Amy Adams: a star really is born

Disney's Enchanted enjoyed a fairytale opening in the US over the Thanksgiving weekend. As predicted here on Friday, north American audiences have taken its star Amy Adams to their hearts and the film, which opened last Wednesday, made records at the box office, taking $50.1m over five days. It was the highest ever take for a 'non-sequel'; in other words, it was beaten only by Toy Story 2's phenomenal receipts back in 1999.

The part-animated part-conventional musical is a far bigger hit than Disney execs had hoped. Producer Barry Josephson puts it down to Enchanted's broad family appeal and to the central performance by Amy Adams as the wide-eyed princess who has to cope with life on the mean streets of New York after escaping from the pages of a picture book.

"Amy Adams really brought such a great spirit to the character. She truly has just this incredible exuberance you don't often see on screen," Josephson said. "She is a big surprise for people who don't know her. It's a break-out role."

Mark Zoradi, president of Disney's motion picture group, said: "We are ecstatic about it." He  praised Amy Adams and her co-star, Gray's Anatomy hunk Patrick Dempsey. "It struck a chord in family movie-going," Zoradi added. "It's not only great romantic comedy but it had all those little special things tying back to Disney history and music, and it just played across the board." ·