I wished for a fairytale life and it's all gone terribly wrong. Or terribly right.
„
~ Giselle, Disenchanted (2022)
“
Oh my gosh. It's you.
„
~ Giselle upon her first meeting with Prince Edward after he saved her from her fall.
Giselle Philip, also known as Princess Giselle or simply Giselle, is the main protagonist of of Disney's Enchanted film series.
She is voiced and portrayed by Amy Adams, who also played Mary in The Muppets, Louise Banks from Arrival,Amelia Earhart in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, and Lois Lane in the DC Extended Universe.
At the beginning of the film, she is originally the stereotype of a Disney Princess. Because she lives in the perfect fantasy world of Andalasia, she has barely felt emotions that are rare to the land such as frustration, sadness 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 makes her naïve to the complexity of Earth and she becomes rather scared, distressed and confused during her first night in New York. Her naivety also tends to frustrate Robert, who had agreed to let her stay with him until Edward, her dream prince from Andalasia comes for her.
However, over the course of the film, her experiences on Earth with Robert open her up to a more complex world she had never experienced in Andalasia, along with introducing her to emotions such as anger and sadness. She also grows into a mother figure for Robert's daughter, Morgan.
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 to make it sleeves and is barefoot. When her marriage with Edward backfired and her arrival at New York, she wears an elaborate wedding gown with butterfly designs, she also has a golden tiara on her head. In her live-action appearance, the gown she wears is different with the short puffy sleeves being large and the dress skirt from her gown appearing to be heavier.
Biography[]
Enchanted[]
Giselle is from the magical animated world of Andalasia, and constantly finds herself in mortal peril, only to be constantly rescued by the dashing (if dim-witted) Prince Edward. Prince Edward's wicked step-mother, Queen Narissa, wants rid of them both, and so sends Giselle though a magical portal to the real world, where she ends up in the middle of New York City in the modern day, Following a series of unusual circumstances, she finds herself staying in the care of lawyer named Robert. Robert has no idea about Giselle's true origin, but does continuously question her erratic behaviour. AS her adventure in NYC continues, the evil Queen's plans to have Giselle killed are constantly thwarted, and in the end the villain travels to NYC herself to get rid of Giselle once and for all. She eventually manages to poison Giselle, making her fall into a sleeping death. Robert comes to the rescue, and in true Sleeping Beauty style, awakes her with his kiss. In a final battle to the death, the wicked Queen falls to her death from the top of a high rise building. Giselle and Robert discover their true feelings for each other, and live out their fairytale romance not in Giselle's happily ever after world, but instead in New York.
Disenchanted[]
In the beginning of the film, it is revealed that Giselle was a foundling taken in by the forest animals as a baby. Giselle returns as the protagonist, now married to Robert and the stepmother to Morgan. Giselle has also welcomed a new daughter with Robert, named Sofia.
After the birth of Sofia, life in New York becomes too hectic for both Giselle and Robert, and she attempts to be patient with Morgan going through her moody teenager phase, as well as learning all about the concept of sarcasm. But one day, she sees a billboard for the suburb of Monroeville and she and Robert, and, reluctantly, Morgan, move from their Riverside Drive apartment to Monroeville. Upon arrival, Giselle is quite taken with the town, calling it "the closest thing to Andalasia she has ever seen" and is very fond of her new home, which resembles a castle. But when they get to their new home, it is not finished being renovated. Giselle tries to get Morgan to change her attitude, especially after showing her her new bedroom, but after accidentally burning Morgan's clothes, this becomes more of a challenge. She then meets Malvina Monroe, the realtor who sold her the house. She attempts to befriend Malvina, but in the process, continues to embarrass Morgan unintentionally. She attempts to campaign for Morgan for Princess of Monroe-fest, but is stopped by Malvina and her assistants since she is campaigning on private property. After finding out that Morgan snuck back to New York, Giselle gets in a fight with Morgan, which ends with Morgan lashing out by saying she is not her mother, only her stepmother.
After making a wish upon the Andalasian wand of wishes for a fairytale life, her new village of Monroeville becomes a fairytale village called Monrolasia. But the caveat of this wish is that it transforms Giselle into the archetype of a wicked stepmother. Both her "princess personality" and "wicked stepmother personality" fight for dominance, until the latter wins and decides to fight Malvina to become the queen of Monrolasia. But in her last moment of lucidity, Giselle sends Morgan to the backyard wishing well and, since she does not want to go there herself once the new personality takes over, asks Morgan to "save us" and pushes Morgan down the well to Andalasia.
At the ball, Giselle has Pip, now transformed into an evil cat, to steal the wand from Ruby and Rosaleen, and uses it to wish to become Queen of Monrolasia. She then gets into a fight with Malvina, but is stopped by Morgan, Queen Nancy, Robert, and Malvina's son, Tyson. Giselle looks at the memory tree she made with Morgan, but dismisses it calling it "useless garbage", and destroys it, but the memories on the tree swirl around her restoring her. When she attempts to undo the wish, Malvina stops her, putting Morgan under a sleeping curse. Giselle drops the wand, breaking it. As the clock begins to strike midnight, Andalasia continues to invade Monrolasia, and Giselle's old house emerges from the castle floor. As Giselle begins to fade away, she tells Morgan to use the wand to make a wish, but Morgan resists since only a "true son or daughter of Andalasia" can use it. Giselle insists that Morgan is a true daughter of Andalasia, because she is her daughter. Upon Giselle's last breath, Morgan makes a wish that she were home with her mother.
The next morning, Monroeville is restored and Giselle is alive. She explains to Morgan that since they were the only ones to use the wand, they will be the only ones to remember the day's events while everyone else will believe it was just a dream. Giselle apologizes to Malvina for her behavior and Malvina offers her a spot on the town committee, which she accepts. Some time later, at Monroe-fest, Giselle is now acclimated to her life in Monroeville and is delighted to see Morgan and Tyson dating, and she and her family have at last found their new happily ever after after all.
Trivia[]
Had she been a Disney Princess, Giselle would have been the first official Disney Princess to come from a film that is not part of the Disney Animation Canon and the first live-action one. She would've also been the fifth Disney Princess (the first being Snow White, the second being Cinderella, the third being Aurora, the fourth being Ariel, the sixth being Rapunzel) to have a female antagonist in their film.
Chronologically, the above is true, because Enchanted is a 2007 film, whereas Tangled is a 2010 film.
Disney had planned to include Giselle in the Disney Princess line-up, to the point where a prototype Giselle doll appeared at the Toy Fair in 2007. However, the plans were quickly dropped when the company realized they would have to pay royalties to Amy Adams for using her likeness perpetually, given that unlike most Disney Princess, Giselle was designed after her actress.
Giselle's character is based on the other Disney Princesses. Her appearance is very similar to Ariel and Giselle's personality is modeled off of Snow White. She also experiences moments that Snow White, Cinderella and Aurora experienced.
