Enchanted

Being a big kid at heart, it's all too easy to be swept up by Enchanted. Taking a classic animated Disney fairytale (or in fact, more accurately, all of them), and updating them with a real-life twist is a really cool concept, and one that only Disney can really do justice to.

The first ten minutes of the film are spent entirely in the animated world of Andalasia, and immediately make you feel about 8 years old again. There's something quite magical about seeing traditional cel animation again, especially given Disney's decision to switch entirely to computer generated graphics in 2004. After a run-in with the evil queen (who, dressed in true Sleeping Beauty style as an old beggar woman, also just happens to be an evil step-mother as well) our fairytale princess is transported to modern-day New York, a far cry from her true-love-at-first-sight homeland. After bumping into a single-father lawyer for the first time, the rest of the plot is laid out pretty plainly. Even the arrival of her Andalasian Prince Charming to Times Square (an inspired casting of James Marsden) can't stop the inevitable reverse fairytale conclusion of the film.

As adverts for the New York Tourist Board go, this one is particularly long...

Despite the predictability (normally far and away my biggest grievance with a film), Enchanted is still really engaging. It's pretty difficult to find a Disney movie or fairytale cliché that's been left out of the movie in some shape or form, but that's what makes it so charming. The Disney formula has worked since the world first saw 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' in 1937, and yet 75 years later, audiences are still enthralled by, what is quite rightfully termed, the magic. Enchanted is no different. The special effects are good (especially the interaction between real-life and animation), the songs are up to typical Disney quality, the script is witty, and it's all delivered especially well by a big-named cast, but at the centre of it is something so simple that it can be enjoyed by every age, gender and social group. And as distinctive and humorous as the fairytale parody is in keeping the film feeling fresh, I think the story simplicity is the enduring film-making secret that Disney don't want others to know.