Deconstructing the first two minutes of Enchanted :)

The Disney castle appears, with the fireworks and classic music that lets the audience know it is a genuine Disney production. The Camera is tracking inwards, zooming into the Disney castle, the camera goes through one of the castle windows and the tracking slows down, orchestral music is now playing with, classical singing over the top. There is Classic bold writing over the background - a Old looking story book, on a book stand covered in blue velvet - The writing says " Walt Disney Pictures presents" the writing fades, and the book under a spotlight of sun, says 'Enchanted' enchanted meaning 'magical' 'charming' 'music' - the audience know so far from the representation of entering the disney castle that they are going to view a fairy tale - the book and the castle - the book is significant as many fairy tales begin with a book. The blue velvet beneath the book indicated to the audience that the film may envolve people of high class, or royals as the colour is a very rich one. Whilst the camera is getting higher and then zooming down on the book, there is a voice over.

A older woman, with a fragile voice ( indicating wisdom to the audience) says " Once upon a time in a magical kingdom known as Andalasia" These words confirm everything the audience has seen so far. The book then opens itself and the audience can see it is a pop - up book, when we are all small pop up books were always more entertaining as there was more to look at and alot more captivating for childrens brains.
The first image we see in the book takes up the centre space, so instantly the audience can see that this is one of the main charcters, or has a great importance, the drawing of the woman - she is dressed in spikey black clothing, with heavy make-up( which helps us prove in our film that children shouldn't be concerned with how they look, and this helps convince children that make-up and image isn't so important) this is portrayed as a 'bad image' int he film as this is the 'baddie' of the film we know this as the voice over tells us!" there lived an evil queen selfish and cruel" this in now definate for the viewers that this is a bad character! Another pop up appears of a handsome man on a white horse looking out and a small, chubby character trying to shift his attention elsewhere, the voice over is saying "she lived in fear that one day her stepson would marry and she would lose her throne forever" straight away the blue velvet at the beginning, fits in with story as the man on the horse is clearly a prince, his costume is gold and red - again very royal colours- he has a shining sword in his hand and the small man trying to distract him is the opposite, his costume and stance isn't that of confidence like the princes he is slightly slumped and is unable to pull the confident athletic prince away.His costume is also plain, and not rich eye-catching like the evil queen and the prince.

The voice over continues as the camera drops down to the pop up characters level, and zooms throught the background of the trees, the audience are now part of the story "and so she did all in her power to prevent the prince from ever meeting " we then see two bright blue birds, and pretty house built into a big tree, there is a stream of sunshine focused on the house, similar to the book at the beginning and so this gives a sense we are about to see the main point of the film. There are leaves floating around and this gives a sense that we (the audience ) are walking through the picture and the leaved are floating about us.

The voice over continues as the camera zoom towards a window of the house " the once special maiden with whom he would share true loved kiss" we can now see a girl through the window dancing around. The picture fades into the inside of the house, which is very neat, with a big fireplace, and flowers, there are all varieties of animals inside too, which again takes away the realistic element of the film. This is a medium shot and allows the audience to take in the mis-en-scene, and see elements of the house that may represent our new character.

there is a medium close-u of her face and we see she is a pretty, smiling character She has flowers in her hair which shows us that she is at one with nature- the animals, flowers in her hair, wood in her home, fireplace, house within trees, this may also be trying to prove to children that natural beauty and a good personality are far better then make-up and statement clothing??- the two blue birds we saw two shots ago then film the medium close-up as one hands her a pine-cone (nature again), the voice over has stopped and we have our first bit of dialogue " Giselle, giselle" the birds say to the girl, this clarifies her name to the audience and by saying it twice stresses the importance of her. the birdies voices are high-pitched and very cute, and also the fact the the birds are talking to the person - except fot the exceptional budgies and parrots out there that can talk - gives an unrealistic, magical, lifting mood to the film, Giselle replies ( in the same medium-close up shot)"Thank you" she has manners and a very sweet voice herself.

This magical atmosphere is abruptly stopped by a male chipmunk who on first impressions seems snappy and bossy, as he shooes the birds away and takes up the space Giselle and the birds filled in the camera. The camera then tracks slightly to the right and zooms slightly, Giselle then speaks and the chipmunks impressions softens and we see that he is just protective over Giselle." She says it was such a lovely dream, we were holding hands and dancing, and" it switches to a long shot as she spins and dances, as she falls out of the spin, it flicks to a medium shot and a rabbit springs up and hands her two blue crystals " she says thank you" and walks up to the camera until she is close-up. she places the crystals infront of her eyes and they distort her eyes, giving for the first time a comical element to the film.she then walks out of the picture back into the medium clos-up of her and the chipmunk. she thoughtfully aranges the crytals onto something we cannot see.The camera flicks to an over the shoulder shot of Giselle, so we can see the chipmunk, who then runs across to the left and jumps down to the floor with the rest of the animals. the camera ( as he does this ) tracks behind Giselles head to the left and the flicks to a medium shot of the animals on the floor, at their level. It then for the first time goes to a high angle shot, down on Giselle and her creation, which she starts to spin round " and now presenting" which she says to the audience - involving us in the story again- however before we see anythign the camera switches to a long, low angled shot, behind the animals and up at Giselle and now what we can see her prince. who resembles perfectly the queens stepson.The story fits together and we know fromt he information we were given at the beginning, that this is ' the fair maiden' and the fast moving pace, and the animals all at peace, and the suspense of what they are all building creates and interesting first two minutes!!


Wow, long two minutes!! :O
Jessica :)



Enjoy :D