I just forgot to ask how many copies they had.

26. I usually wait to post my comment until I’ve finished the podcast but this week has bee a – WEEK. And now there’ll be a new movie.

    but I think I can weigh in a bit…Amy Adams does a fantastic job of portraying Giselle and her arc through the movie. I totally believe her transformation. As for Robert, I mostly believe his. I think a better actor would’ve been able to sell this for us.He doesn’t have the subtly of expression or body use to really show his emotional arc so we have to rely entirely on the script and the script can only tell us but so much. This guy had a great face but he wasn’t able to do much with it, which is a real shame for the story.

    I did love how the fairy tale and real world were integrated. they did a great job with that. and deciding to set the story in NY – Brilliant!!

27. I LOVE this movie. It’s the freshest take on Princess flicks Disney has managed to spit out in… well, ever.

    I think the argument that Giselle would have been just as happy to remain in the animated world is moot; the central conceit is “what would happen if an animated princess got dropped into a 3-D world?” and I felt they did a really good job of exploring that. I adore the scene where she gets angry for the first time and realizes it – brilliant.

    I agree that the romance was not all it could be and I have to wonder how much of that was Dempsey. I’ve never been a huge fan of his and the role may have been served better by another actor. Marsden is PERFECT as Edward and I love that he and Nancy end up together.

    FWIW, Mr & Mrs Smith is available to rent on iTunes for $2.99. I know that defeats the purpose of having a Netflix subscription but… The Big Hit is only available on iTunes to buy – and it’s worth every penny of the $9.99, IMHO. I already own both flicks on DVD, but I put it out there for those looking to grab a quick copy. 😉

28. The quality is not the best, but if you put in “The Big Hit Part 1” on youtube, the film comes up in 6 parts.