I was going to blog today...

[alanajoli]

...but instead I read a chunk of Maiden of the Wolf (Hallowmere #4, by dragon_egg, which I had to return before I went to Greece and just picked back up) and watched Enchanted. The first is just as engaging as it was before I left, and the second was darling--certainly bordering on saccharine, but appropriately so. And James Marsden is adorable as a doofus. (One real complaint, though: why didn't they have Idina Menzel sing? I mean, seriously?)

I suspect given time to digest, I might actually have something to say about the nature of fairy stories and the way we like our fairy tales to work these days (eg. Giselle becomes so much more likable as a character after she's "broken"--once she starts to question happily ever afters). But that may take actual pondering, and tomorrow is guest blog day. Given that I've just gotten back and I'm fresh out of new guests for now, I'll probably share bits of one of the very cool tour books I got of Naxos, which is the home of Ariadne and Dionysis.

Comments

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

I think there's an element of two-dimensions to three-dimensions going on, as well--which is required in coming from cartoon form into live action. But that may be just me projecting that idea on the film. Going along that line, though, it's not the becoming more cynical part that makes Giselle a more appealing character, it's that she's experiencing a fuller range of emotions, which includes doubt. That said, I think a lot of our Disney princesses in the last few generations had that full array of emotions ready for them. Thinking back, I don't think that full array was available to good old Snow White and Cinderella, who seem to be Giselle's core character models.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Oh! Oh! I just saw Enchanted yesterday too! How's that for synchroneity?

(I found your blog through Athanarel; I hope you don't mind me commenting, it's just that Enchanted is still fresh in my mind and I want to chatter about it.)

I'm not sure I would say Giselle is broken, though. She's still just as effervescent at the end of the movie, there's just more depth and range of emotions to back it up. I don't think its so much gaining cynicism as growing up, because she starts the movie as an arrested-development woman-child.

I thought the stepmother part was interesting, too. There still is an evil stepmother, but the movie ends with Giselle herself becoming a stepmother (and evidently a fairly good one). Actually, the whole movie had that kind of back-and-forth--nods at old-fashioned Disney ideas coupled with nods toward more modern ideas, which update the old without actually breaking them. For instance, Giselle still ends up with her True Love; he just isn't the first guy she meets.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

I actually think broken is an exaggeration, and probably not what I *meant,* just the way I was thinking about it. I suspect I'm probably more accurate in the reply to Shanna that it's a change from two-dimensionality. That goes right along with your idea about arrested development--and I *hope* that what audiences are attracted to is the idea that she's growing, becoming a *deeper* person, rather than her cynicism.

The stepmother twist had not occurred to me--I love that idea, and I'm sure you're right that it was intentional. Thanks for pointing it out here!

And of course I don't mind your commenting--always glad to have another Athanarel person over here!