Enchanted

I’m taking a break from all my princess posting to present… a princess post! This time, one of my friends approached me telling me I had to write about Enchanted. I told her I knew nothing about the movie. She replied, “It’s like the movie Elf, but with a Disney Princess… which really doesn’t make it like Elf at all.” Having got that cleared up, I told her that I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep this princess thing going (I still have six princesses left!) and that she would have to do this one herself. After all, it was clear from her messages that she was as passionate about this movie as I am of my vintage Mr. T. poster. She agreed. So, I present to you a special guest blog of Enchanted, by a friend of mine who goes by the handle of Young MC. (I have yet to watch this movie, but have sprinkled in a few comments of my own.)

I too have a niece who is enlightening me on the wonders of Disney Princesses.  Since my childhood was during the Great Disney Princess Silence, I was more captivated by Strawberry Shortcake, Care Bears, Pretty Ponies and Holly Hobby than by Disney Princesses.  I do not remember the thrill of dressing up as Belle for Halloween, having Cinderella shoes or wearing wings like Aurora’s fairy friends at tea parties.

Mark has been able to pull back a metaphorical curtain and revealed that the larger-than-fairy-tale-lives of princesses may have valuable lessons for all of us living in the 21^st Century.  Disney sought to illustrate these lessons through princess Giselle (not to be confused with Tom Brady’s princess Gisele Bundchen) in the 2007 masterpiece “Enchanted” staring Amy Adams, Susan Serandon and Patrick Dempsey (aka. Dr. McDreamy). I will seek to discover how these lessons can impact our nieces and the lives they are dreaming to live.

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1:53 – Wow!  Not even two minutes into Enchanted we have an Evil Queen, The Prince on a White Horse, dancing and animal friends.  We can only expect that singing with birds and cleaning will soon follow.

4:17 – Giselle teaches us three important lessons through her song “True Love’s Kiss”:

• The reason why we need lips is so that we can experience true love’s kiss.
• To find a life of endless bliss – find who you love through true love’s kiss.
• Ahhhhh ahhhhhhh ahhhhh  ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

(Mark’s comments: I’m not sure what that third bullet has to do with true love. The best place to get your true love kiss is at the dentist? Doesn’t that violate some kind of practitioner/patient relationship agreement?)

5:05 – The Prince is first captivated by the princess’ voice and has a white horse – two attributes of Disney princes that we have already learned from Mark.

6:46 – This troll character must be Shrek’s estranged brother who knew that if he ever wanted to get an Oscar, he would have to ditch Dreamworks and work for Disney.

7:30 – Prince learns Giselle’s name and she does the next logical thing: begins planning their wedding!

9:40 – Giselle tries to run away from a curmudgeonly-old person who is tempting her with a wishing well. She exclaims “I don’t need a wishing well. I’m getting married! All my wishes are about to come true.” Unfortunately she is not successful and curmudgeonly-old person pushes her into a well where she experiences a time and space continuum that would baffle even Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory.

12:00 – Blair, Hide your man – another princess has inhabited your island.  Let’s hope she doesn’t make it up to the Upper East Side.  XOXO, Gossip Girl

(Mark’s comments: I don’t know what XOXO, Gossip Girl means, but like the sound of it and have made it my new email signature.)

15:06 – Why hello Dr. McDreamy!  Giselle is right . . . I think I know how to find a life of endless bliss!

(Mark’s comments: This whole time I thought “McDreamy” was the code name for the delicious, but seldom available Reese’s Flurry. I had better stop asking for the McDreamy at the drive-through window.)

16:28 – Dr. McDreamy doesn’t give his daughter (a.k.a. Daddy’s little princess) fairy tale books.  Instead he gives her a book of “Important Women of our Time.”  I wonder if I can find that book at Porter Square Books and if it includes great women such as Mary Kate and Ashley Olson, Lady Gaga, Jessica Simpson and the Kardashians.

(Mark’s comments: You forget Bette Midler. “Wind Beneath My Wings” brought me through some hard times. I like to pretend Bette was singing it with me in mind.)

23:56 – Blair, a prince is wandering the streets of Manhattan and he’s more pathetic than Lonely Boy.  He’s on a mission and not going away.  XOXO, Gossip Girl

26:28 – Yay!  Cleaning and singing with birds – we officially have a Disney Princess movie.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Cleaning does not work this way – no matter how much you sing, dance and bring animals into your home.  I’ve tried and my roommate has not been pleased.

30:55 – Ruh-Roh!  Dr. McDreamy’s girlfriend, Nancy (played by Idina Menzel), is not happy with the Giselle Princess Intrusion.

49:00 – To my dear niece,

Countless hours of over-analyzation with your friends at slumber parties can be resolved by watching this clip.

Also take note of Dr. McDreamy’s jazz hands at 50:17 (2:35 in the youtube clip) – that’s how you know he’s falling for Giselle!

With Love,

T-T-M (My Auntie Nickname)

53:11 – Nancy proves that inside every girl is a love for flowers and balls.  Kind of like – inside every girl is a “Woooo!”.

(Mark’s comments: I have no idea what this means and just did a Google search for ‘inside every girl is a woo’ to get some color. The first hit was a website on how to meet & attract women. If I sign up now, I can get a free 10-part “Underground Report” – a $147 value.)

59:22 – While Giselle is having dinner with Dr. McDreamy, we receive some great character development that is unlike any other Disney Princess movie.

Dr. McDreamy:  Because love – the lovey-dovey version that you talk about – It’s fantasy.  And one day, you have to wake up and you’re in the real world.

Giselle:   What made you wake up?
Dr. McDreamy:  Well . . . she [daddy’s princess’ mom] left.
Giselle:  I’m so sorry for you both.
Dr. McDreamy:  It’s OK … I can handle it.  It’s her [daddy’s princess] I worry about. . . . I just want her to be strong . . .  To be able to face the world for what it is.  That’s why I don’t encourage the fairy tales.  I don’t want to set her up to believe in this “dreams come true” nonsense.
Giselle:  But dreams do come true. And maybe something wonderful will happen.
Dr. McDreamy:  Yeah, well, I forgot who I was talking to.
Giselle:  Well I hope you don’t forget.  I like talking to you.

63:57 – I can’t help but notice that The Prince has puffed sleeves that would even make Anne jealous.

(Mark’s comments: I don’t see anything about wearing puffy sleeves in my free, underground report.)

68:25 – The Prince comes to “rescue” Giselle! He starts to sing – but Giselle is not singing along!  Magic Kingdom – We Have a Problem!

71:00 – The Prince agrees to go on a date with Giselle, but there is conflict here between who will be her true love.  So let’s go back to what we know is true. Let’s see how Dr. McDreamy and The Prince measure up on the primary attributes for a Disney Prince:

	Dr. McDreamy	The Prince
Tall	Yes	Yes
Handsome	Yes	Depends
Romantic	TBD	TBD

74:30 – During the date Giselle asks The Prince to a ball.  This is the same ball that Dr. McDreamy and Nancy are going to – clearly disregarding what she may have read in her copies of The Rules, Passion and Purity and He’s Just Not That Into You.

77:23 – Blair, hold onto your Dior. Georgina was nothing compared to the Queen-bee-wanna-be that just arrived. XOXO Gossip Girl

80:02 – At the ball, it appears that The Prince scored a point for “Romantic” in Nancy’s opinion by his dashing good looks, charming wit and puffed sleeves . . . but isn’t is supposed to be Giselle who is noticing these things?  What’s going to happen?  Is someone going to find a life of endless bliss through a true love’s kiss?

82:30 – Giselle dancing with Dr. McDreamy + Nancy dancing with The Prince = My heart is melting.

83:00 –Nancy cutting in and dancing with Dr. McDreamy + sad Giselle with The Prince = My heart breaking.

85:10 – Oh no! I just want to scream “No Giselle!  Don’t eat curmodgeonly-old woman’s apple – No matter what she says!  Especially when she says you need to eat the apple before the clock strikes Twelve.”

88:45 – Giselle is dead.

88:50 – Giselle taught us that True Love’s Kiss will bring life’s eternal bliss.  Maybe a kiss will bring her back to life, but The Prince’s kiss isn’t working and the clock is striking Twelve.  Come on Dr. McDreamy –Nancy even says you can kiss her, even though you’ve only known her for a day – this could be True Love!

90:07 – CRAP!  Dr. McDreamy’s kiss didn’t work!  Mark – What’s going to happen?  You didn’t teach us about this!

(Mark’s comments: If this has anything to do with the final bullet on the true love song discussed at 4:17, I think what it means is that someone is going to jail.)

90:28 – OMG!  It did work!  Giselle is alive! Those tricky Disney people . . .

90:56 – Looks like Evil Queen didn’t get President Obama’s memo.  She has a bayonet and it appears to be pretty powerful.  Bayonets help Queens become dragons and The Queen/Dragon captures Dr. McDreamy.  Maybe we should reconsider our Defense spending.

92:27 – Giselle takes the bayonet and SPOILER ALERT! leaves her shoe in the ballroom.

95:20 – Long story . . . Giselle saves Dr. McDreamy and kills the evil Queen/dragon while using her bayonet.  I wonder if Eowyn is her favorite Lord of the Rings character?

95:55 – Giselle and Dr. McDreamy are KISSING!

(Mark’s comments: That dentist is a pervert!)

96:10 –Nancy finds the shoe and The Prince puts it on her foot – *tear*  He even says it’s a perfect fit.  They get married.

97:40 – Giselle starts a princess fashion company for kids.  Do they have a website?  I should really get a dress for my niece.

98:30 – Dr. McDreamy, daddy’s princess and Giselle running around the house in gleeful happiness. Julie Andrews says they all live happily ever after – so it must be true!

Concluding thoughts:

I think Dr. McDreamy identifies a concern for many regarding Disney Princesses.  We don’t want to set our young girls up for failure when their dreams do not come true.  Instead, we would rather prepare them for the real world.  I think this is not only a struggle for people who are guiding young girls in their own life, but also (if we are honest with ourselves) a personal struggle for everyone.

It is often said that hope deferred makes a heart sick and a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.  But what does that mean for the multitude of people whose lives are filled with “hope deferred” instances?  It is easy to take the path of Dr. McDreamy and prepare for the hard-knocks and not allow one to dream about abundant trees.

One of my favorite stories in Scripture is in Daniel 3, when the king orders Daniel to bow before an idol and threatens the fiery furnace as punishment if he doesn’t obey.  Daniel declares that his God is able to save him from the fiery furnace, but even if his God does not save him, he will not bow before the idol.

I pray that my niece obtains the resolve and determination to do the right thing like Daniel.  However, I also hope that she continues to dream that her God can provide miracles in her life.  Sometimes I think it is tempting to be like Dr. McDreamy and focus on how to deal with the real world.  However, Giselle teaches us that miracles can happen and it is important to spend time dreaming.

My hope for my niece is that she will continue to dream a fairy tale life that is bigger than any Disney Princess could live.  Most likely she will have disappointments and heart-aches along the way.  However, I pray that I will be an Auntie who is reminding her that her dreams can come true, but even if they do not – she should continue to be faithful no matter how much she wants to harden her heart.

In the meantime, we’ll just have some fun laughing, giggling, dancing and singing – just like Disney Princesses!

Category: Princess Diaries