Enchanted (Blu-ray) Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment / 2007 / 107 Minutes / Rated PG
Street Date: March 18, 2008
Overall Grade 
Fantastic idea by Disney! Strongly recommended. An instant classic that the whole family will watch it over and over again. Worth for collection.
Genres: Family, Fantasy adventure, Comedy
Starring: Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey
Director: Kevin Lima
Plot Synopsis:
Life is idyllic in the fairytale world where conflict is minimal and breaking into song solves every problem, but what happens when a princess from the fairy world gets magically transported into the real world? Enchanted begins in the animated fairytale world of Andalasia where Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) is destined to marry Prince Edward (James Marsden) and live happily ever after. Problem is, Edward's step-mother Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) doesn't want to give up the throne and will do anything to get Giselle out of Edward's life. Quee n Narissa's solution is to push Giselle into a well that magically lands Giselle smack in the middle of the real world--the center of Time Square in New York City, to be exact. This launches the live-action portion of the film where Giselle immediately realizes that things are frighteningly different in this new world and that she is ill-prepared for the callous ways of the people who inhabit it. Giselle finds herself alone on a stormy night in the wrong end of town, but a chance encounter with Robert (Patrick Dempsey) and his princess-loving daughter Morgan (Rachel Covey) leads to a warm, safe place to spend the night and the beginnings of a complicated, yet compelling relationship. As Giselle begins to question the fairy-tale truths she's always inherently believed, Robert's outlook on life and love also begin s to change significantly. Parallels to the classic Disney fairytales: Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty bound in the form of a King's and Queen's ball, small animals and rodents who clean house when called, the threat of poisoned apples, characters impulsively breaking into song, and the power of the kiss of true love and the absurd juxtaposition of fairytale idealism and stark reality is hilariously funny.
- Featurette: "Fantasy Comes to Life" (HD, 18 minutes) - This three-parter doesn't really suffice as an all-around making-of, instead focusing on three select musical sequences in the film. "Happy Working Song" (6 minutes) gives an inside look at how the animal trainers and special effects artists crafted the now-famous scene with Amy Adams and a pack of CGI animals cleaning house; "That's How You Know" (6 minutes) dissects the Central Park scene with Adams and a cast of hundreds; and finally "A Blast at the Ball" (5 minutes) covers the climactic battle between Susan Sarandon's evil witch and our film's heroes.
- Deleted Scenes (HD, 8 minutes) - Director Kevin Lima introduces six scenes cut from the film, as well as additional context before each clip unspools. Not all of the scenes are finished (at least those that are animated -- it's only pencil sketches), but the extended opening is cute, and there is a nice bit with Adams and James Marsden realizing that they aren't really supposed to be together.
- Bloopers (HD, 2 minutes) - A cute if short reel consisting entirely of missed takes. It's all very happy-happy, joy-joy.
- Music Video (SD) - A promo for the song "Ever Ever After" by Carrie Underwood. Actually, it's not a bad little song. (This is the only extra on the disc presented in 480i/MPEG-2 video only. Why do studios continue to relegate music videos on Blu-ray titles to standard-def?)
- A Pop-Up Adventure (HD, 6 minutes) - Purely for the kiddies, this is short fairy tale about Giselle and Prince Edward, as well as a little squirrel, told in the form of an animated pop-up video. It's classily produced (Julie Andrews narrates), and the younger set will certainly enjoy watching it.
- Theatrical Trailers (HD) - Disney includes high-def theatrical trailers for 'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian' and 'National Treasure: Book of Secrets'
I Am Legend (Blu-ray) Warner Home Video / 2007 / Unrated
Street Date: March 18, 2008
Overall Grade 
Seriously great. Different from other zombie films indeed. Thumbs up for Will Smith!
Genres: Sci-fi, Action, Suspense thriller
Starring: Will Smith
Director: Francis Lawrence (II)
Plot Synopsis:
Will Smith stars in the third adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic science-fiction novel about a lone human survivor in a post-apocalyptic world dominated by vampires. This new version somewhat alters Matheson’s central hook, i.e., the startling idea that an ordinary man, Robert Neville, spends his days roaming a desolated city and his nights in a house sealed off from longtime neighbors who have become bloodsucking fiends. In the new film, Smith’s Neville is a military scientist charged with finding a cure for a virus that turns people into crazed, hairless, flesh-eating zombies. Failing to complete his work in time--and after enduring a personal tragedy--Neville finds himself alone in Manhattan, his natural immunity to the virus keeping him alive. With an expressive German shepherd his only companion, Neville is a hunter-gatherer in sunlight, hiding from the mutants at night in his Washington Square town house and methodically conducting experiments in his ceaseless quest to conquer the disease. The film’s first half almost suggests that I Am Legend could be one of the finest movies of 2007. Director Francis Lawrence’s extraordinary, computer-generated images of a decaying New York City reveal weeds growing through the cracks of familiar streets that are also overrun by deer and prowled by lions. It’s impossible not to be fascinated by such a realistically altered cityscape, reverting to a natural environment, through which Smith moves with a weirdly enviable freedom, offset by his wariness over whatever is lurking in the dark of bank vaults and parking garages. Lawrence and screenwriters Mark Protosevich and Akiva Goldsman wisely build suspense by withholding images of the monsters until a peak scene of horror well into the story. It must be said, however, that the computer-enhanced creatures don’t look half as interesting as they might have had the filmmakers adhered more to Matheson’s vampire-nightmare vision. I Am Legend is ultimately noteworthy for Smith’s remarkable performance as a man so lonely he talks to mannequins in the shops he frequents. Remake after remake but this one really great, with Will Smith everything is gonna be OK. Grab it.
Disc Features:
- Featurette: "Cautionary Tale: The Science of 'I Am Legend'" (SD, 20 minutes) - Less a dedicated making-of than an overview of the sci-fi elements of 'I Am Legend,' "Cautionary Tale" culls interviews with a variety of science and PhD types, plus a few brief comments from Will Smith, director Frances Lawrence, and writer/producer Akiva Goldsmith. It's a slick featurette, but only mildly interesting (particularly the disturbing similarities between the virus depicted in 'I Am Legend" and Ebola and Herpes!), and a bit dry.
- Documentary: "Creating 'I Am Legend'" (SD, 52 minutes) - Easily the highlight of the supplements, this nearly hour-long doc offers a pretty good overview of the production, focusing largely on the shoot in New York and other locations. Divided into no less than twenty chapters, my biggest gripe is that the sequencing is a bit out of whack -- I found the narrative often disjointed, as the doc jumped from effects to story to stunts and back again, but often without exploring key aspects in enough detail (particularly the process of adapting Richard Matheson's original story). The actual behind-the-scenes footage is superior, however, and deftly combined with interviews with Smith, Goldsmith, and Lawrence, plus other cast and most of the major crew personnel.
- Animated Comics (HD, 22 minutes) - A bit of a throwaway for me, these four animated comics really don't have anything at all do to with 'I Am Legend.' Sure, they are very nicely rendered (and are the only extras on the disc in actual 1080p/VC-1 video), but they're rather irrelevant to the film at hand. The four segments are: "Death as a Gift," "Isolation," "Sacrificing the Few for the Many," and "Shelter."
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