dwayne blogged

I just came from a screening of "Enchanted" in Singapore. Strangely enough, she’s the first country outside the US to get to see the movie, in fact, at the time of writing, it is still hours away from the official movie premiere in the US. The movie is a far cry from Disney’s previous movie musical, "High School Musical", which is to say charming! It had all the good elements of a fairytale, keeping Disney fans like myself busy with little homages to "Snow White" and "Cinderella", among others.


I am not sure I envisioned Giselle quite the way Amy Adams played her or was directed. I understand she’s a more traditional princess like Snow White or Cinderella as opposed to the more modern Jasmine or Ariel, but
nonetheless, a little less wide-eyed innocence could have taken me away from thinking that perhaps she was a little deranged. Bursting out into song was justified by the fact that it was a normal thing to do in fairyland Andalasia, so "Enchanted" didn’t end up having difficulty with transitions into songs like most movie musicals have.

Here are two pictures taken with my own camera on the set of the movie. If you look closely, you can see Susan Sarandon in my background! But of course, in the movie, it was the reverse! And I wasn’t just there because I am the crazy Disney fan I am (well that too), but I actually auditioned and got cast as an Asian tourist! All in all, it’s a great film and I highly recommend it!

Who would have thought that doing research for a musical set in 1960s Singapore could be so much fun? With any research like that, I usually start with finding the differences in the way people carried themselves, what they wore, how they spoke, what products they used… because these were clues to understanding other things like culture, weather, education, etc. I marvel at how far Singapore has come. Just look at the pictures on the left. The first picture is of a Singapore transport guide in the 1950s that cost 20 cents! The second picture displays what we have at some bus stops in present day Singapore. Believe or not, commuters are now able to tell how soon a bus (and the next bus for that matter) is arriving.

I had a good laugh while clearing out a drawer full of old stuff. I could not believe the gaudy handphone covers I used to collect for my previous cell phone. How far I’ve come! I even looked up where the Golden Kiwifruit came from when it was offered to me. It was the result of 11 years of research and cross-pollination and grafting.  We’ve only had this fruit for 9 years! I guess what I’m saying is that if you question the things around you a little more, you’ll find that everything has a little history to it. And sometimes, that history is worth taking some trouble to discover.