"He sings, too."

Omaha convinced me to go to a romantic comedy, and to take the children. We went and saw the new Disney flick, Enchanted. Normally, I loathe films like this. I dislike romantic comedies for the most part because the premise is two people somehow finding themselves in a situation that can best be described as mortifyingly embarrassing, recovery from which requires that both accept that deathly embarrassment is some kind of precursor to the vulnerability from which comes twu wuuv.

Bleach. I've had a lifetime of mortification. I don't need films to feed me more.

That said, I really enjoyed this film. The premise is that Giselle, a classic Disney Princess, is about to marry her "true love," or so she thinks. Her beau, the clueless Prince Edward, has an evil stepmother who doesn't want to give up her crown and so tricks Giselle into falling into a magical portal to "a place where there are no happy endings:" New York City. A Disney Princess loose in the city is a sure source of chaos. And it gets better when Edward jumps in after her.

Enchanted really does deliver on its promise to show a Disney Princess dealing with the real world. There are tons of Messages in this film, but they're all okay for kids: Even when you grow up you can hold onto your childhood idealism; if you become to grown up, a little vulnerability might help you recover; true love lies somewhere between being a heard-hearted "realist" and a Disney princess; and so on.

Amy Adams really is sweet without being cloying as Giselle. She's a delight, especially when she exploits her powers over the "woodland animals" to get the vermin of New York to do her bidding, and James Mardsen (last seen playing the übersenstive Scott Summers in the X-Men franchise) is frightfully believable as a clueless Disney prince lost in Manhattan. Susan Sarandon still rocks, and she still has the body to charm the monster. There's a gorgeous sequence in which Giselle somehow manages to use her power over others to stage a song-and-dance paean to "how to show others you truly love them" that eventually subsumes all of Central Park.

A good film for the kids, and a pretty good date flick even for grownups. I've heard that Disney sat on this script for over a decade years because Disney does not make even gentle fun of Disney, but Enchanted succeeds by playing up everything we know about the Disney Princesses without ever wounding the franchise. It's a tough balancing act, but it works well.