A surprisingly enjoyable take on an old genre

Rating: 8/10 (4 December 2007)

One of the few perks for being an employee of the Mouse was getting to catch a free employee screening of this film, a film that I wouldn't have otherwise gone out to catch in theaters (or perhaps even on the small screen). I went into the theater with a wary eye, but, in the end, found myself pleasantly surprised and generally not miserable as I usually am when I watch films of this type.
I think the thing that kept this film from sinking into the saccharine mess it could've become was a touch of reflexivity and meta-humor as well as a well woven script that does a really good job of weaving themes and story points into a coherent whole. The plot is pretty simple: a Disney princess from a fairytale world gets sent to the real world to prevent her from marrying her Prince and therefore displacing her Prince's evil stepmother/sorcerer. Of course, the real world is no fairy tale. And you can imagine what happens from there, especially if you've seen the trailers.
I really liked that there was noticeable character development and the crossing of the perspectives of pragmatic realism and fantastic idealism. I liked how the cartoon characters in "the real world" continued to move and emote like cartoons. I liked watching the change in Giselle as she becomes more and more real from spending time in the real world. I liked how absolutely cartoon the villain and her stooge (especially the stooge in disguise) could be. I wanted to see a little more of the chipmunk and wished that the Prince could get more development, but they're ancillary characters, so no biggie there.
Despite the fact that the film pokes fun of the Disney romantic musical tradition, it's still quite steeped in it. While making light of the musical singing, there's a real song-and-dance number present in the film, which I felt was the only misstep of the film (don't get me wrong it's a great number, but it sort of grinds against the mechanic of the real world setting). Another issue with the film is that even though it's billed as a children's film, I can imagine that the youngest of the youngsters will get bored during the middle section, where there's a lot of drama and not a lot of stimulating action. Kids were shifting in the theater.
Good production values, good writing, excellent musical/acting performance from Amy Adams and the rest aren't bad either, and a good pace. It's not deep--it's a Disney children's film--but it's one that I imagine adults will enjoy as well. A nice surprise, I'd have to say. Recommended for kids and adults who can come up with a good excuse to see the movie, even without kids around. 8/10.