No one will mistake 2007’s Enchanted for a mega-hit. It made a decent $127 million which meant it landed in 20th place for the year.

However, gross receipts and box office ranking don’t mean everything. While Enchanted didn’t dazzle in terms of money made, it found a better than expected audience, especially among adults, as the unusual Disney effort appealed to a broad crowd.

The film takes us to the fantasy cartoon kingdom of Andalasia, where we meet perky Giselle (Amy Adams). After an introduction to hunky Prince Edward (James Marsden), they immediately fall in love and make plans to marry. However, his wicked stepmother Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) wants to prevent this union so she can maintain control of the throne.

How does Narissa deal with this threat? She uses a trick to dispatch Giselle to a place the opposite of happy, sunny Andalasia: New York City.

A stranger in a strange land, Giselle transforms from animated character to flesh and blood human and she struggles to cope with this perplexing and threatening location. She ends up rescued by Robert Philip (Patrick Dempsey), a divorce lawyer with a relentlessly pragmatic streak.

Robert thinks Giselle’s a loon, but his daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey) convinces him to assist her. The movie follows their path, Edward’s attempts to save Giselle, and Narissa’s plot to prevent happily-ever-after.

While I enjoyed Enchanted, I think it would’ve played better in the late 90s. The movie suffers from a bit of a “been-there, done-that” factor since we’ve seen plenty of flicks that have satirized the usual cartoon fare. The Shrek films have beaten that particular horse to death, and other saucy efforts like Hoodwinked have treaded on very similar territory. Sure, it was semi-new for Disney to poke fun at themselves and the live-action aspect offers something different, but I still can’t help but feel that Enchanted would’ve seemed much fresher a decade earlier.

Does that mean it doesn’t entertain? No, Enchanted has its moments and manages to carry us through its running time pretty well. Much of the credit goes to the lovely and ebullient Adams. She gets stuck with the task of playing a cartoon character but eventually making her three-dimensional. The other denizens of Andalasia remain fairly one-note even after they come to New York, but Giselle needs to do the Pinocchio transformation into a Real Woman. The flick doesn’t work if she remains so naïve from start to finish.

It also collapses if Giselle totally loses her earlier charm and sense of wonder. Adams deftly balances her character’s initial simplicity with her growing realism. She demonstrates Giselle’s changes with aplomb and never makes her growth feel artificial or stilted. Giselle is a very different character by the film’s end, but she makes the transition effortlessly. Adams provides a strong performance without a hint of irony or condescension.

The rest of the actors also fill their roles well – even the usually irritating Dempsey. In other projects, he often possesses a dour tone that makes him a real drag. Some of that comes through here, especially since Robert needs to provide a contrast to the sunny Giselle, but Dempsey allows us to see some charm and personality. Robert also grows through the film; it’s not the same leap that Giselle takes, but Dempsey pulls it off reasonably well.

Honestly, on paper I think Enchanted seems like a solid film, and I guess it stands that way on screen as well. So why do I feel… well, less than enchanted? It’s tough to say, but I don’t think there’s quite enough story to fully hold our attention through the flick’s 107 minutes.

That makes Enchanted wear thin after a while, and it never quite lives up to its potential. I think all involved try their best, and the actors help make it entertaining. It’s just not quite as good as one might hope.

Enchanted appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Across the board, the movie looked great.

Sharpness seemed solid. Any instances of softness remained negligible, as this was a precise, well-defined picture. No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I witnessed no edge haloes or print flaws.

Colors appeared strong. With a bright fairytale palette, the movie showed bubbly, lively tones that excelled. Blacks were dark and dense, while shadows seemed smooth and distinctive.

The first 10 minutes or so gave us windowboxed 1.85:1 animation that seemed appealing. These echoed the same positives found in the live-action material, with good delineation and peppy hues. All in all, I thought the movie provided a terrific visual experience.

I also felt the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio of Enchanted consistently satisfied. Speech remained natural and concise, with no edginess or other issues. Music was quite dynamic and vibrant, as both score and songs showed positive range and clarity. Effects were also very good. Those elements always sounded accurate and clean, and some louder bits – like a thunderstorm – boasted solid bass response.

The soundfield seemed lively and involving. I heard a surprising amount of directional speech and singing, and the music boasted fine stereo delineation. Both used the surrounds in a nice manner, and effects broadened across all five channels well.

The various elements blended together in a smooth way and they created a clean, engaging setting for all the different sequences. I can’t say I expected a ton from this movie’s audio, but the mix really impressed me.

How does the Blu-ray compare to the original DVD? Audio was peppier and fuller, but visuals showed the bigger improvements. The DVD’s transfer appeared a bit lackluster, whereas the Blu-ray looked tighter, smoother and bolder.

The Blu-ray repeats the DVD’s extras – and adds one new piece. Hosted by actor William Huntley, The D-Files mixes quiz questions and behind the scenes clips. If you answer the queries correctly, you see the snippets.

Along the way, we hear from director Kevin Lima, writer Bill Kelly, supervising animator James Baxter, composer/lyricist Alan Menken, lyricist Stephen Schwartz, assistant animation supervisor Chris Sonnenburg, visual FX supervisor Thomas Schelesny, layout supervisor Lorenzo Martinez, character animation lead James Brown, makeup effects artist Rick Baker, and actors Idina Menzel, Amy Adams and Susan Sarandon. They discuss references to/influences from other Disney films, story/character areas, music, and a few other filmmaking tidbits.

The Disney allusions occupy most of the material, and those can be fun. Even diehard Disney fans will probably learn a reasonable amount here – and the questions aren’t “gimmes” either, as some can be moderately tough. The “D-Files” offer a good extra.

By the way, at the game’s end, it reveals bonus featurettes dependent on how well you did; if you score enough points, you’ll get three reels. You can also access all 45 “D-Files” independently, including any you missed due to incorrect replies.

Under Fantasy Comes to Life, we get three featurettes: “Happy Working Song” (6:26), “That’s How You Know” (5:55), and “A Blast at the Ball” (5:29). Across these, we find movie clips, behind the scenes bits, and interviews with lyricist Stephen Schwartz, composer/lyricist Alan Menken, director Kevin Lima, visual effects supervisor Thomas Schelesny, editor Gregory Perler, choreographer John O’Connell, associate choreographer Maria Torres, producer Barry Josephson, executive producer Chris Chase, stunt coordinator George Aguilar, visual effects producer David Dranitzke and actor Amy Adams, Robert Dempsey, and Susan Sarandon.

In the featurettes, we get some notes about songs and choreography, visual effects, and various scene specifics. These cover the three sequences quite well, especially in the case of “Working”. I like the way that featurette details all the work required to show insects and animals as they clean an apartment; the dailies that show Adams without the critters are particularly fun. These three pieces are quite fun and informative.

Six Deleted Scenes run a total of eight minutes, five seconds. We find “A Lock of Prince Edward’s Hair” (2:30), “Leaving Karate” (1:30), “I Am Not Waiting for My Prince” (0:59), “Hotdogs on the Bridge” (0:44), “Nathaniel’s Revelation” (1:16) and “Exit with a Twist” (1:03). “Lock” offers a storyreel since it never got to final animation, while the others provide live-action clips. All are interesting to see, but none seem very useful. They made sense as cuts.

Note that the running times also include introductions from director Kevin Lima. He essentially just tells us why he eliminated the sequence, as he doesn’t add much other information in his brief remarks.

Next comes a two-minute and 11-second collection of Bloopers. Expect the standard collection of goofing around and mistakes.

We see an additional tale with the Enchanted characters in Pip’s Predicament: A Pop-up Adventure. This provides a short that tries to look like a slightly animated version of a pop-up book. Here Pip the chipmunk tries to break a spell to free Prince Edward so he can rescue Giselle. The five-minute and 37-second cartoon offers decent entertainment.

We end with a music video for Carrie Underwood’s version of “Ever Ever After”. Parts of the video just show shots from the movie, but most of it posits Underwood as a Giselle-style character who comes to New York and inspires others. It’s a better than average video.

The disc opens with ads for Sleeping Beauty, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets and Tinker Bell. No trailer for Enchanted shows up here.

Enchanted offers an entertaining and fairly charming fable, even if it doesn’t always feel particularly original. The movie probably runs a little long, but it still manages to keep us amused and involved most of the time. The Blu-ray boasts terrific picture and audio along with a decent set of bonus features. I largely enjoy this tale and the Blu-ray brings it home well.

To rate this film, visit the DVD review of ENCHANTED