In a fairly surprising move, Disney has come forward and shown it has an actual sense of humour about its patented brand of cheesy, clichéd and relentless peppiness. Previously, self-reference was limited to cross-marketing between one Disney film and the next, but in Enchanted the message seems to be, “Yeah, we know we’ve got our share of hokey archetypes, but it works for us.” It’s a refreshing attitude.

Giselle lives in the conflation of every single Disney trope ever – an animated, magical fairytale kingdom full of songs of her one true love. The evil queen (who is also a wicked stepmother) can’t have some upstart marry the prince and move in on her territory, so she banishes Giselle from animation to reality: New York, to be precise.

Now, Giselle is Amy Adams, and her hoop skirt wedding gown and sunshine disposition are preposterous in the real world. Giselle is pretty useless, but she still gets her prince: a dour divorce attorney named Robert who is obsessed with the practical (and who is played by Patrick Dempsey, not really stretching past his persona to play a modern-day Prince Charming). Robert is hapless when it comes to dealing with Giselle’s wide-eyed naiveté, which generally plays like dementia in this context; even more befuddled are the other fairytale creatures who follow Giselle through the rabbit hole: Prince Edward (James Marsden) come to save his princess; Nathanial (Timothy Spall), the queen’s henchman; and a furry chipmunk sidekick.

As concepts go, Enchanted is pretty high up there, with its fairy-tale-princess-meets-modern-world, but in the end it is all Disney adventure, for better or worse. It may mock the overused story but at the same time Enchanted is no more realistic, or less moralistic, than the average fairytale. But we also get the fun side of a Disney flick in sharp musical numbers (written by the tried and true duo of Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz) that have the added hoot of being performed live in Central Park, or by New York’s own mythical woodland creatures, namely rats and roaches. The animation side is also, as expected, well done: all the drawn characters are dead ringers for the actors who portray them. It is a clever little idea that is lots of fun, even if the execution doesn’t always live up to the notion.

Enchanted drags a bit when it begins to suffer from an identity crisis – is it a live-action fairytale for kids who love Disney or a gentle satire for parents a little sick of the toons? It is somewhere in between and, unfortunately, the cheesiness we accept in cartoons does not always play with real people, even if it comes with a cheeky attitude. The joke – how ill suited fairy princesses are for real life – may start out cute but feels a bit too real when Giselle’s simpering simply does not end.

Fortunately, a lot makes Enchanted generally more fun than it is awkward. Dempsey mostly just has to look stern and pretty, but everyone else is clearly having fun. Adams does well with doe eyes and unflagging cheer; as the evil witch come to life, Susan Sarandon is gleefully evil, even if her costume looks part Party America clearance rack, part stripper wear. But, surprisingly, Marsden steals the show. His Prince Edward is preposterous but he never breaks from or lessens the arrogant buffoonery, and his facial expressions and line delivery are stellar.

While it won’t make many lists for movie of the year, Enchanted has two very important things going for it: it is based on a clever concept and it is family fun. Those two combined pretty much assure it will be a hit, even if kids find real life dull compared to the fairytale and parents were hoping for a bit more satire.

Anne Gilbert