Enchanted

Fairy tales, oh, they are something, are they not? I grew up reading them and believing that there is a Prince Charming somewhere out there for me (and for every other little girl). I dreamt of being swept off my feet by a dashing stranger; of being rescued by my hero just in the nick of time; of being wooed and pursued and ‘wined’ and dined in the most romantic setting. All thanks (or no thanks) to fairy tales. Because when you’re a child, you believe you can be anything you want to be; go wherever you want to go; get anything you set your eyes on. There are no limits, you expect the unexpected, believe in magic and happily ever after.

My guy friends all laughed and teased me when they somehow found out my fantasies (those dark winter nights sure have a way of having us bond in the kitchen). And over time, I realise that reality and fantasy do not go hand in hand. Because when you grow older, the innocence is shattered by the harsh reality of life. And you realise that you can’t be all that you want to be after all, that you won’t get everything you want and you just have to accept that. Oh, I still cling on to my (perhaps ridiculous) dream of Mr. Right aka Prince Charming (not Mr. Perfect, mind you, as no one’s perfect, least of all me), just because.

I watched Enchanted on Saturday and throughout the movie, I couldn’t help thinking how corny it was. And unrealistic. Oh, the movie was enjoyable as a whole but corny and cheesy. There was that scene where Giselle started singing in Central Park and suddenly, right on cue, half of New York (I would’ve said the whole of New York but that’d be exaggerating) started jumping in and dancing away and singing along. All in perfect choreographic precision of course. Excuse me, but I think I have seen that somewhere before. Oh yes, in some Bollywood movie – and I don’t even watch them Bollywood movies. Sheesh.

The movie has a happy ending – do you expect otherwise – but I found myself pondering why the story turned out the way it did. Why of all things, did the evil stepmother change into a dragon (that reminded of the she-dragon in Shrek but evil stepmother is more, well, evil) and scale up the Empire State Building (just like King Kong did!). And gosh, whatever happened to Giselle’s dream? She dreamt of Prince Edward but instead ended up with Robert.

OK, I don’t know why all these questions were on my mind. After all, it was just a movie of a fantasy, which is as far removed from reality as fantasy can only be. at least Malay folklore stories don’t all have happy ending - think Si Tanggang and Batu Belah Batu Bertangkup (infact, I can still remember going to be crying to bed when I was about 4 after Mummy told me a folklore story).

~~~~~~~~

And the reality over the weekend was Bolton shocking everyone, themselves included I think, by defeating ManUre 1-0. So Owen Hargreaves, how did the ‘best team’ in England manage to lose to Bolton? And Arsenal scored their two goals in the last 10 minutes of the game to beat Wigan – they sure have this annoying habit of giving me threatened cardiac arrest by only scoring in the last quarter of the game. I must admit though, Wigan’s defence was good.

And that was the footie reality, not fantasy, nor MTV or even Channel [V].