Enchanted comes to DVD this Tuesday, and with it Amy Adam''s Golden Globe-nominated performance as a cartoon character-turned-real-life-woman.
Perhaps one of Disney''s most interesting movies in years, the film capitalizes on nearly a century of cartoons while remaining just edgy enough to be its own force. Ultimately, Enchanted is an entertaining, unique and enjoyable movie, though it does have a few flaws.
The movie is about an almost-princess named Giselle (Adams) who lives in an animated fairy tale land of talking animals and unquestionable love. Giselle is still looking for her prince, until one day when dashing Prince Edward (James Marsden) shows up riding his stallion. Just when it looks like everything is going to end happily ever after, Prince Edward''s wicked witch of a mother (Susan Sarandon) banishes Giselle to another world - modern day, live-action New York City. There, Giselle stumbles upon Robert (Patrick Dempsey), a single father who has lost sight of love. While Robert at first finds Giselle extremely obnoxious (after all, animals tend to follow her around everywhere), his fondness for her begins to grow, and Giselle begins to question whether Robert actually is the man of her dreams.
Enchanted is what more romantic comedies should be like: unique. Ultimately, the film is a romantic comedy that has a big, fancy ballroom dance, some major obstacles to the relationship and a happy ending, but throw in a little animation, some smart references to classic cartoons and an evil witch, and we have ourselves a genre beast. Enchanted isn''t as smart and edgy as I was hoping for; I thought it would crack a few more jokes at Disney''s expense and play off so many decades of material just a little better, but, for what it''s worth, it still has enough to keep you chuckling.