Enchanted Themed Dinner and Movie Night
This week we enjoyed a special dinner and movie night themed to the Disney motion picture, Enchanted!
On the surface, Enchanted seems like a run-of-the-mill fairytale featuring an evil queen attempting to curse an innocent maiden. But as the story unfolds, viewers learn this fairytale is anything but ordinary.
Giselle is a maiden living in a fairytale land who dreams of finding her soulmate to share true love’s kiss with. And when she meets Prince Edward, they happily set off to be married. But Edward’s evil stepmother, Narissa, rules as queen, and Edward’s marriage will depose her from her standing. So, she uses magic to send Giselle where “there are no happily ever afters” – New York City!
Upon learning of his bride’s disappearance, Edward sets forth to find her in the city alongside Giselle’s chipmunk friend, Pip. Determined to foil his rescue, Narissa sends her henchman, Nathaniel, with three poisoned apples to finish the job.
Enchanted is a fun film that explores how our favorite fairytale characters might react to the real world. It is also full of great Easter eggs and references to other Disney films that any level of Disney nerd can appreciate.
Our Enchanted themed dinner menu was inspired by the many food references in the film. And most of them come from the film’s setting in New York City!
I created food labels for our themed dinner featuring the characters from Enchanted. You can download and print your own by clicking the link below!
Bella Notte Pizza
Bella Notte Pizza is the name of the pizza joint Giselle visits with her new friends, Robert and Morgan. As I mentioned before, Enchanted is full of fun Disney references, and this is one of them!
Fans of Lady and the Tramp will immediately recognize Bella Notte as the love song sang to the two pups as they dined on spaghetti and meatballs behind Tony’s Italian Restaurant.
We don’t know for sure what type of pizza Giselle and her friends order from Bella Notte, but the fresh basil leaves on top made me think of a Margherita pizza. We have a local pizza joint in town that specializes in New York-style pies, so I placed an order for pickup!
Prince Edward’s NYC Hot Dogs
New York City is famous for their hot dog carts, so it’s no surprise this staple dish made multiple appearances in the film.
We first see Giselle trying a hot dog in Central Park to which she exclaims, “This was so yummy! I didn’t know that food could taste like this.”
And clearly the delicacy made an impression, because later we also see Edward chomping down on a hot dog during his date with Giselle. After Giselle reassures him it’s not really a dog, he agrees that “it’s quite excellent.”
I would have preferred to grill our hot dogs for our Enchanted themed dinner, but our current high temp outside is around -15 degrees (that is not including wind-chill, people). So, I decided to make them in the air fryer and serve them with all the fixings.
Between the pizza and the hot dogs, there were several happy faces around the dinner table.
Narissa’s Caramel Apple Dip
As I mentioned before, Narissa sends Nathaniel to the city with three poisoned apples to curse Giselle. Nathaniel first attempts to give Giselle an apple in Central Park disguised as a delicious caramel apple. (See the Snow White reference there?)
Now, caramel apples would have been the obvious menu item to include for our Enchanted themed dinner, but I wasn’t feeling that ambitious.
Scrolling through Pinterest, I found a great recipe for Caramel Apple Dip from Dinner at the Zoo. This recipe was super simple to put together and tasted great! I topped our dip off with chopped peanuts and toffee pieces. The kids were big fans!
Pip’s Popcorn
As Nathaniel attempts to give Giselle the poisoned caramel apple, Pip tries to intervene and save his friend. Well, Nathaniel shoves poor Pip into a popcorn machine, and proceeds to cart him around in a “Fresh Popcorn” box until returning to their hotel.
Poor Pip probably isn’t a fan of popcorn after his experience, but my kids love it (especially my toddler). So, I knew we had to include this food reference on our Enchanted themed dinner menu. What’s movie night without popcorn, after all?
We have a popcorn popper that resembles the one from the film, and I also picked up some popcorn boxes to serve from. The kids got a kick out of the similarities between what they saw in the film and what we had at home. Although (luckily) our popcorn was Pip-free.
Giselle’s Goldfish
Our other movie snack was inspired by the fish Giselle fished out of the aquarium at Robert’s office.
Ready for another Disney reference in Enchanted? The receptionist who retrieves the fish from Giselle is played by nonother than Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid! You can even hear Part of Your World playing quietly in the background. How very fitting that she was in this particularly aquatic scene.
Goldfish crackers are another popular snack in our house, so I put some out for the kids to mix in with their popcorn.
Nathaniel’s Appletinis
Nathaniel’s second attempt to poison Giselle was disguised as an Appletini.
I thought it would be fun to make kid-friendly Appletinis for everyone to enjoy during this scene. Our Appletinis were made with sparkling apple juice and just enough cranberry juice to give it a red color. My six-year-old said she felt “very fancy” with her pretty drink.
True Love’s Kisses
“True love’s kiss” is a common theme throughout Enchanted. And as you’d expect, this fairytale ended with a kiss. So, I thought it only fitting our Enchanted themed dinner also end with some kisses, or rather Hershey’s Kisses!
I hope you enjoyed reading about our Enchanted themed dinner! Pairing a special dinner with movie night is such a fun way to get everyone immersed in the story. The kids absolutely loved it and are already asking what the next themed dinner will be.
Do you have any suggestions for our next Disney Themed Dinner? Let me know in the comments!
Looking for other themed dinner ideas? Check out our Tangled Themed Dinner and our Finding Nemo Themed Dinner!
Like what you see? Be sure to sign up for our newsletter to receive our printable Walt Disney World packing list. We’ll also keep you up to date on new posts from Inspiring Magical Memories!
