Giselle (Disney's Enchanted)

**Giselle** is The Main Protagonist in The Walt-Disney Pictures of Its' Cartoon-Animated/Live-Action Film, *Enchanted*. Her voice and live action appearances were performed by American actress Amy Adams.

## Background

### Personality

At the beginning of the film, her personality and mannerisms were representitive of the Disney Princess stereotype. Because she lives in the perfect fantasy world of Andalasia, she has barely felt emotions that are rare to the land such as frustration and anger, which, of course, are common on Earth. She dreams of having her own Prince Charming, whom she will fall in love with and live happily ever after. She also loves animals, who help her both in Andalasia and on Earth. **When she comes to New York City, her experiences in Andalasia reveal her to be blind and naïve to the complexity of Earth. She becomes rather scared, distressed, and confused during her first night in New York. Her naivety also frustrates Robert, who had agreed to let her stay with him until Edward, her dream prince from Andalasia, comes for her. However, throughout the film, her experiences on Earth with Robert open her up to a more complex world she had never experienced in Andalasia and introduce her to emotions such as anger and sadness. She also grows into a mother figure for Robert's daughter, Morgan.** Despite maturing over the course of the film, she still retains her innocence, optimism, and kind nature. Hailing from Andalasia, Giselle displays similar traits to the Disney Princesses; Lima describes her as "about 80% Snow White, with some traits borrowed from Cinderella and Aurora... although her spunky attitude comes from Ariel a.k.a. *The Little Mermaid*." She is "eternally optimistic and romantic" but is also "very independent and true to her convictions". In the climax of the film, Giselle is shown to be brave and courageous and became protective towards Robert during the battle against Queen Narissa in her dragon form.

### Physical appearance

Giselle is a beautiful young woman with a slender physique, fair skin, long wavy strawberry-blonde hair that reaches below her back, and blue-green eyes. **Her primary appearance is a hot pink strapless long gown with dark pink ribbons serving as sleeves, as well as bare feet. When her marriage with Edward backfires, and during her arrival in New York, she wears an elaborate wedding gown with butterfly designs and a golden tiara on her head. In her live-action appearance, the gown she wears is different, as the short puffy sleeves are larger and the dress skirt from her gown gains weight.** During her time with Robert, she wears a cyan short-sleeved gown with a dark cyan ribbon at the center of her bodice and a white line on the front dress skirt. She wears white pumps with a matching bow, and her long hair is accessorized with a red and yellow ribbon with pink straps hanging loose. **Her outfit during this time was crafted by herself using her small animal friends to get some wallpaper designs to make her own dress.** She later wears a sleeveless white casual dress with pink flowery designs, still utilizing the white pumps from her third outfit. **When she participates in the King and Queen's Ball and during her confrontation against Queen Narissa, she wears a strapless, modern-day gown, deep purple in appearance, with golden straps. She sports pale blue, transparent, open-toed high heels with dark blue outlines as well as loose hair.** During the confrontation with Queen Narissa, she leaves her high heels behind in order to climb to the top of the building. One of the open-toed high heels is later worn by Nancy Tremaine as part of Edward's proposal to marriage. They become known as her forgotten shoes afterward. **When she becomes the owner of the Andalasia Fashion shop in the ending scene, Giselle wears a pink short-sleeved collared corporate dress and matching heels and styles her hair into a bun. Later, when she happily spends time with Robert and Morgan as her new family, she wears a light yellow, long sleeveless dress with a matching ribbon on the front of her dress and brown sandals. Her hair is stylized into a ponytail for this particular outfit.**

## Role in the film

Giselle first appears in the film living in a cottage in the forest with her woodland animal friends. They help her make a mannequin of her dream prince and she explains to them about how she wants a true love's kiss with that special person, particularly a prince. She is soon attacked by a giant troll who attempts to eat her. With the help of her best friend Pip, she manages to send the troll flying (literally) but falls off a tree when the tree branch she is holding breaks. She then meets Prince Edward who, captivated by her beauty and voice, decides to marry her the next day. Giselle elated that she has found her special someone, rushes to the castle the next day to be wed. However, Prince Edward's stepmother, Queen Narissa, pretends to be an old hag and leads her to a "wishing well" so she can make a wish before she gets married. Giselle wishes to live happily ever with Prince Edward but is tricked and pushed by Narissa into the well which leads to Earth at present-day New York. **She is at first very distressed by her surroundings, as no one tries to help her and she can't find her way back. Eventually, she meets Robert and his daughter Morgan who climbed out of the taxi they were riding after seeing Giselle. She falls asleep in Robert's apartment and he allows her to stay the night. She decides to repay them the next morning by cleaning up the house with the help of the animals of New York City (which turned out to be rats, mice, birds, insects, etc.). Robert, however, is not at all pleased as there are rodents, bugs, and other animals in his house and he shoos them away. He is further annoyed when his girlfriend Nancy appears and sees Giselle wrapped in a shower towel on top of them (though she merely tripped and fell on him). He tries to find out where she lives and send her there, to no success. He then tries to leave her and gives her money so she can "call" her prince. However, after he sees her giving the money away to an old woman, he decides to follow after her.** The two soon spend the rest of the day getting to know each other and she manages to find happiness with the initially cynical Robert, her time with Robert opening her eyes to a reality that was more complex and engaging than anything she had previously known, growing from her old role as a 'damsel in distress' to a strong, confident fighter. Nathaniel, who was sent by Narissa to kill Giselle with a poison apple, also appears throughout their day to try to kill Giselle, to no avail. The two begin to understand more about each other and develop feelings for one another, although both do not yet realize their feelings. Eventually, Prince Edward finally manages to find Giselle and asks her to come back with him. However, Giselle has at this point realized she enjoys staying in New York and actually knows little to nothing about her groom-to-be due to learning how much time an actual relationship takes to develop. She asks Prince Edward if she can go on a date with him before they go. The two enjoy their date together but Giselle still tries to buy time so she can stay longer in New York. She tells Prince Edward about an upcoming ball and he decides they should go there and then come back to Andalasia. She agrees and enlists Morgan's help in getting her ready. The two begin to bond like a mother and daughter. Meanwhile, Narissa is upset that Nathaniel has not killed Giselle yet and decides to finish the job herself. **Giselle comes to the ball and dances with Prince Edward and with Robert and realizes her feelings for Robert. However, she knows that he and Nancy are together and, upon seeing them kiss, has her heart broken. Narissa approaches Giselle once more as an old hag and gives her an apple, which she says will make her forget about her experiences on Earth and lead to a happy ending. Giselle, not knowing the apple is poisoned, bites it and faints. Narissa tries to escape, but Prince Edward catches her, and Nathaniel reveals her treachery, no longer wanting to do her dirty work. Prince Edward tries to wake her with a kiss, but it fails. Robert then tries it, and she wakes up. Narissa, angered that her plan failed, transforms into a dragon to try and kill Giselle but instead catches Robert as he defends her. With the help of Pip and Robert, Giselle helps the animal successfully let Narissa fall to her death and shares her second kiss with Robert. Prince Edward decides to give up on Giselle and soon falls in love with Robert's ex-girlfriend Nancy and vice versa, so he instead whisks her away to Andalasia and the two live happily ever after. Giselle also lives happily ever after with Robert and Morgan, becoming part of their family and starting her own fashion line called "Andalasia Fashion".**

## Trivia

* There were plans to make Giselle into an official Disney Princess, and a prototype doll based on the character appeared at the 2007 Toy Fair. Said plans were dropped when the company realized that Amy Adams would need to be paid royalties for using her likeness.

* In the early stages of production, Giselle was designed with blonde hair that was later recolored to red.
* Giselle's character is a combination of several preexisting Disney characters, particularly female ones:
	+ Her visual appearance is based on Ariel.
	+ Her personality is modeled after that of Aurora, Cinderella and Snow White.
	+ She also falls in love with a prince she barely knows after she is rescued by him, but unlike her predecessors, she does not marry him in the end and actually relinquishes her romantic connections with him.
	+ Upon entering New York, Giselle mistakes a short man for Grumpy.
	+ Ironically, she becomes a stepmother instead of a birth mother.
	+ The way in which she falls into a porthole from Andalasia to New York is similar to how Alice falls from her normal world into Wonderland.