The Plot
In the fantasy world of Andalasia, Giselle lives with her animal friends, including the chipmunk Pip. When she's rescued from a troll by Prince Edward, she falls in love with him. However, Edward's mother, the evil Queen Narissa, does not want to give up her throne (or her son) and sends Giselle through a magic portal in a well to a world with no happily ever afters.
Giselle arrives in New York City through a manhole. She's confused but ultimately gets help from a cynical divorce lawyer, Robert Philip, and his daughter Morgan. Giselle is relentlessly optimistic and innocent and shocked that Robert does not believe in true love. It's also revealed that, when she sings, she can start spontaneous musical numbers, causing people to sing and dance, or causing animals to do housework. However, Giselle also causes problems between Robert and his girlfriend Nancy due to various misunderstandings.
Meanwhile, Prince Edward, his sidekick Nathaniel (who is working for Queen Narissa because he is in love with her) and Pip the chipmunk head through the portal to find Giselle. Edward adapts to New York even less well than Giselle: among other things, he attacks a bus, thinking it is a monster that has eaten the passengers. Nathaniel becomes addicted to daytime talk shows and starts questioning his feelings about the Queen--but not before he makes a couple of attempts on Giselle's life, only to be thwarted by Pip, who retains all of his intelligence but cannot speak to warn people of Nathaniel's treachery.
Events progress, as they tend to do, and Giselle and Edward are reunited. Before they leave, though, they head to a ball being held in a skyscraper, which Robert and Nancy are also attending. Queen Narissa travels through the portal and attacks the ball, putting Giselle into a comatose state from which she can only be awakened by the kiss of her true love. Turns out that's not Edward, but Robert. Queen Narissa is defeated, but not before she has turned into a dragon and faced off against all of our heroes. (She's ultimately defeated, though, by Pip.)
In the end, Giselle stays in New York with Robert and Morgan and opens a dressmaking boutique, while Nancy--who deep down wanted the fairy tale romance--travels to Andalasia to marry Prince Edward (who, really, is King Edward now, making Nancy the Queen). Pip also returns to Andalasia, but Nathaniel stays in New York and becomes a successful self-help book author.
Fitting it into the WW4C
Giselle's optimism and enthusiasm mark her as ideal superhero material. Her powers are unusual, being mostly based around starting spontaneous song-and-dance numbers, but superheroes have been successful with less. Once she learned that some people dressed up in fancy costumes and fought evil, she'd want to do it. It's likely that she'd be the driving force behind organizing a superhero team.
And about that singing. Several of the movies I'll be blogging about are musicals, but for the most part no one comments on how unusual it is for people to perform musical numbers out of nowhere. Enchanted does comment on it. My solution is to ignore the musical numbers in the other movies. The ability to create spontaneous song-and-dance numbers is a piece of magic unique to Andalasians.
The land of Andalasia is also the first example of an alternate world to show up in this blog. It's a fantasy world where animals can talk, musical numbers happen at the drop of a hat, and handsome princes rescue fair maidens from monsters and evil sorceresses. Andalasia is likely just a single country in the world, but I'm also attributing that name to the entire world as shorthand. Any of the animated Disney princess movies may have taken place in the world of Andalasia.
In the fantasy world of Andalasia, Giselle lives with her animal friends, including the chipmunk Pip. When she's rescued from a troll by Prince Edward, she falls in love with him. However, Edward's mother, the evil Queen Narissa, does not want to give up her throne (or her son) and sends Giselle through a magic portal in a well to a world with no happily ever afters.
Giselle arrives in New York City through a manhole. She's confused but ultimately gets help from a cynical divorce lawyer, Robert Philip, and his daughter Morgan. Giselle is relentlessly optimistic and innocent and shocked that Robert does not believe in true love. It's also revealed that, when she sings, she can start spontaneous musical numbers, causing people to sing and dance, or causing animals to do housework. However, Giselle also causes problems between Robert and his girlfriend Nancy due to various misunderstandings.
Meanwhile, Prince Edward, his sidekick Nathaniel (who is working for Queen Narissa because he is in love with her) and Pip the chipmunk head through the portal to find Giselle. Edward adapts to New York even less well than Giselle: among other things, he attacks a bus, thinking it is a monster that has eaten the passengers. Nathaniel becomes addicted to daytime talk shows and starts questioning his feelings about the Queen--but not before he makes a couple of attempts on Giselle's life, only to be thwarted by Pip, who retains all of his intelligence but cannot speak to warn people of Nathaniel's treachery.
Events progress, as they tend to do, and Giselle and Edward are reunited. Before they leave, though, they head to a ball being held in a skyscraper, which Robert and Nancy are also attending. Queen Narissa travels through the portal and attacks the ball, putting Giselle into a comatose state from which she can only be awakened by the kiss of her true love. Turns out that's not Edward, but Robert. Queen Narissa is defeated, but not before she has turned into a dragon and faced off against all of our heroes. (She's ultimately defeated, though, by Pip.)
In the end, Giselle stays in New York with Robert and Morgan and opens a dressmaking boutique, while Nancy--who deep down wanted the fairy tale romance--travels to Andalasia to marry Prince Edward (who, really, is King Edward now, making Nancy the Queen). Pip also returns to Andalasia, but Nathaniel stays in New York and becomes a successful self-help book author.
Fitting it into the WW4C
Giselle's optimism and enthusiasm mark her as ideal superhero material. Her powers are unusual, being mostly based around starting spontaneous song-and-dance numbers, but superheroes have been successful with less. Once she learned that some people dressed up in fancy costumes and fought evil, she'd want to do it. It's likely that she'd be the driving force behind organizing a superhero team.
And about that singing. Several of the movies I'll be blogging about are musicals, but for the most part no one comments on how unusual it is for people to perform musical numbers out of nowhere. Enchanted does comment on it. My solution is to ignore the musical numbers in the other movies. The ability to create spontaneous song-and-dance numbers is a piece of magic unique to Andalasians.
The land of Andalasia is also the first example of an alternate world to show up in this blog. It's a fantasy world where animals can talk, musical numbers happen at the drop of a hat, and handsome princes rescue fair maidens from monsters and evil sorceresses. Andalasia is likely just a single country in the world, but I'm also attributing that name to the entire world as shorthand. Any of the animated Disney princess movies may have taken place in the world of Andalasia.
Is the universe of Andalasia the universe from which all of Disney's animated fairytales come? Perhaps something like the world of "The 10th Kingdom?"
ReplyDeleteAnd there is also "The Sorceror's Apprentice" with Nicholas Cage that is now available for canon.
ReplyDelete