OK, so this wasn’t my first choice of movie to go watch with my kids, I was keen on seeing The Golden Compass, but the kids vetoed my choice.

The first 5 minutes had me worried that I was not going to enjoy the movie, as it was more than a little “tacky” in the old fashioned Disney cartoon fairy tale movie style, but it quite quickly changes gear as the characters suddenly find themselves in a very real, non-cartoon New York.

Amy Adams is not only more than attractive enough to be the fairly tale heroine, but has some great scenes as the cartoon “princess” thrown in to the “real” world with no idea what’s happened.

The scene where she cleans Patrick Dempsey’s apartment with the help of the New York “wildlife” (Rats, Pigeons and cockroaches) is an absolute scream! Be prepared to laugh a lot at that one, especially the one legged pigeon…

and the musical scence in Central Park manages to be “tacky”, funny and absolutly brilliant all in one go.

Susan Sarandon also plays the perfect evil step mother, stealing the show in some of the final scenes, although Timothy Spalding does the same in some of the earlier scenes.

There weren’t as many “in gags” aimed at parents/adults, but the humor was certainly good enough to keep me entertained, and the kids loved it, although their favorite was the talking Chipmunk that couldn’t talk.

It was still a little too “sweet” and “cute” in places for my taste, but I guess it’s aimed at kids a lot more than the “multi age” pixar movies I normally watch with the kids, and yet there was still enough solid funny stuff in there that I came away with a smile on my face.

Tags: Movies