I always had a dislike for this movie when I was a child and I don’t know whether it was the animation style or something else but I never wanted to watch it. So I decided for a bit of light entertainment to try it as an adult and I’m very happy to say that while it may be a family film, watching it as a single adult is a very enjoyable experience too.

Enchanted follows soon-to-be princess Giselle who is tricked into falling into a wormhole by the evil queen and the stepmother of the prince Giselle was meant to marry, and ends up in real life New York. Before she comes through this wormhole she was in full animation so to see the change between the animation style where the outfits and characters look normal to suddenly being in a very realistic, very grungy setting was really fun to watch and set you up for a great story.

Giselle meets Robert, a man who is dating Nancy and has a daughter called Morgan and is nothing like the Disney princes that we know because he is very cynical, very serious, and even with his girlfriend whom he has been dating for 5 years, he doesn’t seem to have much of a romantic bone in his body. That is until he meets Giselle and through her whimsical wonder and Innocence he starts to see the world in a different way than he would have before.

But that doesn’t come without its issues and Giselle is followed into New York by Prince Edward, the man she was supposed to marry, and we see him grappling with this new reality and how out of place he looks and how camp and annoying princes can actually be. I didn’t realise how annoying some of them are until you see them in the real world setting and it was just a bit too much. He is also followed by Nathaniel, a worker for the Queen, and of course this is the darker side the story. Prince Edward wants to bring Giselle back to be able to marry her and live happily ever after, however now Giselle has seen this new world with the help of Robert she has to decide which world, and man, she wants to stay with.

I really enjoyed that element especially as an adult, the whimsical fun of the happily ever after storyline really works against the grittiness of real-life New York and gave normal life that bit of flair and fun that I think can be lost when you grow up. Kids have so much excitement about them and as you grow up and learn about the horrors of life and the world around you it’s very hard to find that. Watching this film it definitely gave me a new appreciation of the simple things like flowers and sunshine and and just makes you think about the little things in life that actually add up to the big things when you put them all together.

I think this film is very well made because you have the jokes that the adults will get more than the children, which really helps the rewatch-ability as you grow, but also there is enough whimsical fun and weirdness for the kids to really be able to watch it and be entertained by it too. It’s one of those films that works for any age group and I definitely feel it’s one of those guilty pleasures that people will watch when they’re feeling sad or annoyed because it gives them that warm glow again that’s missing from their life.

I would recommend this film even if it’s your first time watching because it does stand up and is very enjoyable. It’s one of those films I think that I would happily rewatch again and again and not get bored of anytime soon.

What do you think of Enchanted?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding