Personality:
At the beginning of the film, her personality and mannerisms were representative of the Disney Princess stereotype. Because she lives in the perfect fantasy world of Andalasia, she has barely felt emotions that are rare to the land such as frustration and anger, which, of course, are common on Earth. She dreams of having her own Prince Charming, whom she will fall in love with and live happily ever after. She also loves animals, who help her both in Andalasia and on Earth.
When she comes to New York City, her experiences in Andalasia reveal her to be blind and naïve to the complexity of Earth. She becomes rather scared, distressed, and confused during her first night in New York. Her naivety also frustrates Robert, who had agreed to let her stay with him until Edward, her dream prince from Andalasia, comes for her. However, throughout the film, her experiences on Earth with Robert open her up to a more complex world she had never experienced in Andalasia and introduce her to emotions such as anger and sadness, and despite the frustrations that she unintentionally causes Robert, she is just as beautiful in personality as her appearance. She also grows into a mother figure for Robert's daughter, Morgan.
Despite maturing over the course of the film (in no small part due to Robert’s influence), she still retains her innocence, optimism, and kind nature. However, she also proves herself to be as intelligent as Robert himself. Hailing from Andalasia, Giselle displays similar traits to the Disney Princesses; Lima describes her as "about 80% Snow White, with some traits borrowed from Cinderella and Aurora... although her spunky attitude comes from Ariel a.k.a. The Little Mermaid." She is "eternally optimistic and romantic" but is also "very independent and true to her convictions". In the climax of the film, Giselle is shown to be brave and courageous and became protective towards Robert during the battle against Queen Narissa in her dragon form.
In the sequel, Giselle is happy to have her new family and had a second daughter with Robert, but became disillusioned over staying in New York which led to her decision to move to Monroeville with her family. After transforming the whole town into Monroelasia using the magic wand, Giselle became somewhat of an anti-heroine and her mistreatment towards Morgan is the same manner similar to the mistreatment that Lady Tremaine did to Cinderella. However, she eventually learns of her darker actions which she is about to lose herself from her wickedness, leading her to put Morgan back to Andalasia and continues her clash with Malvina. This is due to her struggle in battling between her original personality for being a princess and her altered personality for being a wicked stepmother.
Background:
Enchanted
Giselle first appears in the film living in a cottage in the forest with her woodland animal friends in the fantasy world known as Andalasia. They help her make a mannequin of her dream prince and she explains to them about how she wants a true love's kiss with that special person, particularly a prince. She is soon attacked by a giant troll who attempts to eat her. With the help of her best friend Pip, she manages to send the troll flying (literally) but falls off a tree when the tree branch she is holding breaks. She then meets Prince Edward who, captivated by her beauty and voice, decides to marry her the next day. Giselle, elated that she has found her special someone, rushes to the castle the next day to be wed. However, Prince Edward's stepmother, Queen Narissa, pretends to be an old hag and leads her to a "wishing well" so she can make a wish before she gets married. Giselle wishes to live happily ever with Prince Edward but is tricked and pushed by Narissa into the well which leads to Earth at present-day New York.
She is at first very distressed by her surroundings, as no one tries to help her and she can't find her way back. Eventually, she meets Robert and his daughter Morgan who climbed out of the taxi they were riding after seeing Giselle. She falls asleep in Robert's apartment and he allows her to stay the night. She decides to repay them the next morning by cleaning up the house with the help of the animals of New York City (which turned out to be rats, mice, birds, insects, etc.). Robert, however, is not at all pleased as there are rodents, bugs, and other animals in his house and he shoos them away. He is further annoyed when his girlfriend Nancy appears and sees Giselle wrapped in a shower towel on top of them (though she merely tripped and fell on him). He tries to find out where she lives and send her there, to no success. He then tries to leave her and gives her money so she can "call" her prince. However, after he sees her giving the money away to an old woman, he decides to follow after her.
The two soon spend the rest of the day getting to know each other and she manages to find happiness with the initially cynical Robert, her time with Robert opening her eyes to a reality that was more complex and engaging than anything she had previously known, growing from her old role as a 'damsel in distress' to a strong, confident fighter. Nathaniel, who was sent by Narissa to kill Giselle with poisoned apples, also appears throughout their day to try to kill Giselle, to no avail. The two begin to understand more about each other and develop feelings for one another, although both do not yet realize their feelings.
Meanwhile, despite Giselle's initial struggles to adapt to the real world via her fairytale-like view of life, her presence in their world seemingly gave quite a positive impact to some of the real-world characters she encounters. Robert learns to loosen up from his no-nonsense, pessimistic and cynical ways, Morgan overcomes her shyness as she learns to speak to strangers, Nancy forgives Robert for the misunderstanding which Giselle inadvertently caused and remains in good terms with both Robert and Giselle, while both Phoebe Banks and her ex-husband Ethan Banks, having thought of what Giselle said about how the former is beautiful and how the latter is in love with the former, finally resolve their differences and get back together, hence wrapping up their divorce case which Robert is assigned to.
Eventually, Prince Edward finally manages to find Giselle and asks her to come back with him. However, Giselle has at this point realized she enjoys staying in New York and actually knows little to nothing about her groom-to-be due to learning how much time an actual relationship takes to develop. She asks Prince Edward if she can go on a date with him before they go. The two enjoy their date together but Giselle still tries to buy time so she can stay longer in New York. She tells Prince Edward about an upcoming ball and they agree to go there and then come back to Andalasia. Giselle agrees and enlists Morgan's help in getting her ready, and the two begin to bond like a mother and daughter.
Giselle comes to the ball and dances with Robert and realises her feelings for him. However, she knows that he and Nancy are together and, upon seeing them kiss, has her heart broken. Narissa, who has decided to kill Giselle herself due to Nathaniel’s failures, approaches Giselle once more as an old hag and gives her an apple, which she says will make her forget about her experiences on Earth and lead to a happy ending. Giselle, not knowing the apple is poisoned, bites it and faints. Narissa tries to escape, but Prince Edward catches her, and Nathaniel reveals her treachery, no longer wanting to do her dirty work. Edward tries to wake her with a kiss, but it fails. He encourages Robert to try, which he reluctantly agrees, for he kisses her and she wakes up to be saved just in time. Narissa, angered that her plan failed, transforms into a dragon to try and kill Giselle but instead catches Robert as he defends her. With the help of Pip and Robert, Giselle helps the animal successfully let Narissa fall to her death and shares her second kiss with Robert. Prince Edward decides to give up on Giselle and soon falls in love with Robert's ex-girlfriend Nancy and vice versa, so he instead whisks her away to Andalasia and the two live happily ever after and get married. Giselle also lives happily ever after with Robert and Morgan as his wife, becoming part of their family and starting her own fashion line called "Andalasia Fashion".
Disenchanted
In the beginning of the film, it is revealed that Giselle was a foundling taken in by the forest animals as a baby. Giselle returns as the protagonist, now married to Robert and the stepmother to Morgan. Giselle has also welcomed a new daughter with Robert, named Sofia.
After the birth of Sofia, life in New York becomes too hectic for both Giselle and Robert, and she attempts to be patient with Morgan going through her moody teenager phase, as well as learning all about the concept of sarcasm. But one day, she sees a billboard for the suburb of Monroeville and she and Robert, and, reluctantly, Morgan, move from their Riverside Drive apartment to Monroeville. Upon arrival, Giselle is quite taken with the town, calling it "the closest thing to Andalasia she has ever seen" and is very fond of her new home, which resembles a castle. But when they get to their new home, it is not finished being renovated. Giselle tries to get Morgan to change her attitude, especially after showing her her new bedroom, but after accidentally burning Morgan's clothes, this becomes more of a challenge. She then meets Malvina Monroe, the realtor who sold her the house. She attempts to befriend Malvina, but in the process, continues to embarrass Morgan unintentionally. She attempts to campaign for Morgan for Princess of Monroe-fest, but is stopped by Malvina and her assistants since she is campaigning on private property. After finding out that Morgan snuck back to New York, Giselle gets in a fight with Morgan, which ends with Morgan lashing out by saying she is not her mother, only her stepmother.
After making a wish upon the Andalasian wand of wishes for a fairytale life, her new village of Monroeville becomes a fairytale village called Monrolasia. But the caveat of this wish is that it transforms Giselle into the archetype of a wicked stepmother. Both her "princess personality" and "wicked stepmother personality" fight for dominance, until the latter wins and decides to fight Malvina to become the queen of Monrolasia. But in her last moment of lucidity, Giselle sends Morgan to the backyard wishing well and, since she does not want to go there herself once the new personality takes over, asks Morgan to "save us" and pushes Morgan down the well to Andalasia.
At the ball, Giselle has Pip, now transformed into an evil cat, to steal the wand from Ruby and Rosaleen, and uses it to wish to become Queen of Monrolasia. She then gets into a fight with Malvina, but is stopped by Morgan, Queen Nancy, Robert, and Malvina's son, Tyson. Giselle looks at the memory tree she made with Morgan, but dismisses it calling it "useless garbage", and destroys it, but the memories on the tree swirl around her restoring her. When she attempts to undo the wish, Malvina stops her, putting Morgan under a sleeping curse. Giselle drops the wand, breaking it. As the clock begins to strike midnight, Andalasia continues to invade Monrolasia, and Giselle's old house emerges from the castle floor. As Giselle begins to fade away, she tells Morgan to use the wand to make a wish, but Morgan resists since only a "true son or daughter of Andalasia" can use it. Giselle insists that Morgan is a true daughter of Andalasia, because she is her daughter. Upon Giselle's last breath, Morgan makes a wish that she were home with her mother.
The next morning, Monroeville is restored and Giselle is alive. She explains to Morgan that since they were the only ones to use the wand, they will be the only ones to remember the day's events while everyone else will believe it was just a dream. Giselle apologizes to Malvina for her behavior and Malvina offers her a spot on the town committee, which she accepts. Some time later, at Monroe-fest, Giselle is now acclimated to her life in Monroeville and is delighted to see Morgan and Tyson dating, and she and her family have at last found their new happily ever after after all.
