Disney's Enchanted and The Great Gadsby

This version of The Great Gatsby (made in 1974, based on the book by F. Scott Fitzgerald) stars Robert Redford as Jay Gatsby, Mia Farrow as Daisy Buchanan and Sam Waterston as Nick Carraway (the narrator).

Enchanted stars Julie Andrews (the Narrator), Amy Adams as Giselle (main character), Patrick Dempsey as Robert Philip (busy New York Lawyer), James Marsden as Prince Edward, and Susan Sarandon as Evil Queen Narissa.

The day after seeing Disney's Enchanted I watched the abovementioned movie version of The Great Gatsby. One of the main messages of Enchanted was "In real life, there are no happy endings." The Great Gatsby confirms this statement while, ironically, Enchanted disproves it.

Jay Gatsby as well as Daisy Buchanan could have used a healthy does of Enchanted's innocent outlook on love. Meanwhile, Giselle's relationship with Robert works out because she learns how to deal with reality better than if she had stayed in her storybook world.

There are redeeming qualities to life's difficulties. For example, Giselle learns that getting to know someone isn't easy; it takes time and effort. But the process of getting to know someone allows two people to grow together, which is inestimably valuable. Then again, Gatsby and Giselle might have embrace more of Giselle's quality of love, which is oblivious to its surroundings. If they had, they would have gotten married regardless of the fact that Gatsby was poor and Daisy was rich.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Great Gatsby is a modern tragedy, where as in Enchanted (this is only from what I've heard I haven't watched it yet) is a modern fairy tale.

It's a interesting take on the genre with that there is a surge to make modern classic's and Im very happy about this. The old classic's are not relevant to my generation. and we need our own classics. Which brings me to southland tales. (I'd love to see your take on it btw)

It's the most modern take on a sort of apocalyptic/spiritual journey. Does it make much sense at frist glance. Not really but does real life? thats what i think is so great about it you can't really figure it out any more then we can figure out our own lives.

Just my 2 cents

Anonymous said...

Hi, thanks for dropping at my blog. I don't know if who's teeth was that. HAHAHA Anyway, I just watched the Enchanted Movie two weeks ago in DVD. At first I thought it was just like the other fairytale movies so I was not that interested to see it in a big screen. But when I watched it, it was beautiful and I was "enchanted" by their music like "That's How You Know" and the "Happy Working Song". My 3 year old son loves me to sing those songs, that's why I have to get the lyrics and memorize it. Funny but I love it.

Julie said...

I saw "Enchanted" in the theaters when it came out along with my husband and we both really liked it! We are even contemplating buying it on dvd!

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!