ENCHANTED!

Greetings all! Just took the family to see the new Disney movie, Enchanted, at the brand spanking new IPIC theatre located at the newly renovated Bayshore Town Center Mall. The mall is nice, the theatre spectacular--luxury seating, intimate size, chic bar and restaurant and a friggin' bowling alley!--and the movie was absolutely wonderful! Best family movie we've seen in quite a few years. I couldn't recommend this movie enough to anyone with kids...you know what? to anyone at all! I was delighted throughout the entire film. The actors were all phenomenal with Amy Adams (Junebug; The Wedding Date) in the lead and stealing the show (and the hearts of the movie goers) with her charm and talent...and she can SING! James Marsden who always plays the stodgy types (X-Men & Superman Returns) displayed some wonderful, side-splitting comedic ability. And Dr. McDreamy a.k.a. Patrick Dempsey played the role of the straight man extremely well here with some real heart. I gave up on Grey's Anatomy a long time ago but he really proved his star power in this film.

So what's the darned movie about? Simple: it's a fairytale come to life. The movie starts out in a classic Disney animated world playing up all the typical scenarios of the fair maiden waiting for her Prince Charming who's a dashing, courageous sort capturing giant trolls with his broad sword and even broader smile. They both long for true love and find themselves thrown together where they instantly fall in love while singing the same song, finishing the missing parts of their "destiny duet!" But, alas, there's the evil step-mother, of course, who wants nothing more than to see the Prince remain unwed so that she can remain Queen and reap the rewards such a station sews.

And so the evil step-mother tricks the fair maiden on their wedding day (the day after they meet of course!) into falling down a well where she then finds herself no longer a beautifully animated fairy tale character but a true living breathing in-the-flesh person (still mesmerizing BTW) landed smack dab in the middle of absolute "non fairytale land" New York city. She's lost. Literally and figuratively. And that's where the fun begins as we see her oh-so-sweet naivete trying to cope with the harshness of reality. She meets Dr. McDreamy and he reluctantly takes her in trying to help someone he believes to be delusional. And Prince Charming (Prince Edward actually; James Marsden) follows after her down the well and also into our reality. He's absolutely hilarious as he seems absolutely oblivious to the fact that things are completely different here--Attacking a city bus to free the citizens from it's belly is priceless fun.

And the chipmunk? Nice added fun for the kids! Heck, for the adults too.

I won't give away the whole shebang but in the end you leave truly uplifted. I know it may sound corny but it's a wonderful, heartwarming fairytale and I loved it!

A+ on this one folks. GO!

word.

r