Enchanted

Are you looking for a great family movie? Perhaps a solid date movie? A fun chick flick? A quality holiday film? "Enchanted" is all of these and more! This is the first movie I've seen in a long time that I would not hesitate to see again.

Disney mocks itself throughout the story as we follow Giselle (Amy Adams), a fairy tale princess, go from her perfect animated fairy tale world to the very real-life streets of New York City. Banished there by the evil queen (Susan Sarandon), Giselle meets a divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) and his daughter who try to help her face reality. At the same time, her fairy tale prince (James Marsden) searches the city in an attempt to find his supposed true love and return her home.

The story starts out with classic Disney animation of old, with one-dimensional hand-drawn artwork. What follows are satirical songs that poke fun at all the stereotypical elements of a Disney fairy tale. The movie spends the vast majority of its time in reality, but it is surprisingly fun to watch an animated character learn about the real world, relationships, and angry feelings.

Adams and Dempsey are great together, and Marsden is hilariously over the top as the prince. It is Adams, though, who truly makes the movie work. She is consistently running on high while being both naive and believable at the same time. Honestly, this is an Oscar-nomination-worthy performance.

While it's close to an A+, I'm giving it an A because of an episode near the end involving a dragon. It's not scary, but it also didn't seem to fit. Still, if you are going to see only one movie this season, make it "Enchanted". You won't be disappointed.

"Enchanted" is rated PG with a running time of 107 minutes.