Enchanted

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

It’s the sort of buoyant, all-ages entertainment that Hollywood has been laboring to revive in recent years (most recently with Hairspray) but hasn’t managed to get right until now, and the glue holding it all together is the incomparable Adams (an Oscar nominee for 2005’s Junebug), who gives the kind of blissful screwball performance that seemed to go out of fashion after "I Love Lucy" left the airwaves.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Enchanted charmingly reworks all the old favorites while incorporating fresh twists of its own.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

There's a word for women like Giselle: Supercalifragilistic. Ditto her film, Enchanted.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

It may sound like faint praise to say that Enchanted is the movie of the year for smart and spirited 11-year-old girls. But a movie that genuinely respects that audience is not to be belittled.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Enchanted is festooned with extravagant set pieces -- there's a great number in praise of romantic gestures, and a ballroom scene to make even grown-up girls swoon.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

Disney goes meta in this witty, exuberant musical comedy whose parody and nostalgia serve a sweet and affecting romance.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A full-blown musical that commutes between Disney's patented cartoon universe and the "real" world with cleverness and grace, this splashy production reminds one of nothing in the Disney canon so much as "Mary Poppins," not least due to the "star is born" aura that surrounds Amy Adams here, just as it did Julie Andrews 43 years ago.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Even if its most ironic humor will sail over the heads of very little ones, Enchanted is that rare comedy that will appeal to the whole family.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Enchanted is as good as its name.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

The film works its magic largely by sending up, at times with a wink, at times with a hard nudge, some of the very stereotypes that have long been this company’s profitable stock in trade.

Austin Chronicle Toddy Burton

Though writer Bill Kelly’s script takes extreme liberties with plot development and never really leaves you guessing about who’ll get the girl, the jokes rarely miss and the result is a refreshingly sardonic fairy tale.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

More important, it has a Disney willingness to allow fantasy into life, so New York seems to acquire a new playbook.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

The movie's big kick – what makes Enchanted live up to its title – is that the further Giselle progresses in New York, the more we feel like we've tumbled into a timeless Disney Neverland.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

While Enchanted wittily updates traditional tales, it is, in the end, as carefully calculated in its appeal as any movie ever was.

New York Post Staff (Not credited)

The first half hour or so of Enchanted is brilliant.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Special kudos to Adams, who nails the distinctive body language of Disney's spunky good girls and manages to make Giselle's relentless optimism seem charming rather than a sign of mental deficiency.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Not since Julie Andrews rode an umbrella to glory in Mary Poppins has Disney given us such a real-life doll (Amy Adams).

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Through good scenes and derivative ones, Adams is disarming.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The very definition of charming.

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

Adams does offer quite a turn: Portraying a version of Disney's Snow White, she owns the character, down to every warble and twirl.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

It is a testament to just how well Enchanted works that by the time a dragon is flying around New York City, you've forgotten all about the movie's high-concept humor and become invested in the plight of its characters instead.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The whole movie swings broadly from slapstick and mock suspense to song. But the film develops a strong amorous undertow; Kelly's script neatly allows for all the potential couples to get the fate or comeuppance they deserve.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The sight of Adams gliding and beaming and chirping in this movie - a self-mocking cartoon that transforms into an inspired live-action musical farce - is just about the happiest time I've had watching an actor do anything all year.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

While this is certainly not the first motion picture to blend drawn creations with real life actors, no movie to date has approached it quite this way.

Premiere Ryan Stewart

The movie isn't a send-up or a takedown of fairy tales -- it's a fairy tale.

Slate Dana Stevens

As the innocent and indomitably chirpy Giselle, Adams gives the great female comic performance of the year so far.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

A sometimes clever, other times grating mix of live action and animation that plays tricks with levels of movie reality as the world of fairy-tale animation invades contemporary New York.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Adams' winning performance and the light touch director Kevin Lima (a veteran of animation and live action) brings to scenes not tasked with advancing the plot all suggest that, silly as they may look once you take it apart, irony-free, romantic fantasy--animated and otherwise--still has a place on the big screen.

Village Voice Robert Wilonsky

Somewhere between conception and execution, what could have been so much smart, sharp fun turned decidedly pedestrian.

Empire Olly Richards

It’s essentially, y’know, for kids, but the dedicated fairy tale fan will have tons of fun spotting all the references. Adams, meanwhile, gives one of the comedy performances of the year.

Film Threat Matthew Sorrento

The kids and adults can dig this one, though adults may be stricken with Disney deja vu by this point.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Given the possibilities it's not particularly inventive, but it is nice to see a comedy so affectionate with the conventions it spoofs.