I feel kinda dirty saying this, but Enchanted isn’t half bad. Maybe it’s because Disney’s animation-meets-live-action fairy tale would make a great afternoon date with my four-year-old niece? Maybe because it’s sickeningly cute, with an edgy sense of humor? Any which way, I’ll be damned if Enchanted isn’t likeable.
Director Kevin Lima combines a conglomeration of Disney animated princesses into the character of Giselle (Amy Adams). This animated naïf is waiting in the forest with a menagerie of woodland friends for her prince (X-Men‘s James Marsden). But his wicked stepmother, Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon), aims to protect her throne by shoving Giselle down an enchanted well. This is when Disney gets all meta on our asses, and Gisele is transported to real-life New York, where there’s nary a talking chipmunk around.
Distracted dad Robert (Patrick Dempsey) swoops in to fulfill the rom-com obligation, as he shows Gisele the sights of NYC, only to have her singing like a socially retarded refugee from The Sound of Music. What makes the film so begrudgingly charming is Adams floundering in fish-out-of water scenarios, like when she naïvely summons the city’s “woodland” creatures (cockroaches, pigeons, and rats) to help clean Robert’s filthy apartment. Enchanted will undoubtedly be the Splash for this generation’s girly tweens, and even if it wouldn’t be your first movie choice, at least you won’t be totally bummed when your princess-obsessed niece begs you to go.