Lillian Baker and Martha Thomases On The Nation’s #1 Movie

For the last two weeks, Disney’s Enchanted has been the top-grossing movie in the country.  A musical pastiche of animation and live-action, it’s the story of Giselle (Amy Adams), a young beauty rescued by the handsome Prince Edward (James Marsden).  Instead of getting married and living happily ever after as they planned, the couple is separated by his sorcerous step-mother, Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon).  Amy is banished to a terrifying realm – contemporary Manhattan – where she meets Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey) an uptight lawyer, and his shy daughter, Morgan (Rachel Covey).

Lillian Baker:  I thought it was pretty good.  Very funny.  It wasn’t very good if you’re one of those people who don’t like romance and/or fantasy.

Martha Thomases:  I liked the way it went from animated, in the Prince’s land of Andalusia, and then live-action in our world.

LB:  I liked the cartoons better.  It looked better.

MT:  They set things up very well.  In the fairy-tale world, we aren’t surprised that Giselle can talk to animals and get their help to clean her house.  When she comes to New York and needs help, she calls the local animals to help, and to her rescue come rats, pigeons and cockroaches.

LB:  It’s a scary thought, if that kind of person was in your house.  Maybe it would be okay.  I read that only ten percent of cockroaches are considered pests.

MT:  What are the others considered?

LB:  The rest are good for the environment because they keep the earth from being covered with animal poop.  In the movie, they scoured the bathtub clean.

MT:  I liked the big dance number in Central Park.  It was like every big dance number in a Disney animated film, like Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast.  And yet, I’ve never seen actual music and dancing in the park.  It looked perfect.

LB:  I’ve definitely heard music in Central Park, but I’m not so sure about dancing. 

MT:  Giselle was amazing.  Every day, when she was staying in Robert’s apartment, trying to find a way back to her Prince, she would cut up some curtains to make a new dress.

LB:  Would it kill her to wear the same dress two days in a row?

MT:  I liked some of the characters who weren’t the stars.  I liked Robert’s girlfriend, Nancy (Idina Menzel) and I loved James Marsden.  He looked like he was having so much fun being this over-the-top romantic prince.

LB:  He found out about the television remote control when he sat on it.  He thought televisions were Magic Mirrors.  My favorite character was the chipmunk, Pip.  He was funny.

MT:  It was funny that he could talk in the animated part, and not in New York.  I guess that’s what New York is like.  Our chipmunks can’t talk.  Did you think it was accurate?

LB:  I thought it was very accurate about the way it showed New York City.  I liked the Time Warner Center in the movie.

MT:  It was also pretty accurate about love.  When I was your age, all the movies had the princess rescued by the prince.  In this movie, the two lovers rescue each other.  That’s much more what a grown-up relationship is like.

Lillian Baker is an up-and-coming cartoonist and blogger.  Martha Thomases is Media Goddess of ComicMix.com