Giselle is back for an Enchanted sequel that's overflowing with deep-cut Disney easter eggs,
magical references, and in-jokes.
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers, I'm Jan and I've been re-watching and pausing Disenchanted
to uncover all the incredible little details you might have missed!
Disenchanted begins with a soaring view through animated Andalasia, where we get a nod to
Sleeping Beauty's royalty, and we get the first of many Beauty and the Beast references
with a girl reading a book by a fountain surrounded by a flock of sheep.
Meanwhile, the firefly that lights up Pip's home is a nod to firefly Ray who sang "Ma
Belle Evangeline" in The Princess and the Frog.
As soon as Giselle casts the spell that turns Monroeville into the fairytale land of Monrolasia,
the Disney easter eggs flow thick and fast.
So, when Giselle's kitchen cutlery, utensils and appliances come to life and begin to sing,
it's a homage to the iconic "Be Our Guest".
The broom that comes to life with yellow bristle legs is a tribute to the magical broom Mickey
brought to life in Fantasia.
And I love the funny little detail of how the broom is simply sweeping dust under the
rug, rather than cleaning it away, a metaphor perhaps for how Giselle is trying to sweep
away her own problems with her magic wishing wand, rather than dealing with them.
When Pip discovers he can talk in the live-action world...
Wait, how am I talking?
... it's a little joke about the original Enchanted where he could only squeak in New
York and had to act out what he wanted to say.
And when he exclaims...
Jumpin' jelly sticks!
We got magicked?
... that's a reference to Sebastian's surprised remark in The Little Mermaid when Ariel comes
across a ship.
Jumpin' jellyfish!
Giselle's three gardeners are transformed into a trio of fairies, as a hat-tip to Aurora's
three fairy godmothers.
And when wicked stepmother Giselle orders them to look after her baby Sofia...
You three.
You look like you're good with children.
My precious darling needs tending to. ...it's a spin on Sleeping Beauty where the
three fairies raised baby Aurora as they tried to protect her from Maleficent's curse.
And Malvina Monroe's fairytale villain has strong vibes of the Evil Queen from Snow White,
from her black costume, to her spiky crown, and of course she even has her own magic mirror
which is almost a replica of the original from 1937.
Morgan's fairytale bedroom is located in the tower and has boarded-up windows, which is
a reference to the prison-like tower where Mother Gothel kept Rapunzel hidden away.
It also has an extra staircase, similar to one at Rapunzel's.
And there's a spinning wheel with a spindle like the one that cursed Aurora in Sleeping
Beauty, and which Rapunzel also had.
Morgan later escapes from the tower using bedsheets in a riff on how Rapunzel leaves
her tower.
The painted walls of Morgan's original room are also a nod to how Rapunzel painted her
walls.
And when Giselle locks Morgan inside her room, it's a nod to how Lady Tremaine locked Cinderella
away in the attic.
And when Giselle forbids Morgan from going to the festival because she has too many chores...
What about the carpets in the hall?
And the windows?
I can't see a thing.
There's the gardening and the sewing and the mending.
And don't forget about the chimneys.
Filthy business.
... the list of things she gives her to do is almost identical to the one Lady Tremaine
gives to Cinderella.
There's the large carpet.
And the windows.
And don't forget the garden.
Clean the chimneys.
And, of course, there's the mending and the sewing and the laundry.
There's another tribute to Cinderella when Giselle's wish transforms Pip into a cat.
Stepmothers don't have cute chipmunks as friends.
They have-- Cats!
[meows] And evil ones!
This is a send-up of Disney's wicked feline trope and specifically Lucifer, Lady Tremaine's
malevolent pussycat.
By the way, I think the animators got Pip's cat mannerisms down perfectly, from his fascination
with the magic Scroll's tassels, to how he hilariously tries to squeeze into an impossibly
small box.
You know that's not a litter box.
That's where I live.
When Scroll reveals that at midnight Giselle's spell will become permanent, it's a twist
on the plot of Cinderella where, instead, the Fairy Godmother's magic disappears on
the stroke of midnight.
It's pretty on the nose, but it's a classic!
The three mean girls who make fun of Morgan in Monrolasia and also in real-life are a
riff on the three girls who disliked Belle in both the animated and live-action Beauty
and the Beast movies.
Later on, they also fawn over Tyler, similar to how the trio were obsessed with Gaston.
And as Morgan begins her song "Perfect", the melody has a real ring to it of "Belle", the
opening song from Beauty and the Beast.
And like Belle, this is also Morgan's big "I Want" song.
And the splash of water behind Morgan as she perches on the boxes of fruit is a nod to
the wave crashing on the rocks behind Ariel at the end of her "I Want" song "Part of Your
World".
During the villain song "Badder", we get a peek inside Malvina's cabinet of evil objects
that she plans to use against Giselle.
Among the villainous paraphernalia is Maleficent's cursed spinning wheel;
the Enchantress's Enchanted Rose; the Wicked Queen's poisoned apple;
a "Drink Me" potion bottle like the one that shrunk Alice in Wonderland;
and this hourglass might be a reference to the one in which Jafar trapped Jasmine.
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And there are lots of great Disney easter eggs among the names of Monrolasia's stores.
You'll be able to spot "Beauty and the Book"; "Painting Painting On The Wall", a magic mirror
reference; and a grocers called "A Whole Food World",
a pun on Jasmine and Aladdin's duet "A Whole New World".
As Giselle's song continues, we can see "Smee's Cheese";
and "Le Chapeau Magique" is French for magic hat, a fun tribute to The Sorcerer's Hat from
Fantasia.
Over here is "Fée Marraine", the French name for the Fairy Godmother in Cinderella;
and there's another Cinders references with the "Bibidi Bobidi Butchers";
and there's a Mary Poppins shout-out with "Mary Popover's Bakery".
And when Giselle goes in search of her missing wand you can see "Maid Marian's Dairy";
and "Lumiere's Candle Works".
Appropriately enough, during Morgan's "Perfect" song, you can see a "Practically Perfect Pottery".
When Morgan activates Giselle's memory tree in Andalasia, she touches it and as it lights
up it transports her and Nancy up to Monrolasia, and the golden lights then fly into Morgan's
room where they reactivate her own memory tree, something that Giselle foreshadowed
at the start of the movie.
This isn't anything a little glitter couldn't fix.
The song "Love Power" that Nancy sings has some really strong Frozen vibes with the swirling
magical memories and lights reminding me a lot of Elsa's song "Into The Unknown".
Idina Menzel is, of course, the voice of Elsa in the Frozen movies, and lines like "Let
it grow" and "Let it glow" in Nancy's big power ballad are a winky reference to "Let
It Go".
During the song, Morgan's torn-up dress transforms into a beautiful new one, which is Disenchanted's
take on the Fairy Godmother's transformation of Cinderella's rags into a ball gown.
The dresses that Malvina's sidekicks Ruby and Rosaleen wear for the night of the festival
are very similar to the ones Cinderella's nasty stepsisters wore to the ball.
Director Adam Shankman has said that Malvina's minions "are sort of an echo of the step-sisters
from Cinderella".
When Giselle and Morgan go dress shopping for the festival, pause the scene here and
you can spot this film's take on the Enchanted Rose from Beauty and the Beast together with
a nod to Belle's iconic yellow ballroom dress from that movie.
Also, on the right, is a giant red apple, a reference to the Evil Queen's poisoned apple.
And the costume next to it has shades of Snow White's outfit.
The colours don't match exactly, but there's a yellow skirt, the top is a similar style
to the original, and the red shawl feels like a nod to the inside of Snow White's cape.
As for Morgan's blue dress, that's a shout-out to Cinderella's ballroom dress.
And the way wicked stepmother Giselle cuts up Morgan's dress so she can't go to the festival
is a hat-tip to how Cinderella's stepsisters destroyed the ballroom dress she made for
herself in the animated movie.
It's torn to shreds.
Why, it's hardly fit for a maid.
Plus Giselle calling her stepdaughter a maid is another Cinderella reference.
And when Giselle realises what she's turning into, she demonstrates a pose for Pip which
I think has a vibe of Disney's OG wicked stepmother, the Evil Queen.
Oh, actually.
Yeah.
I can totally see it.
As the movie reaches its climax, vines from Andalasia begin to take over Monrolasia, covering
every building in sight, which echoes how at the end of Sleeping Beauty Maleficent grew
a forest of thorny vines over the castle to try and stop Prince Phillip from reaching
Aurora.
And in fact, both Robert and Tyler cut their way through the vines, similar to how the
Prince does in Sleeping Beauty.
And to match how the vines were taking over in the grand finale, Giselle's luxurious ballgown
was designed to give the effect that leaves and vines were growing out of it so it reflects
the "final stage of [her] evil metamorphosis".
Although Giselle is broken out of her curse through the memory tree, Malvina captures
Morgan and gives her a sleeping potion sending her into a deep slumber like Aurora in Sleeping
Beauty.
Morgan is freed when Giselle gives up the magic wand;
however, she proves she's a true daughter of Giselle and Andalasia when she takes the
broken wand and says...
I wish I was home...
with my mom. ... which breaks the curse and she then wakes
up at home in her own bed.
All of which is a shout-out to The Wizard of Oz and how Dorothy wished herself home
at the end of that movie, leaving the fantasy land of Oz behind and finding herself back
at home in her bed in the real world.
After the curse is lifted, Giselle's dress has a clam-shell buckle, a nice call-out to
The Little Mermaid and Ariel, another Disney princess who was a big inspiration for Giselle's
character.
An interesting little detail which connects the magic of Andalasia and Monrolasia throughout
the movie is the purple and white flower at the top of the Andalasian wishing wand, known
as the Purple Ballerina, and it appears in the opening scene where Pip is reading the
story of the movie.
Later, Morgan walks through a clearing in the Monrolasian woods that is full of them;
and they also hang from the enchanted wishing well.
The flower foreshadows how Monrolasia will pull the magic out of Andalasia by the end
of the film.
Although Robert's daughter Morgan was recast in the sequel, the actress Rachel Covey from
the original movie does have a small but sweet cameo as a Monrolasian girl who reminds Giselle
about the festival later that day.
What's tonight?
[villagers gasp] The festival, milady.
And there's another cool cameo at the start of the film in New York City with one of the
movers.
All right.
Next stop: "Monroeville."
That's actor Matt Servitto from Enchanted who played one of the workers in Time Square
that were repeatedly surprised by visitors from Andalasia arriving through the manhole.
So, what did you think of Disenchanted and did you notice any other easter eggs?
Let me know in the comments below.
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Thanks for enjoying this movie with me and hope you have a marvellous movie-loving week!
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!