Enchanted

Review by Sean Lynch

It isn't until the opening frame of Enchanted that you actually remember just how damn good Disney used to be.

Pre-CGI, Disney were the masters of the animated genre - something it seems we all took for granted. Thankfully, the opening scenes of Enchanted (Disney's latest kiddie Box Office smash) bring all those fond memories flooding back with a classically drawn and beautifully illustrated Snow White type world - and by gum, it makes you feel so warm and gooey inside!

This surprisingly enjoyable fish-out-of-water (well, more accurately: Princess out of Pencil) tale is a fantastically fun, touching and endlessly tongue in cheek affair in which classic Disney fairytale collides with modern-day New York.

Enchanted follows Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) from the animated land (literally) of Andalasia who is thrust into the heart of the real world by an evil Queen (Susan Sarandon) who will stop at nothing to ensure that her son, Prince Edward (golden boy, James Marsden), doesn't marry Giselle. However, soon after her arrival in the Big Apple, Princess Giselle's views on life begin to change after a chance encounter with a single father (Patrick Dempsey). The question begins to arise: Can Giselle's storybook love survive in the harsh light of the real world?

This is story telling at it's best. There's plenty of romance, slapstick and cute & cuddly creatures for the kids (a rogue squirrel almost upstages everyone in the film - giving hope that Alvin & The Chipmunks might actually be a pretty decent flick!!), and there's more than enough nostalgic and relationship gags for the parents to keep everyone pleased.

The film looks great, with the musical dance sequences through Central Park simply sublime - you can't help but watch with a child like grin on your face (Dempsey's characters warrants big laughs when bemusingly asking several random passers by who are get caught up in the spirit of an out-of-place musical number "How do you know this song? I've never heard it? You know it too?").

The cast, too, deliver some great performances here - each playing it serious enough, while still having fun being over the top in such outrageous circumstances. Adams is superb as the Princess (her voice is uncannily similar to the bounty of animated Disney female leads over the years) who remains cute and charming despite being - what most would consider - outright psychotic. Dempsey (everyone's favourite comeback kid) delivers a McDreamy performance (although, I'm still not convinced that he and Rob Lowe aren't actually the same person), while Sarandon remains the sexiest older woman in Hollywood.

This could have very well gone the other way (with a hokey story and too-over-the-top performances) but director Kevin Lima has put together a perfect mix of fantasy and reality wrapped in a funny and heart warming package. Everything just seems to work.

We all want a fairytale ending - and Enchanted gives everyone a little bit of hope that it just might be possible.

4 out of 5

Atonement
Australian release: 26th December, 2007
Cast:  Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden, Susan Sarandon
Director: Kevin Lima
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