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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 23, 2007

ENCHANTED ***

Surely this was inevitable.

After years of watching the monstrously successful "Shrek" franchise parody everything beloved about those classic animated Disney movies, Disney is showing a sense of humor and making fun of itself.

"Enchanted" has a song in its heart and a tongue in its cheek - both in animated and live-action forms - with an infectious energy that helps overcome the script's contrivances.

Wide-eyed, would-be princess Giselle (the irresistible Amy Adams) is banished by the wicked Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) from her idyllic cartoon playland to the harsh reality of Times Square before she can marry her one true love, Prince Edward (James Marsden).

Giselle is an amalgamation of every Disney princess you've ever known: Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, with a little bit of Ariel and Belle thrown in for good measure. And Adams is absolutely adorable in the role - she gets the innate humor within the character's innocence, yet remains respectfully faithful to it. She may have gained minor attention for her Oscar-nominated supporting role in "Junebug," but "Enchanted" ought to make her a star. (And that's really her singing, too.)

But because Giselle is so beautiful and perfect, Prince Edward's stepmother, the queen, views her as a major threat (and Sarandon is deliciously evil in the part). So it doesn't take long after Edward gallops up on his white horse and promptly asks Giselle to marry him for Narissa to send her down a well which leads to - where else? - New York City.

Cold, wet and confused, Giselle nonetheless finds a home through the sheer power of her sweetness and optimism with sensible divorce lawyer Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his adoring 6-year-old daughter, Morgan (Rachel Covey). Turns out, her charms work on hardened Manhattanites, too; a lavish production number in Central Park, featuring mariachis, balloons, rollerbladers and construction workers, is over-the-top but knowingly so, and fun.

But then the city charms Giselle right back, and she finds herself torn between both worlds - and both men - even after Edward arrives to search for her.

Little girls and tweens will love this movie - especially those who are into the whole princess thing - and adults will laugh heartily and often at the way it tweaks familiar fairy-tale details.

PG (scary images and mild innuendo); 107 minutes.

Christy Lemire,

The Associated Press

AUGUST RUSH

1/2

There are precious movies and then there are movies about 11-year-old orphans following "the music."

In this respect, "August Rush" is on another level. We need to break out a whole new definition of cheesiness for a film like this, augmented by fake tears and vomit gestures.

"August Rush" begins with a boy (Freddie Highmore) standing in an open field where the surrounding sounds - the wind, the trees, the grass - swirl like a symphony in his head. In a whispering voice-over, he says: "I believe in music the way that some people believe in fairy tales."

"August Rush" thus proceeds in fairy-tale fashion, though it's more unrealistic than surrealistic. Without any tangible evidence, our protagonist senses his parents are still alive and that he just needs to make music loud enough so they can hear him.

Wide-eyed and impossibly innocent, this bite-sized Mozart embarks on a journey to find his parents with messianic certainty. He sneaks from his orphanage to New York City, where he soon picks up the name August Rush.

Really, all you need to know about "August Rush" is that Robin Williams plays a street musician named Wizard. Dressed like Bono and working as what amounts to a pimp for child street musicians, Williams' wacky and creepy character is his biggest misstep since putting on a clown nose for "Patch Adams."

Rush soon falls in with Wizard and proves himself a music prodigy, beginning with playing guitar in a strange banging fashion that (impossibly) produces refined sounds. Eventually, his gift for music leads him to bigger stages and the chance for a family reunion.

The lesson of such triteness, though, is possibly dangerous. If any young parentless child were to take "August Rush" seriously, he or she would almost certainly wind up deluded by the most unlikely of dreams - and making a terrible racket, besides.

PG (mild violence and profanity); 112 minutes.

Jake Coyle,

The Associated Press

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