.....and they lived Happily Ever-After!!

The lovely Giselle is an animated, honest-to-goodness, true-blue Disney Princess. She looks like a dream and resides in the mystical land of Andalasia. She sings... day-dreams...lives in a multi-storeyed tree-house...prances about with a meanagerie of cutesy-pie wild-life and generally awaits the arrival of her handsome Prince in shiny tights!!

And arrive he does. The handsome Prince Edward hears her dulcet tones and promptly arrives to find “his heart’s true-desire”. Along the way he slays a pesky ogre and manages to hum a soulful ballad (talk ‘bout multi-tasking!!!).....and the Happy Dent couple decide to live happily Ever-After!

But what’s a fairy-tale without the truly wicked Step-Mother. Enter Queen Narissa. Fearing a threat to her ascension to the throne, she sneers, snarls and decides to throw a spanner into the works. With a fair-bit of deviousness, she promptly tosses the unsuspecting Giselle her into a waterfall. Our damsel in distress plunges through a never-ending chasm which infact is a portal into the real world.

Say hello to the now real, flesh-and-blood Giselle! And also say hello to a culture-shock of gigantic proportions!! With her rosy attitude towards life...her cheerful and freakishly-optimistic nature...her debutant princess demeanour and her tendency to break into a song (a throw-back to the happy times in the sun-dappled glen!!!) at the drop of a hat…she is a charming misfit in a cynical and grimy New York.

As she tries to find her way back to her "Prince in Poofy Clothing", she befriends a world-weary divorce lawyer, Robert Philip and his adorable l’il daughter……and I guess we all know where that story is heading,

But ofcourse before Giselle has her fairy-tale ending and rides off into the sunset, she has to deal with her charming but empty-headed Prince Edward; a conniving lackey,Nathaniel; the smart-mouthed chipmunk Pip and the prospective MONSTER-in-law!!

A charming, modern-day fairy tale with all the right ingredients, fantastic characters and jus’ the right splash of humour makes for good family viewing. Amy Adams and James Marsden who play Giselle and Prince Edward respectively are nauseatingly happy and over-the-top. But that’s what the roles demand and you can’t help but empathize with them. Patrick Dempsey as the “been-down-that-road-before” lawyer is a deliciously handsome male lead. He is the perfect blend of bewildered father and reluctant good-samaritan. The fact that he lights up the screen with his rakish charm, doesn’t hurt ofcourse!! Susan Sarandon as the evil step-mother Narissa is glorious. She dazzles, thunders and blazes across Manhattan and would make any self-respecting, virginal princess head for the nearest tree-hollow to cower in fright!

For all lovers of classic Disney fare, this movie brings back fond memories as old yarns are re-discovered and effortlessly weaved into a feel-good, magical tale.