Running time: 108 minutes
Rating 9 out of 10
Enchanted is the first great family film of the century and will be a huge smash for Disney, following hot on the heels of their successes with Pirates of the Caribbean, High School Musical and Ratatouille. It's a very inventive and highly amusing comedy with a script that should be used as a template for how to make the perfect family entertainment. Indeed, it's Bill Kelly's script that shows a modern Disney, very much unafraid to laugh at itself and the expected twists and turns of a 'Disney family comedy'. Thus, everything begins in good old-fashioned 2-D animated form, as in a land far away the beautiful Giselle pines for her suitor, the chiselled Prince Edward. The inevitable obstacle rears its head in the form of a nasty stepmother who, on the day of the proposed engagement, banishes Giselle to a fate worse than any other fairy tale - the trials and tribulations of modern day life in New York City.
2-D becomes vibrant live action as a wide-eyed Giselle inveigles her way into the life of divorced Dad Robert Phillip (Patrick Dempsey). The fairy tale character is a fish out of water in the Big Apple which gives the film plenty of comic scope, which is further added to by the arrival of other characters from Fairyland who bring a Princess Bride-style humour to proceedings.
Alan Menken and Stephen Schwarz's score packs a memorable punch with several toe-tapping tunes to accompany Kevin Lima's snappy direction, while the cast is impressive across the board. Amy Adams threatens to steal the show, and shows why her Oscar nomination for last year's Junebug heralded a long and successful career to come, Patrick Dempsey is charming in a tricky role, while James Marsden taps a previously unseen comedy seam as the gormless but dashing prince.
The film also does a good job of dealing with a broken family - something that is so often tacked on without any real resolution in a good deal of Hollywood movies - and has plenty of jokes that adults and children can share, rather than the adult/child joke segregation than has become the norm. A feelgood film that is guaranteed to leave you smiling - and singing.
Paul Hurley
