Blu-ray Movie Reviews

In the animated fairytale land of Andalasia lives Giselle (Amy Adams), a charming young lady who dreams of meeting her own Prince Charming. One day, he finally arrives in the form of Prince Edward (James Marsden), and they expect to live happily ever after until Edward's evil mother, Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon), transports Giselle to the worst place she can imagine—New York City! Transformed into flesh and blood, Giselle must make her way in an unfamiliar world where dreams don't always come true. Or do they?

Enchanted is not your typical "princess movie"—in fact, it's like no other you have seen before. Every cliché from Disney movies past can be found in this film, but in a self-mocking way. When Giselle enters the real world of New York City, the laughs are endless with her sweet innocence thrown into a not-so-innocent world.

Amy Adams is certainly the star of the show, and she has genuine chemistry with Patrick Dempsey as Robert Philip, the divorce lawyer who befriends her in New York. And Susan Sarandon tears up the screen with a delightfully evil performance. Honorable mention also goes to the Oscar-nominated music by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz as well as the costume design by Mona May.

This is another nearly perfect video transfer from Disney. The lavish color palette comes to life with the 1080p AVC encode. The film opens with the animated sequence that harkens back to days of old at Disney, and the picture looks just as good when the live action begins in New York. Giselle comes to life in Times Square, which has never looked better, with superb detail. Blacks are nice and inky with excellent shadow detail, and the CGI (computer-generated imagery) is picture-perfect without looking unrealistic in the least. My only gripe in the picture department is some occasional banding, especially in the backgrounds. This is the only item that keeps this presentation from getting a perfect 10 for video quality.

Disney has been a big supporter of PCM tracks on their Blu-ray releases, but in this case, the audio is presented as a Dolby TrueHD 5.1-channel mix (48kHz/24-bit), which is lossless, so it should sound just as good as a PCM track with the benefit of saving some space on the disc for other goodies. The soundtrack is quite aggressive for a kid's movie, with ample bass, excellent dynamics, and good use of the surround speakers. The musical numbers have a flair and dynamic quality of their own, and the lossless mix really lets them shine.

The special features include some neat items to complement the movie. First up is "The D-Files—Enchanted," which displays multiple-choice questions about references to other Disney films at various moments during the movie. Answer them correctly, and you rack up points, which are stored in the player. Score enough points, and you are treated to three special videos: "So Close," "Making Ever Ever After," and "True Love's Kiss."

Next up is "Pip's Predicament: A Pop-up Adventure" that follows Giselle's chipmunk on a mission to rescue Prince Edward. There are also three behind-the-scenes featurettes and deleted scenes and bloopers, all in HD. Finally, there is the music video "Ever Ever After" by Carrie Underwood in standard def.

Enchanted expertly combines a nice romance with a spoof of past Disney films in a way that is entertaining for both kids and adults. Amy Adams carries the picture, and her performance alone makes this one worth watching. When you throw in the rest of the all-star cast and the Academy Award-nominated songs, Enchanted gets my highest recommendation.

Release Date: March 18, 2008

Film: 8.5 out of 10

Picture: 9.5 out of 10

Sound: 9.5 out of 10

Review System

Source

Sony PlayStation 3

Display

JVC DLA-RS1 projector

Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics

Onkyo Pro PR-SC885 pre/pro

Anthem PVA-7 power amplifier

Belkin PF60 power conditioner

Speakers

M&K S-150s (L, C, R)

M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)

SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables

Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)

Best Deal analog-audio cables

PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector