This document is a compare and contrast essay between the musical films Enchanted and Burlesque written by Agnes Yeo Shu Yuan. The essay outlines key differences between the two films such as their concepts, settings, costumes, and song selections. Enchanted is an animated musical fantasy film while Burlesque is a live-action drama set in a burlesque club. The essay then analyzes similarities between the films in their use of music but also highlights how each film uses music differently according to its storyline. Overall, the essay argues that while the films have differences in plot, concept and style, they are both musical films that effectively incorporate music according to their unique stories.

1. SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN
THE DESIGN SCHOOL
FOUNDATION IN NATURAL BUILD ENVIRONMENT
NAME: AGNES YEO SHU YUAN
STUDENT ID NO: 0318668
FILMS SELECTED: ENCHANTED AND BURLESQUE
WORD COUNT: 942
ENGLISH 2 (ELG 30605)
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT 1: COMPARE – CONTRAST ESSAY
LECTURER: CASSANDRA WIJESURIA
SUBMISSION DATE: 19TH SEPTEMBER 2014

2. Pre-writing- Listing
Contrast Essay between Enchanted and Burlesque
-Enchanted, Burlesque
-Concept is Fantasy and fairy tale
-Animated and non-animated
- Music is a type of communication
- Evil Queen sent Giselle to New York City
-Performs everywhere
- Performs only on the stage in Burlesque Club
- Giselle wearing a purple dress to the ball
- Wearing mini dresses
-Concept is Sexy and classy
-Spontaneously starts to sing in the park
- Songs selection are different
- Can sing wherever they want
- Ali dressing confidently
- Impressed with her vocal and dancing skills on the stage
- Giselle grown up to be more mature
- Storylines are different
- Giselle found her true love

3. Contrast Essay between Enchanted and Burlesque
Musical films are one of my favourite movie that I enjoy watching. I will never get
bored watching musical films because music is part of my life. A musical film is a film genre
which songs sung by the characters to tell a story to the audience, sometimes accompanied by
dancing too. “The world’s most famous and popular language is music”, said Psy, famous
singer from Korea. Music connects everyone so does musical films. Not to mention, music is
also a type of communication. More often than not, sound and music is a form of
communication and can be more expressive than words. I think musical films are really
interesting as they express their feelings and emotion through singing instead of talking to
each other. I have decided to contrast the differences for these two musical films, Enchanted,
produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Burlesque, produced by De Line Pictures.
Firstly, Enchanted is a musical live- action film and has a mixture of animated,
fantasy, romantic and comedy. The plot focuses on Giselle, a Disney Princess from
Andalasia, who fell in love with Prince Edward from her animated world. But, she was sent
to the non-animated modern-day of New York City by the evil Queen because the evil Queen
wants to keep her throne as long as she can. She has tried to keep her step-son, Prince Edward
away from fair maidens so he will not get married and the Queen will not lose her throne.
Giselle found her true love in New York and live happily ever after with him. As for the
movie Burlesque, the storyline is completely different from Enchanted. It has a mixture of
drama, musical and romance. Ali Rose worked as a waitress at a bar when her boss refused to
pay her, she quits her job and moved to Los Angeles. She begins to search for places to
audition and arrived at a Burlesque club. Ali decided to pursue a career on stage and things
take a dramatic turn when she was working in that club. In the final scene, Ali performed on
the stage with the song “Show Me How You Burlesque” with Jack, her lover and all of the
dancers.

4. Furthermore, Enchanted and Burlesque has their own concept which is different from
each other. The concept that was used by Enchanted is fairy tale and fantasy whereas the
concept for Burlesque is classic and sexy. In terms of clothing, both of these films showed a
different concept on how they dress throughout the movie. In Enchanted, Giselle was
wearing a princess gown at the beginning and Prince Edward was wearing his royal outfit
same goes with the Queen to show that they are from a fantasy world. Despite that Giselle
have stayed in New York City for a period of time, she has grown up to be more mature by
dressing up differently to the ball, a simple purple dress. However, in Burlesque, dancers and
performers including Ali dresses in mini dress, corset and different type of accessories to
show their sexiness and classiness on stage. Ali, who became a stage performer later dresses
up in a different style compared to her previous life. We can see that she is coming out from
her shell by dressing confidently and according to the concept too.
Besides, songwriter and composer Alan Menken, did a great job in composing most
of the songs in Enchanted with his fellow composer Stephen Schwartz. Their concept for the
songs are to allow the characters to sing in a way that was completely integral to the plot of
the story. The song “That’s How You Know” from Enchanted, was sung by Giselle when she
was walking with Robert in the park. She spontaneously starts to sing in order to explain how
Robert should show his affection for his girlfriend, Nancy, instead of just telling him in
words. For example, “How does she know you love her? How does she know she’s yours? ”,
part of the lyrics taken from the song to allow Giselle to express her feelings towards
Roberts’ and Nancy’s relationship. Some songs from Burlesque are original recordings from
Cher, an actress in the movie, and Christina Aguilera. Ali sang her first song live, “Tough
Lover”, on stage which everyone was impressed with her talent. Song selection in both
movies are different , as the way that they performed in Burlesque are random compared to

5. Enchanted because the songs in Enchanted follows the plot of the movie whereas it is not the
same for Burlesque.
Last but not least, the settings are different for both Enchanted and Burlesque. In
Enchanted, they are many different places that was involved in this film. The characters in
Enchanted sings wherever they want. They sing in the central park, in their house, and all
around New York City. The characters even sing in their animated world at the beginning of
the movie. But there are limited places in Burlesque. They mostly perform on the same stage
which is in the Burlesque Club. Burlesque Club is their main setting because that is the
characters’ working place. Their job is to dance and sing on the stage for the audience.
As a conclusion, these two musical films are different when it comes to their plot,
concept, song selection and settings. The only thing that is similar-Music. Both films are
related to musical and they did a good job in performing differently according to their
concept of the story. I hope that more musical films will be produced in the future because by
doing this, they will attract more people to be interested in musical films.
(942 words)

6. References:
1. RalphDeCat. (2010). Synopsis of Burlesque. Retrieved from website :
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1126591/synopsis?ref_=ttpl_pl_syn
2. Styloroy, L (2007). Plot Summary of Enchanted. Retrieved form website :
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0461770/plotsummary?ref_=tt_stry_pl
3. Fletcher, A (2007). Movies Review. Retrieved from website :
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/movies/review/a81433/enchanted.html#~oQjcHAfTo
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