Why this stepmom loves Enchanted
Jan 14th, 2008 by Jill
I laughed out loud in the theater when I saw Enchanted’s evil stepmom emerging from the sewer wagging her tongue in and out of her mouth and shooting green lightning bolts from her fingertips. She’s so over the top that she looks like she’s there to poke fun at the Disney stereotype. And based on the way the movies ends, I’m pretty sure she is. It’s easy to miss if you’re not a stepmom yourself, almost unable to believe you’re about to see this kind of happy ending unfold in a Disney film, but [Spoiler alert!] Giselle, the kind, funny, good heroine, becomes a stepmom, too. And she stays kind and good. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Disney.
Still want to see this movie. It’s on my list, but this past weekend Juno won my attention.
To all the evil Disney stepmoms in the world…Cheers!
My youngest daughter (age 11) saw this with her cousins and my sister this weekend. I’ll have to ask her about the stepmom.
I’m glad Disney created a good stepmom. Finally.
The thing is, it’s not that obvious that she becomes a “stepmom” — they never use the word. She ends up with the man she loves — a divorced man who has a daughter. Every review I’ve read on the internet denounces the stepmom stereotyping if it discusses it at all and doesn’t mention the twist at the end. It’s that subtle. I think I only noticed it because I’m so sensitive to the stepmoms = evil messages, and because the Susan Sarandon stepmom was so much worse and more ridiculous than the other evil stepmoms in the movies I’d seen that I suspected somebody had their tongue deeply embedded in their cheek and was playing around with roles and stereotypes, so I was hoping for a Shrek-like twist. And there was one!
Your post got me thinking…
When they figured it out, my kids said, “But she’s so nice!” I then explained that all stepmoms are not like the ones in Disney movies.
My sister is a custodial stepmom and my kids never knew she wasn’t their cousins’ bio-mom until they got older and figured out that a 30 yr old was not really old enough to have a 21 year old daughter.
Unfortunately, their stepmom does not help dispel this myth.
I like that Disney was subtle. I think I’d have noticed it. I hope I would have, at least! I’m usually aware of things pertaining to divorce, stepmoms, remarriage, and blended families.