Enchanted is Terrible

I was excited to take my children to see Enchanted, the new Disney film, this past weekend. I had read reviews about what a wonderful movie it was and how it did a great job of skewing the traditional fairy tale.

It turned out that this was not true. Enchanted is a very traditional fairy tale that uses some gimmicks to sell itself as a modern recreation. As I have written before, I am not a fan of the traditional fairy tales. I am only interested in a princess who is able to save herself and perhaps not even want the prince when she’s done. This bit of tripe with a focus on marriage as the ultimate attainment is just disturbing.

The princess, Giselle, is as wide-eyed, dewy and dopey as the best 1930’s creations. I think that she is supposed to be seen as naïve because she is in a strange land, but the beginning sequence sets her up as naïve and incompetent in her own land as well, so I thought that her confusion, once she lands in New York from her animated fairy tale land, just seemed like a continuation of her lack of mental acuity.

SPOILER ALERT!

Of course, Giselle is expecting to be saved from New York by her prince and brought back to the poorly named animated fairy tale land, Andalasia. And, of course, she falls in love with the guy who randomly picks her up and brings her back to his apartment with his six year-old daughter. The only part of the movie that seemed remotely plausible, (even if this is a fairy tale) was when the father had the daughter sleep in his room so that she won’t be left alone in her room while the clearly delusional princess sleeps on the sofa.

There is a small part where Giselle stabs the evil queen after she turns into a dragon and where she saves her love by throwing a sword that sticks him to a post while the dragon falls to her doom, but it was just too gooey for my taste. This bland bit of brain candy isn’t worth the price of the ticket.

SPOILERS END

Not to mention that I am just completely done with the entire Disney Princess franchise. What happened to the idea that princesses would be feisty and diverse, like Belle, Jasmine and Mulan? I want my children to see movies with characters that are willing to stand up for their beliefs and have an interest outside of marriage. As the single mom who took her daughter to see this movie with me said, “How am I supposed to talk to my daughter about this?” The rapt focus on marriage as the ultimate end goal made this movie seem like it was from the 30’s and I wish it would have stayed there.

For the same age child, I would just wait until Nancy Drew comes out on video.