'Enchanted' director brings love of animation to project

Kevin Lima is no stranger to cartoons, having worked at Disney as an animator on such films as "The Little Mermaid" and "Oliver & Company." He later graduated to directing, with "The Goofy Movie" and "Tarzan" among his Disney credits. In addition he has directed some live-action features for the Mouse House, including "102 Dalmatians" and a pair of "Eloise" movies for the Disney Channel.

In his mind, this makes Lima the perfect person to direct Disney's "Enchanted," a romantic comedy/fantasy that features both animated and live-action elements. But Disney executives weren't nearly as convinced when he came to them with a proposal after wrapping up "102 Dalmatians."

"It was pretty clear that everyone thought I was crazy, though they said I was pretty passionate about it," Lima said, adding with a laugh. "Of course, they never did find anyone better or with nearly as much passion for the project."

In fact, the movie remained stalled for years, going through various script rewrites. Eventually, however, he won over the Disney higher-ups by animating sequences to show them his "vision" of what the movie should be. "If I'd known it was going to be that easy, I would have done that in the first place."

The 45-year-old filmmaker said by phone from his San Francisco home office that one thing he did was change the tone of the movie. "Enchanted" was initially envisioned as something that would spoof or parody the early Disney "princess movies" — "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty."

However, to Lima, that would have made it too much like DreamWorks' "Shrek" movies. "What I wanted to do was more affectionate, more of an homage. I mean, there are things here that are tongue-in-cheek, but it's certainly not mean-spirited about it."

Instead, his version of the movie became a "winking appreciation of classic Disney." That includes a few original songs from Oscar-winners Stephen Schwartz and Alan Menken, who teamed up for Disney's animated versions of "Pocahontas" and "The Hunchback of Notre Dame."

"You really can't have this kind of movie without some memorable musical numbers," Lima said.

And for his princess, he cast actress Amy Adams. "She looks just like a Disney princess come to life. She stars as Giselle, a fairy-tale character who's transported to the real world — New York City."

According to Lima, Adams was a revelation. "I don't think anyone still knows how many things she can really do. I didn't even know she had such a great singing voice when I cast her, but she's amazing."