ENCHANTED is an impressive film. It starts in animation and turns to live action when a would-be princess-to-be , Giselle (Any Adams), is transported from a fairy tale animated land of Andalasia to Manhattan by the step-mother of the prince (James Marsden) who she is going to marry. The evil step-mother doesn't want to lose being the Queen of the land. In Manhattan, Giselle is helped by a cynical divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) with a daughter who believes in fairy tales.

ENCHANTED makes fun of classic animated Disney tales such as CINDERELLA, SNOW WHITE, and SLEEPING BEAUTY while paying tribute to them. Susan Sarandon is delightfully evil as the Queen while James Marsden manages to pay a blad prince to great effect. Amy Adams is sweet in this film while Patrick Dempsey actually can act. Every major character gets development time along with a great musical number in Central Park (with a little Calypso mixed in). The animated scenes did telegraph the ending in the film though, but ENCHANTED is just a joy to watch. Films like this show what many recent Disney animated films are missing.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
The deleted scenes (with introductions by director Kevin Lima) and the bloopers are nice to watch, but too bad they couldn't include the part where the Prince is running from the bus driver (seen in the theatrical trailer which isn't included on this disc). A music video by carrie Underwood is also included.

FANTASY COMES TO LIFE is spilt up into three featurettes which cover the two musical numbers and the ballroom climax. Too bad Disney couldn't include an audio commentary for the film.

PIP'S PREDICAMENT is a lame animated pop-up adventure. I wish they would have rather spent the money ona fully realized animated short instead of this pop-up style.

FINAL ANALYSIS: ENCHANTED is funny and charming. One of the best Disney films to also pay tribute to the classic Disney animated films.

this DVD review is (c)3-13-2008 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com  

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