So sweet, you'd think it would make you sick... but it doesn't.

Rating: 7/10 (31 December 2007)

When I read that Harry Knowles, the founder of "Aintitcoolnews.com" apparently never heard of Amy Adams before this movie, I was flabbergasted, because a known movie-geek like him with his own website rivaling IMDb never heard of her, and yet I still remember her as the sex-starved Marvel Ann in "Psycho Beach Party." I also remember some trailers & promos earlier in the year indicating she was going to play the princess in this movie, and from what I heard about it, I thought it was going to be mildly amusing. What I didn't expect was to fall head over heels for her character, her movie, and her.
The evil Queen Narissa(Susan Sarandon) of Andalasia wants to do everything she can to keep her son Prince Edward(James Marsden) from finding love, because that means he will marry the girl of his dreams and she'll have to give up her throne. Gee, I can't imagine why, since Queen Elizabeth II hasn't given up her throne whenever her kids got married. Anyway, in the fairy-tale world of Andalasia, couples can fall in love in a day, and sweet girl like Giselle can summon animals with a song to her hollow tree-house, and land in the arms of the prince of her dreams while trying to flee from a troll that was going to eat her. Also, wicked queens can transform themselves into dragons or old hags and trick blushing brides into making it easier to push them into seemingly bottomless water fountains.
The Queen tells her minion, and would-be lover(Timothy Spall) that she sent Giselle to a world where there are no happy endings... ours. Specifically contemporary Times Square in New York City. What a wimp! If that queen wanted to send her to a real nightmare, she should've pushed Giselle into the Times Square of the 1970's! Either way, when she arrives in the no longer animated world, she finds out just how rotten things can be. Meanwhile, a single father named Robert Phillip(Patrick Demsey) who works as a divorce lawyer tries to convince his six-year-old daughter Morgan(Rachel Covey) that she should accept the upcoming marriage to his girlfriend, Nancy(Idina Menzel). Suddenly, they stumble upon this apparently disturbed young woman in a funny-looking outfit trying to get into a billboard shaped like a castle. Yes, I'm talking about Giselle, the pretty young thing who was on the verge of marrying into Andalasian royalty. Originally, he just wants to call a cab to send her to the Port Authority Bus Terminal, but something about this kooky-lady intrigues him, so he let's her stay for the night.
The next morning, our would-be princess decides to tidy his apartment up by summoning rats, mice, cockroaches, and pigeons, inadvertently convinces his would-be fiancé to think he's having an affair with another woman, makes a new dress out of the man's curtains, and upon learning about the concept of divorce, desperately convinces a splitting couple to get back together. Fortunatley, this couple doesn't have a violent relationship, because if they did, one partner would be in serious trouble. At the same time, Prince Edward and Giselle's squirrel-friend Pip dives into the well to rescue the Princess, and Narissa coaxes her minion into trying to stop them. And all three have as hard of time adjusting to the real world as Giselle. When Robert tries to send her into Central Park with some money for a trip to wherever, she gives it away to an old lady feeding pigeons, and he joins her for a stroll to discuss the way love really works. From there, Giselle bursts out into song on cue. When a calypso band joins her in the song, Robert's reply is "How do you all know this song? I've never heard this song before!" If he came to my house, he'd hear a lot of songs he never knew existed before, and so would you. Soon enough, all of Central Park joins her performance. And to think last night, they were writing her off as a crazy lady in a funny costume, like Robert is. After all, the girl is certifiable... certifiably adorable.
In a flop-house apparently in Harlem, Prince Edward & Nathaniel discover television, including soap operas with former Disney characters as members of the cast. I like how a line from the soap makes Nathaniel doubt the morality of the mission the queen sent him on. It's also hard to ignore how the real world rubs off on Giselle, and some aspects of Andalasia inadvertently begin to effect Robert's fiancé Nancy.
Still, it's Amy Adams that makes the movie worth watching, despite the fact that her cutesy voice is as fake as hell. Very little can be said about her as Giselle that hasn't been said before. She's so sweet, she makes Stacy Rowe look like Sandi Griffin(I just can't get away from those "Daria" references, can I?). Whereas Jennifer Garner was a delight in a non-delightful movie like "13 Going On 30," Adams is a delight in an equally delightful movie. Absolutely not to be missed.