It was late 2007. The world was arguably a simpler place, but Disney was in a weird spot with its 2-D animation legacy. Then, a trailer for the movie Enchanted dropped, and honestly, it changed the vibe of the entire holiday season. You probably remember the first time you saw it—Giselle, played by a then-rising Amy Adams, literal cartoon birds swirling around her, falling out of a manhole in the middle of Times Square. It was jarring. It was funny. It was exactly what Disney needed to do to poke fun at itself without losing its soul.
The marketing team had a massive challenge on their hands. How do you sell a movie that is half-animation, half-live-action, part-musical, and part-satire to an audience that was starting to get a little cynical about fairy tales? They did it by leaning into the fish-out-of-water trope. The trailer didn't just show us a princess; it showed us a princess trying to survive 42nd Street.
Breaking Down the Teaser That Started It All
If you go back and watch that original 2:30 clip, the pacing is fascinating. It starts with the classic, storybook opening we’ve seen a thousand times. Narrator with a deep, booming voice? Check. Hand-drawn animation that looks like it was ripped straight out of the 1950s? Double check. But then, the music shifts. The orchestral swell stops dead.
Giselle hits the pavement.
James Marsden, playing Prince Edward, stabs a bus. It’s glorious. Most people forget that the trailer heavily prioritized the "New York is a nightmare" angle because that’s what sold tickets to adults. They weren’t just targeting kids; they were targeting the people who grew up on Cinderella but now lived in a world of taxes and transit delays.
The editing was snappy. Short bursts of Giselle singing to "vermin" (rats and pigeons instead of bluebirds) provided the comedic backbone. It promised a deconstruction of the Disney mythos while simultaneously honoring it. That’s a tough tightrope to walk. If the trailer had been too mean-spirited, it would have alienated the core fan base. If it had been too sugary, the general public would have scrolled right past it.
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Why the Trailer for the Movie Enchanted Worked Better Than Most
Most trailers today give away the entire plot. You see the beginning, the middle, and the "shocking" third-act twist all in ninety seconds. The Enchanted marketing team was smarter than that. They focused on the concept.
They focused on the fact that Patrick Dempsey was the "McDreamy" of the moment and Amy Adams was a complete revelation of wide-eyed innocence. Honestly, the chemistry between them in those brief snippets—especially the "That’s how you know" dance sequence in Central Park—was the real hook. It felt big. It felt like a Broadway production that accidentally spilled out onto the streets of Manhattan.
The Contrast Between Animation and Reality
A key technical detail people often overlook is the aspect ratio shift. In the theater, when the trailer for the movie Enchanted began, it stayed in a narrower frame for the animated sequences in Andalasia. Once Giselle enters the real world, the screen expands. It’s a subtle psychological trick. It makes the "real world" feel massive, overwhelming, and slightly terrifying, just like it does for her.
The animation itself was handled by James Baxter, a legend who worked on Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. By putting his high-tier work in the trailer, Disney signaled to the fans that this wasn't a cheap, straight-to-DVD project. This was a love letter to their history.
The Music as a Marketing Tool
You can't talk about this movie without talking about Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. The trailer featured snippets of "Happy Working Song" and "That's How You Know." These aren't just background tracks; they are earworms. By the time the trailer ended, you already knew the melody.
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Music is often the "secret sauce" for a successful trailer. In this case, the songs acted as a bridge. Even if you weren't a fan of musicals, the way the trailer used the music to highlight the absurdity of a woman in a massive hoop skirt dancing through a crowd of cynical New Yorkers was genuinely funny. It used the music for comedic timing, not just for atmosphere.
What We Get Wrong About Movie Marketing Today
Kinda feels like we've lost this art form, doesn't it? Nowadays, trailers are so formulaic. There’s the "BWAHM" sound effect, the slowed-down pop song cover, and the rapid-fire cuts of explosions. The Enchanted trailer relied on character. It relied on the look on Amy Adams' face when she realizes that people in the real world don't actually burst into song when they’re happy.
The Legacy of the 2007 Campaign
When the movie finally hit theaters, it was a massive success, pulling in over $340 million worldwide. A huge chunk of that opening weekend can be traced back to how well that first trailer resonated. It created a sense of "I have to see how this ends."
It also set the stage for the sequel, Disenchanted, which arrived years later on Disney+. However, if you compare the trailers, the original still holds a certain lightning-in-a-bottle energy. There was a freshness to it. We hadn't seen a live-action Disney princess parody herself quite like that before.
Critical Reception of the Teaser
Critics at the time, including folks from Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, noted that the trailer was a "tonal masterpiece." It managed to be sincere and snarky at the same time. That’s a rare feat in Hollywood. It didn't feel like a corporate product; it felt like a story someone actually wanted to tell.
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The casting was the anchor. If Amy Adams had played it with a wink to the camera, the whole thing would have collapsed. But she played it straight. She was a cartoon come to life. The trailer captured that sincerity and used it as the ultimate weapon against the grit and grime of the mid-2000s cinematic landscape.
Technical Elements You Might Have Missed
Next time you watch the trailer for the movie Enchanted, look at the color grading. The animated world is hyper-saturated—purples, pinks, and golds that bleed off the screen. New York, by comparison, looks gray and blue. It’s washed out. This visual storytelling tells you everything you need to know about the conflict without a single line of dialogue.
- The transition from 2D to 3D.
- The use of sound effects to punctuate the "real world" harshness.
- The pacing of the comedic beats, particularly the dialogue between Robert (Dempsey) and Giselle.
The Role of Nostalgia
For many of us, that trailer represents a specific moment in film history. It was right before the Marvel Cinematic Universe took over everything. It was a time when a mid-budget musical could still be a cultural phenomenon. Looking back, it’s a reminder of how powerful a well-cut trailer can be in defining a film’s identity.
It wasn't just a commercial. It was an invitation to a world that felt both familiar and entirely new. And honestly? It still holds up. If you show that trailer to someone today who hasn't seen the movie, they’ll probably still laugh at the chipmunk hitting the car window. Good physical comedy is timeless, and the marketing team knew exactly how much of it to show to get people into seats.
Actionable Takeaways for Your Next Rewatch
If you’re planning on revisiting this classic or showing it to someone for the first time, keep these things in mind.
- Watch the transition closely: Pay attention to the exact moment Giselle’s hand touches the manhole cover. The shift in lighting is a masterclass in visual storytelling.
- Listen to the Foley work: The sound design in the "real world" is intentionally loud and abrasive to contrast with the soft, melodic sounds of Andalasia.
- Observe the background actors: In the Central Park sequence shown in the trailer, the reactions of the "real" New Yorkers were often genuine, as they were filming in a public space with a woman in a giant dress.
Final Thoughts on the Magic
The trailer for the movie Enchanted did exactly what it was supposed to do: it made us believe that magic could exist in the most mundane places. It didn't try to be "cool" or "edgy." It was unapologetically earnest, just like its protagonist. In an era of reboots and endless sequels, there’s something refreshing about going back to a trailer that felt like a breath of fresh air.
If you want to experience that feeling again, go find the high-definition version of the original teaser. Watch it through the lens of someone seeing it for the first time in 2007. You’ll see why it became a classic and why we’re still talking about it nearly twenty years later. The blend of heart, humor, and high-quality animation created a blueprint for how Disney would handle its live-action properties for the next two decades.
Practical Next Steps
- Locate the Original Teaser: Search for the "Enchanted 2007 Official Trailer" on high-quality archival sites to see the aspect ratio shifts as they were intended.
- Compare with the Sequel: Watch the trailer for Disenchanted immediately after to see how marketing styles have evolved toward "nostalgia-bait" versus the original's "concept-sell."
- Analyze the Central Park Sequence: Look for the "making of" clips that explain how they coordinated hundreds of dancers for the sequence featured in the trailer—it’s a feat of logistics that the short clips barely hint at.