Enchanted (PG)

10:15am Thursday 13th December 2007

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This classic animated fairy-tale comes from Walt Disney Pictures with a twist. Fifteen minutes in everything changes and it becomes a live action romantic comedy set in the modern day world.

Beautiful Giselle (Amy Adams) is deeply in love with Prince Edward (James Marsden) the perfect fairy tale prince, and is all set to marry him. However his evil mother the queen (Susan Sarandon) is furious and has no intention of allowing the marriage to go ahead. So with magical powers she banishes Giselle into modern day New York. Popping up through a manhole Giselle finds herself in the centre of the city all decked out in her meringue wedding dress. A trifle flustered by the event she ends up chatting to a dirty old vagrant who is also none too friendly and certainly doesn't operate on a "happily ever after" life plan.

When she sees a fairy tale billboard she is convinced she has found her way home. She is spotted trying to unsuccessfully get through the billboard by little Morgan (Rachel Covey), who makes her father Robert (Patrick Dempsey) stop the car and come to her aid. Robert really doesn't know what to do with Giselle, but can't just leave her so she ends up sleeping on his sofa. Needless to say Morgan and Giselle hit it off big time, a relationship Robert isn't thrilled about as he thinks Giselle is pretty strange - more like deranged - but he is intrigued by her. So in true fairy tale form love begins to blossom.

It's unusual for me to complain about a film being sweet, but this is so full of saccharine it only just misses becoming sickly. The story, which is a reworking of Snow White, is delightful, but Giselle is so relentlessly cheerful in frankly dire circumstances it's irritating. I longed to give her a good shake. That said for mums and daughters there is absolutely nothing to offend. But it might be wise to leave any sons at home or there could be trouble at mill' - this is girly with a capital G'.

Even though the evil Queen is suitably nasty to look at, for today's young audiences she is pretty tame. I can hear parents saying, "Well isn't that refreshing" to which I reply a resounding "Yes". But unfortunately only the very young and children of parents who don't allow that much TV will find her scary, because most cartoons now are full of terrifying grisly monsters and things that go bump in the night, so they expect more. On the bright side for the mums there is a great turn from wonderful Timothy Spall as the evil queen's sidekick and Dempsey is as hot as mustard. 7/10