By Steven Suskin
24 Mar 2008

The folks at Disney at some point seemed to have borrowed their various animated heroines and joined them together into a product line of their own. The Princesses is the name they go by, and if you have a girl child you are likely to have come across this team on T-shirts, lunchboxes, umbrellas, bedsheets and more. Someone at Disney recently seems to have had the brave notion of taking these Princesses, creating a half-sister under the name of Giselle, and ribbing the heck out of 'em in a new film, Enchanted [Disney]. Perhaps it was simply the right time and place, because the results are — well — totally enchanting.

Kevin Lima's film mixes live actors with animation, which is certainly a component of this movie's success. But that has been done before, on and off, since Jerry (a mouse) danced with Gene Kelly in 1945 in "Anchors Aweigh." "Enchanted" also mixes fairy tale-style romance with good old 21st-century fun, with an emphasis on offbeat humor. Thus, wildly funny images bombard us while we watch. Giselle is transplanted from fantasyland to the Upper West Side, turning the whole thing into a witty and knowing "Snow White of Riverside Drive." This Giselle is played by a girl named Amy Adams, a Julie Andrews-type who has musical comedy written all over her unless she is in the meantime swallowed up by Hollywood. James Marsden plays her love interest — the Prince Charming love interest, anyway, and gets to do some singing as well; Patrick Dempsey is the true love interest, the one who gets the girl. Susan Sarandon plays the evil stepmother, with a poison apple and plenty of relish.

Along with the contemporary humor come five musical comedy-style songs from Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, a pair who know just how to do it and pretty much outdo themselves with "True Love's Kiss," "Happy Working Song" and "That's How You Know." The latter is sung during a stroll through Central Park; prominent amongst the geriatrics on the bench who get up and dance — center screen — is our own Harvey Evans, who danced for Fosse 50 years ago and does very nicely indeed. As an added inside-joke-of-a-bonus, Disney includes the actresses who voiced Ariel (Jodi Benson), Pocahontas (Judy Kuhn) and Belle (Paige O'Hara) in cameo roles. Julie Poppins Andrews is there, too. The result is a kid's movie for adults, a Disney family movie with enough sly fun for those on the lookout for sly fun.

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With Ethan Coen's Almost an Evening transferring from the Atlantic to a commercial run at The Theatres at 45 Bleecker Off-Broadway, the playwright had the good sense last month to boost publicity by nabbing three Oscars. The movie in question, co-written and co-directed with Coen's brother Joel (and co-produced by the pair, with the estimable Scott Rudin), is called No Country for Old Men [Miramax]. Filled with full-screen blood and gore, it is also filled with brilliant images — both verbal and visual — and enough enigmas to keep you talking for weeks after viewing it. "No Country for Old Men" has now appeared on DVD, just in time to sell in the theatre lobby. Would that every first-time Off-Broadway playwright were so accommodating. The film is bolstered by a trio of stunning performances, from Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem (the latter in a turn that can only be called astonishing, with a featured actor Oscar to prove it). But it is the magic of the Coens that makes "No Country for Old Men" absolutely mesmerizing.

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Highly watchable in a rather different genre comes 101 Dalmatians [Disney], the 1961 Disney opus. Yes, this was remade in 1996 with live actors, most notably including Glenn Close as the villainess. The animated version, however, is surprisingly good. The animation is relatively primitive, by Disney standards; due to financial problems compounded by the poor showing of their prior effort, "Sleeping Beauty," it was necessary to switch to a less expensive process. This makes the film look more like Saturday morning TV than — well, Disney. But this also gives "Dalmatians" — not about some prince or king in some foreign land, but an average (?) London couple with a couple of dogs — a certain homespun charm, if your idea of homespun includes nine puppies. Or 99 puppies. Will the people at Disney one day take this property and turn it into a Broadway stage musical? Not very likely, as the major characters are — after all — animated animals. However, Disney-on-Broadway has given us lions and hyenas, mermaid, crabs and talking teapots. "Dalmatians" does have at least one fascinating leading lady character, in the person of Cruella De Vil; the film also has a jazzy musical score, although only two songs remained in the released version. (Three more are included among the bonuses on this spiffy, "Platinum Edition" two-DVD set.) So who's to say?

(Steven Suskin is author of "Second Act Trouble," "Show Tunes," and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached at Ssuskin@aol.com.)