Now in Theaters!

Some scary images and mild innuendo
Run Time: 107 min
Matt's rating - 4
Cindy's rating - 4.5

==========================================

Review by Matt Mungle
2007 Mungleshow Productions

Amy Adams plays Giselle the fairytale princess and talked about how the princesses of later day are a little stronger than the ones in Disney's early history. "The more modern Disney Princesses reflect how women have changed over time. I think those women represented how women were portrayed in that time in our society. And now I really feel like from The Little Mermaid on, they've always been really strong willed. I mean, you look at Mulan, that girl, I wouldn't wanna mess with her. All of them where girls who bucked tradition and went after their own destiny. And Giselle is very much like that."

  And you couldn't have a princess without a Prince. James Marsden stars as Prince Edward, the vain yet sincere prince who comes to NY City to rescue his fair maiden. But is Edward as dumb as he seems? Marsden says, "When I read the script for the first time the thing that popped into my head is that he doesn't seem like the Prince from Snow White. He's obviously a lot more full of himself but in a very naÔve, innocent way which sort of lets him off the hook. It was always written in the script that he have a healthy ego. To make the humor work and to make the audience ok with the story he had to be a little more over the top. The key is to not wink at the audience. Not be precious or cute. You don't want the audience to believe that you are in on the joke. Otherwise the jokes don't work. To me, Prince Edward has an innocent narcissism about him."

  While in NY City Giselle is befriended by a lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) and his young daughter. How was it to play the straight man in fun fairytale film? Patrick said, "It wasn't a very fun role to play most of the time because I am just driving the plot. Everyone else is having a great time. That is really hard. But then you realize what your role is in the greater scheme of things. I was trying to find the moments of humor when I could but still keep the emotional foundation to the piece. So though it is not the most enjoyable it is the most challenging."

As in every Disney Fairytale there has to be an evil Queen. Susan Sarandon talked about how she turned Queen Narissa into what we see on the screen. "I saw her as a Disney icon. An elegant, very high collared, very smooth, with an "I'm so bad I don't have to raise my voice until I lose it" attitude. Once you are in that costume you have to move in a certain way. Then for the voice I just thought it's creepier as a really weird babysitter. Really nice but just so creepy. Pretending they are your best friend. Hopefully the audience will love to hate me."

  The film is directed by long time Disney moviemaker, Kevin Lima. He talked about how this movie keeps the tradition of all the other Disney films. "What I thought was important was to tell the story that you can have happy ever after in our world. Maybe you cant get it exactly the way you can in a Disney cartoon. But you can have it. But it takes some of the same values that Disney characters hold on to in order to get it. You have to have perseverance of spirit. Hold love in your heart. You have to have hope. All those things I thought were important and those were messages from the old Disney classics that I wanted to try and put into a contemporary setting."

Enchanted comes out just in time for the family holidays and it is a film for the whole family to enjoy. It is rated PG for some scary images and mild innuendo. The perfect, must-see film for the Holidays and I give it 4 out of 5 true love kisses.

========================================== ==================