Biting the Big Apple

For nearly an hour, Enchanted (2007) is a mildly amusing fantasy about the cartoon characters of a make believe kingdom — talking chipmunk, fair maiden, handsome prince, wicked witch and her dimwit henchman — transformed into live actors (and one CGI rodent) relocated to the streets of New York City. There’s a lot to be said about happiness and humility collapsing under irony and cynicism, along with the corporate Disneyfication of our cities, and while the film devotes most of its time to comedy, music and dance, there’s the sense that it’s aware of these deeper concerns as well. The effort is woefully undone, however, by the miscalculated final act where the evil queen becomes a cheesy animated dragon in a daft homage to King Kong. Too bad, because Susan Sarandon is splendid as the villain and Amy Adams possesses the proper naiveté as a girl barely maintaining her innocence in a dystopian society.