Originally Posted By basil fan It was Pip's action that I found objectionable, not rats cleaning the toilet or Giselle in a towel. The Great Mouse Detective Collection <a href="http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/basil/collection.html" target="_blank">http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/ basil/collection.html</a>
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORWEN: And Cinderella never took an acutal shower in front of the audience. Some little birdies merely flew over her head with a wet sponge and let the water drain out. She had her back to the audience and was only shown from the neck up.
Originally Posted By Brown Monkey >>Some little birdies merely flew over her head with a wet sponge and let the water drain out. << Which is even more odd than a traditional shower!
Originally Posted By Brown Monkey You know what I just noticed though? Why didn't Giselle just jump back into the manhole to return to Andalasia? It seemed easy enough for Edward and that girl to do it?!?
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORWEN: Well, of course Cinderella's sponge shower was odd--but that's only because her evil stepmother didn't allow her to bathe in a more traditional way. I mean, YOU try living in a house like some poor little red headed step child and see how easy it is for you, too! The point IS, though, that she wasn't being risque in how she showered.
Originally Posted By basil fan Excellent point, Monkey. Of course, she would've just appeared right in front of that nasty old hag who tried to do her in, but I doubt that would've stopped her. Guilty! The Disney Villains <a href="http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/disney/villain.html" target="_blank">http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/ disney/villain.html</a>
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: When you're in shock, you often don't think very clearly. It's like the first time you're learning to fly a broomstick. The first time you feel a splinter making an unexpected penetration into your buttox, your first reaction is to hop off the broom and start falling....and falling....and falling....without realizing it's better to have a bruised hiney than a bruised corpse. ORWEN: (gasp!) That was so deep, Orddu! How do you do it???
Originally Posted By JeffG The film never specifically said it (and they could have easily closed the plot hole with one line of dialog...), but I assumed that the portal was one-way until Queen Narissa's death, which broke the spell. While she was still alive, nobody traveled back at all, although I would think Narissa could have done so or allowed others to. -Jeff
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< I think the point of her opening her own dress shop was to show she does not need a man to be whole. She is an independent woman -- the opposite of how she was at the beginning of the movie. Nice contrast! >>> Wow - that's reading a lot into things. Not to say that you aren't right, but I tend to not look into plot elements too closely. If they really did mean to write into the script something that deep, then they did a good job, as it didn't at all stand out as awkward for those of us that are more passive movie viewers.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< What made this movie work for me is that it was very much un-ironic. Rather, it was completely true to its premise. A two dimensional princess enters the three dimensional world, and becomes the three dimensional version of herself. In doing so, her innate goodness acts upon those around her, effecting positive change. I did not see Prince Edward as a narcissist, or particularly thick. He is a two dimensional Disney prince. He simply is so fixed on his mission-- to save the girl-- that he fails, initially, to see anything else. As each animated character spends time in "our" world, they become more fully dimensional. The evil queen's failing is mostly due to the fact that she spends too little time in New York, thus remaining a two-dimensional paradigm of fairy tale evil. This may seem like too much analysis for a simple film-- but then this is, as far as I am concerned, more than just a simple film. >>> I think this is perhaps the best analysis I've seen on this thread. I just saw the movie for the first time, and was absolutely delighted. I had not really read anything about it, seen a trailer recently, read any reviews, or listened to the music before seeing it in the theater. So, I went in with very little specific expectations. The movie just worked for me on so many different levels. I think that the "Disney princess animated movie characters acting out of place in the real world" had every opportunity to be done exceedingly poorly and stupid, and for the most part not only did they avoid this, but actually pulled it off quite well. There were a couple of things that were a bit silly, such as Prince Edward slaying the "steel dragon" or whatever he called the bus. But for the most part, I really got into the characters and the notion of the premise (other than the Queen, as others have already said always seemed 2-dimensional. I was surprised that she had so little on-screen time in the real world). I guess that what I'm trying to say is that it could have easily turned out to be stupid silly along the lines of the Haunted Mansion movie, but they managed to avoid that and accomplish something good. Alan Menken did such a wonderful job with the music. The first song seemed to be a perfect version of a Disney animated song: familiar touches while at the same time new, instantly recognizable as a "classic" Disney animated movie song, yet not tired or old-fashioned sounding. And I have to say that "Happy Working Song" really took the cake as far as I was concerned. In terms of the music, lyrics, live action, and CG animation, this was the point that I was convinced this was going to be a great movie. In a way, it was a spoof or caricature of that type of sequence in classic Disney animation, but without being insulting or stupid. Just the choice of title and main phrase, "Happy Working Song" made me laugh. I could totally imagine the writers saying "Well, at this point, what we really need is one of those 'happy working songs' where the animals help out and the whole bit." I could imagine them referring to it as the 'happy working song' as a placeholder as they developed the movie, and at some point deciding to just call it that in the final product. Brilliant. The most surprising part to me was my own reaction to the ballroom scene. When Giselle first came on scene in her evening gown and freshly-done contemporary hair, looking and acting like a normal woman both in appearance and demeanor, it really caught me off guard. And not so much that Giselle had stopped acting like a princess, but that it made me realize that she wasn't actually a princess, and was just a character in a movie being played by a real actress from today's world. For a moment, it was a bit of a let-down that she wasn't actually a princess! I'm not sure if I explained that very well. At the risk of being repetitive, the reason this hit me this way was because her portrayal of Giselle in NYC was not over-the-top or excessively campy, but done just right. I'll definitely be adding this to my Blu-Ray collection when it comes out.
Originally Posted By Brown Monkey Come to think of it, why did she come to the ball dressed like that anyway? Everyone else looked like they were dressed for Andalasia!
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: I asked myself the same questions, ducklings. Then I asked my sisters. Finally I started thinking for myself and realized that this was all meant to be a subtle transition which indicated how two different factions from two different worlds suddenly did a flip flop, of sorts. On the one hand, you had a fairytale maiden gradually transforming herself into a more modern woman living in the 'real world'. On the other hand, you had all these 'real world' people gradually acting as if Giselle's presence in their lives had influenced them to see what it was like to live in her world of fantasy for an evening. Very well done, if you ask me....just make sure you don't consult either Orwen or Orgoch on this matter, however, because their answers will be even more confusing than mine...
