Enchanted is enchanting as it balances the high wire between absurdity and reality. It begins as an animated film, but then becomes a real life movie with occasional brief visits back to the animated world. Each individual part works very well on it's own. Only when mixed together, such as when an animated witch can be seen in a pot of real soup, does the movie seem at all odd.
Giselle is your typical animated Disney princess. She is waiting for her prince to come rescue her and take her off to marital bliss. The prince's step mother however, wants nothing to do with her step son getting married as he would become King and she would lose her throne. Instead of dispatching the Prince, she sends Giselle to New York. A place that the witch describes as having, "no happily ever-afters."
There Giselle meets a single father, Robert, of a 6 year old girl. They reluctantly take Giselle in and it immediately becomes apparent that she is different. For example, she calls out to animals in helping her make a new dress or clean the apartment. She breaks into song whenever the mood hits her. When the prince finally catches up to Giselle in New York he breaks into song to which Robert comments, "He sings too."
The movie shows the simplicity of the princess fantasy. She gets rescued and married to a man she really does not know. Giselle and Robert go on a date and actually learn from each other and thus Giselle experiences love based on deeper terms. It is in Adams' performance as the naive girl that the movie truly finds its core. She plays Giselle as if she is waking up to a world of feelings she never knew existed.
Often funny and always fun, Enchanted is a delightful family film that shows that real life cannot be avoided but a little fantasy thrown in can sometimes help.
