Created 007.11.16; Updated 2007.11.21

This article originally appeared in Hollywood Today. Photos copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Disney Magic Versus Poisoned Big Apple in 'Enchanted' by Robin Rowe Three Stars *** HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 11/20/07 - "Like most little girls, I wanted to be a princess," says Amy Adams who gets to be a princess lost in Disney's part-animated, part-musical family adventure "Enchanted'. "Being a Disney princess is much harder than I ever anticipated. I think it's easier if you're an animated princess! Snow White has nothing on me, because she didn't have to do her own stunts and dancing." More...

Disney movie of a fairy princess lost in New York City charms, but doesn't enchant.

"The movie is about true love," says Patrick Dempsey. "It's an escape movie. It's quirky and fun and challenging. And I didn't sing, but I think that helps the audience be able to relate to my character, because they probably don't sing that much in their lives either." Dempsey is a cautious single dad divorce attorney whose precocious six-year-old daughter adopts a lost fairy tale princess banished to the human world by evil queen Susan Sarandon.

"I like 'Enchanted' because the princess is plucky and actually saves the prince," says Susan Sarandon. "They have taken a modern spin using iconic Disney characters that we all grew up with. The whole style of the film is quite unusual. I like the fact that it's old school animation." The movie transitions from a 2D animated beginning into a live action movie in New York City. Unlike 'Roger Rabbit', the characters transform into bodies that are animated or real depending upon the world they're in.

"You find yourself a little jaded, being brought up in New York, and you have to sort of remind yourself that there are people out there who live for dreams and the fairy tales", says Broadway Tony-winner Idina Menzel. "This movie is a great reminder. It's an amazing combination of genres…as a musical, which obviously I'm comfortable in. And, it's animated. It's a fairy tale. It's an action movie. And most of all, it's just a great romantic comedy." Menzel is the girlfriend who's asked to believe the hottie princess overnight guest in Dempsey's apartment is just a friend.

"This prince is a great character, a peacock who's full of himself in a good, naïve, sort of healthy and innocent way," says James Marsden. "I thought it was a great opportunity to do a film that my kids could see. I have a six-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl, and I don't get out to the movies very often these days. One of the hardest parts about playing this character is that you know that you're playing this flawless drawing of a Disney prince, and you have to represent that when you come into the real world." Marsden sings and swaggers and goes on quests in search of love, a change from his role as Cyclops in 'X-Men'.

What's a family comedy without an annoyingly comic rodent sidekick? "I'm just thrilled with Pip, because he's one of those rare moments when you capture something that's in your head", says director Kevin Lima. "I remember when I was on the set, I would act out where Pip would be and what he'd be saying and how he'd be moving for everybody. I'd be saying things like, 'And then he jumps up on the cup. And he looks at you and he goes, squeak!' And the crew would look at me like I was crazy." The director's voice is the voice of Pip in the movie.

"It started with a spec screenplay by Bill Kelly, who did a fabulous job creating this world, bringing this Disney fairytale princess from hand-drawn animation into live action", says 'Enchanted' producer Barry Josephson. "That's what really intrigued me." Disney director Kevin Lima had done 'A Goofy Movie', '102 Dalmatians' and 'Tarzan'. "Early on in the process, we tried to let the script speak back to all the traditional Disney movies, and we peppered the characters' journey with a lot of the iconic ideas and character arcs from such classics as 'Snow White,' 'Cinderella' and 'Sleeping Beauty', says Lima. "So we looked for ways to work in such things as a glass slipper or a poisoned apple…and there are a lot of them sort of hidden throughout the movie."

All this homage to Walt Disney is great fun for Lima, who started as an animator and was a character designer for 'The Little Mermaid', but it becomes derivative when taken too far. Classic Disney films always defined new iconic heroes and villains. 'Enchanted' doesn't. Sometimes the characters in 'Enchanted' play so hard for laughs they go against who they are, such as when classic Disney hero Marsden makes a less than heroic unprovoked sword attack against an unarmed Dempsey, who cowers in his bathrobe in his own home.

The evil queen sends British comic villain Timothy Spall to finish off the princess in New York City with poisoned apples. What about the symbolism of trying to off a princess with a poison apple in the Big Apple? When the deadly apple miraculously comes to rest against Dempsey's foot, alerting him that the princess was poisoned, I expect him to pocket the apple just in case. What else but a magic weapon can defeat the evil queen's invincible powers? The movie finds another less satisfying solution for the ending, rather than having her own magic apple flung at the evil queen to destroy her.

The essential question of 'Enchanted' is will the Mary Poppins idealism of Amy Adams overpower the divorce court materialism of Patrick Dempsey? It would be a romantic comedy travesty if the answer wasn't yes, so the only real question could be, how? How will Dempsey become convinced that fairy princesses are real? How will he save her from the evil queen? And, why would perky Adams choose depressing Dempsey over dashing Marsden? Similar to Julie Andrews with the captain's children in the 'The Sound of Music', the answer could be because the dour New Yorker's six-year-old daughter Rachel Covey is so adorable.

'Enchanted' is a great film for kids and enjoyable for adults. With stronger characters and richer symbolism, it could have been a great film for kids and adults.

Distributor: Buena Vista Pictures
Release date: November 21st, 2007 (wide)
MPAA Rating: PG for some scary images and mild innuendo
Length: 1 hr. 48 min