Who's in It: Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, Susan Sarandon, Timothy Spall, James Marsden, Julie Andrews (narrator)
The Basics: An animated Disney princess is pushed down a hole that leads her into the "real" world. Naturally, her handsome prince comes looking for her, as does the evil queen. Meanwhile, once she's had a taste of flesh-and-blood 3-D vs animated 2-D — and just happens to cross paths with Dr. McDreamy and just happens to accidentally lay her hand on his bare chest, which is as racy as it gets, parents, so don't freak — the old world starts to taste a little flat.
What's the Deal? What's nice about this is that it's aimed at kids, but if you're an adult who grew up watching Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty (Sarandon does a nice Maleficent impersonation here, by the way) and, well, just about every other princess movie Disney's cranked out over the years — with a little bit of Alice in Wonderland absurdism thrown in, too — you'll spend the whole time playing the "oh, that's from [movie title X]." And instead of that coming off as cheap or showy, it's nicely infused into the whole thing without too many annoying winks.
Who's Great: Adams as Princess Giselle. She's got a wild-eyed spark that suggests she's probably game for just about anything. I hope Hollywood doesn't sand her down too much and turn her into a bland star. That would suck.
What's Not So Great: Disney's all whole-hog into the digital 3-D animation now, so the 2-D animated sequences look suspiciously like those barfy straight-to-DVD sequels they were cranking out a few years ago like Bambi Meets Stitch and Has a Magical Christmas With the Snuggle Bunnies. (No, that's not a real title. But it could be. I wouldn't want to deny any animator work, but those things are like a virus.)
Hey, Ladies! (and Some Gentlemen, Too): It's like they must have spent hours and hours each day lighting Dempsey for maximum knight-in-shining-armor-ness. The casting people knew what they were doing on the Mom-picks-the-movie front this time around.