Everything I need to know, I learned from “Enchanted”

By Jessica tholmer

January 25, 2016

By Jessica tholmer

January 25, 2016

When I was trying to focus at work the other day, I decided to turn to the Twitter masses to ask what everyone’s favorite Disney movie is. I got some fantastic suggestions that I will for sure be using for future EINTKILFs, but one answer stood out to me the most. I love Enchanted. I’m basically Ben Wyatt when I start talking about Enchanted—casual and then really intense. (Ben Wyatt about anything I guess.)

EINTKILF Enchanted

Mixing animation and live-action can be really magical.

In no way do I think Enchanted was the first movie to do this, but it was certainly the movie to remind me that I love a nice semi-animated film. (Space Jam, obviously.) Enchanted came out in 2007 and reminded me of my childhood in many ways, not because I am a princess, but because I watched a lot of Disney movies obviously. Enchanted brought back the magic of movies like Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I love that kind of magic.

Everyone loves a classic fairytale.

One thing I super loved about Enchanted was its incredible throwback to the Disney films of yore. Sure, it is a bit corny at times, but it is fully aware that it is corny. There is no part of this movie that takes itself too seriously, but that is the key factor in the film standing out so significantly. Enchanted has theme throwbacks to classic tales like Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and Sleeping Beauty. Who doesn’t love a “waiting for my prince to come” storyline, anyway? (Especially if you aren’t really waiting and then he just comes anyway?)

New York city can be a magical place.
Part of the non-corniness of Enchanted lies in the representation of New York. Listen, I am a PNW girl and have never been to New York (I mean, I was in JFK Airport for one hour once) but often, in movies, New Yorkers are often represented as disgruntled and in a rush. Though that absolutely might not be true, Enchanted has the hilarious combination of busy working New Yorkers and absolutely clueless fairytale characters. It is comedic gold.

I mean, it would be hard to be annoyed at James Marsden in a prince costume, but w/e.

Love at first sight is silly.

Though Enchanted came out before Frozen, there are some similarities in a few of the characters, namely Elsa telling her sister that you can’t marry somebody that you just met or just “fell in love with.” Robert and Giselle have the same conversation, though obviously this is also one of those cute movie-foreshadowing tricks because Robert and Giselle end up together.

This all being said, I absolutely do believe in love at first sight because I definitely fell in love at first sight once and thought it was the dumbest thing ever and shook it off until I realized that yeah, no, I super, duper loved that guy. (And like, always loved him from then on, so it’s true.) Love at first sight happens but we should also always roll our eyes at it just a little bit.

Aren’t we are all dreaming of a true love’s kiss?
The songs in Enchanted are fantastic. This whole album was on my iPod in college and I listened to it at the gym even though that is super weird because no one wants to run to Disney music, right? RIGHT?! (Jk I totally want to run to Disney music.) The song “True Love’s Kiss” is so Disney and also expresses what we are all always thinking — we all deserve a real good kiss every once in awhile.

Women are beautiful.
One of the main reasons that Giselle is such a fantastic character is because she is kind, innocent, loving, and brutally honest. What a fantastic combination. The good thing about being brutally honest when you are a lovely Disney Princess is that that brutal honesty usually comes out in the form of a compliment. Giselle has a hard time adjusting to the harsh realities of the world and thus often acts socially unacceptable.

But when she is staring at a statue or a woman, she is not intending to be rude. She is simply taken by the beauty of said woman. What an incredible thing that is. I often find myself noticing how beautiful women are, just normal women in my office or at an airport or whatever. Women are so beautiful to me, and to Giselle, and hopefully to all of you.

There are signs to tell if someone is in love with you.
Really, truly loves you. Like:

He/she leaves you little notes
He/she sends you yellow flowers
He/she will take you dancing
He/she will wear your favorite color
He/she will plan a private picnic by a fire

So, no one has ever done any of those things for me except the flowers but they were red, not yellow so I guess it wasn’t real. Though I am partially kidding about all of this, I am not kidding when I say that the song “That’s How You Know” is a gosh darn DELIGHT.

It’s okay to be angry.
Though I just described Giselle as basically a perfect, always-happy human, one of the many things about Enchanted that I love is that Giselle is more complex than that. When she first (or, presumably first) experiences anger and frustration, she tells Robert that he makes her “so, so, ANGRY!” and then she kind of adorably reacts to that feeling. Isn’t it exciting, though? To feel anger and frustration and actually be able to voice out loud that you are feeling that way? I honestly have to pat myself on the back when I express my negative feelings out loud–especially to the dude I’m seeing or having feelings for or whatever. It’s prob pretty hard to look Patrick Dempsey in the face and say “You make me so angry,” so good for Giselle.

Princesses can save princes. (Duh.)
Okay and obviously my favorite part of the entire story of Enchanted is that Giselle saves Robert instead of the other way around, and I don’t just mean literally (though she does that as well). Idk if you guys can tell, but I am super into sisters doing it for themselves. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a damsel in distress–do you, girl!–but it is extremely refreshing to watch a Disney Princess save a Disney Prince, you know what I mean? Also Giselle just generally saves Robert from being a grouchy, sad dude engaged to a woman he didn’t super love in the first place. Aw, Giselle.

True love is a thing.
Look, I am not a very positive person, particularly when it comes to things like “true love” and “relationships” and “marriage” and all of that stuff. I was raised by a mother who didn’t encourage marriage and I have been burned about a trillion times by dummies. That all being said, Enchanted really reminds me that true love is a thing that is out there and can be achieved. Yeah, that sounds ridiculous because Enchanted is a Disney movie, but it has some serious hints of realism in it. It reminds us that yeah, life super sucks sometimes, and sure, the “perfect person” may not be the person for you, but there is always someone that will come along in your life to inspire you. Robert is super flawed and Giselle starts out naive and a bit delusional, but they come together and really make it work. If you don’t tear up watching them dance (even though he said he doesn’t dance!!!) to “So Close,” I want to trade you lives because being this emotional is pretty inconvenient at times.