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(Trailer can be downloaded as QT and MPG)

From Snow White to Shrek, Walt Disney Studios has brought to life some of the most iconic characters and stories of our lifetime. Time and time again, its princes and princesses have sought love, battled evil, and triumphantly found their way to happily ever after. But on November 21, as Disney’s Enchanted hits theaters across the country, Disney’s most classic fairytale characters and themes will come face to face with a reality far beyond any they have ever encountered before—Ours.

“It’s one of those great ideas that you hear it and you can’t believe it hasn’t been done seven times,” says co-producer Chris Chase. “You take all those iconic values—they’re very simple, they’re very black and white—bring them into our world, and what happens to them?”

What happens to them in our world? (Amy Adams. Photo: Barry Wetcher)

And in the story that unfolds in Enchanted, that is the central question. It is brought to life through the contrasting attitudes and perspectives of characters from two very different realities. And with a Fairytale Princess running through Manhattan, a real world divorce lawyer trying to keep her safe, a Fairytale Prince trying to rescue her, an Evil Queen trying to kill her, and a pantomiming chipmunk in the middle of it all, the collision of fairytale simplicity and real-world complexity is everywhere.

But from the moment he joined the movie, Director Kevin Lima says that even though he loved portraying the often hilarious disconnects between our world and fairytales, it was always his primary goal to show how they can and do meet in the middle.

“What I thought was important was to tell the story that you can have happily ever after in our world,” says Lima. “Maybe you can’t have it the same way you get it in a Disney cartoon, but you can have it. And it takes some of the same values that Disney characters hold onto in order to get it. You have to have perseverance of spirit, you have to hold love in your heart, you have to have hope.”

KEVIN LIMA and AMY ADAMS on the set of ENCHANTED (video Interview Kevin Lima)

And as Enchanted’s cast of talent talks about the upcoming movie, they reveal that they too very much resonate with that same message.

“I think there is a true love,” says Patrick Dempsey who plays real world divorce lawyer Robert. “I think there is a connection you find with someone. But I think it comes with a tremendous amount of work, and understanding, and sacrifice.”

Looking back at the filming of Enchanted, both Dempsey and Amy Adams, who plays Princess Giselle, remember their experience learning to dance with each other as an example of the effort required to develop any relationship. Adams admits that she wouldn’t let Dempsey lead her. Dempsey talks about how difficult things became without that trust and connection. But after a challenging day led to Adams losing her toenail, Dempsey says that they were then able to come together as dance partners and actors better than at all before.

“I felt her vulnerability, and I had to really take care of her. And she had to surrender to that. And I think that’s when our relationship really started to take off,” says Dempsey.

At one point, an instructor pulled Adams aside and told her, “Just because you’re putting your trust in him, doesn’t mean that you’re not dancing your own dance.” And since then, says Adams, those words are something that she’s applied to many areas of her life.

Adams says she also very much identifies with what she considers to be Enchanted’s most powerful message, that “sometimes what we believe to be the fairytale prince is not.”

Amy Adams (Video Interview Amy Adams)

It’s not that there aren’t versions of fairytale princes and happily ever afters in our world; it’s just that knowing what they are and finding them is rarely as simple and instantly gratifying as in our favorite fairy tales. As Adams has seen in her own life as well as in Giselle’s, finding that happily ever after is very much a journey of evolution and discovery and a course on which we must often let go of what we think we want to ever find what we actually need.

Reflecting on Giselle’s transition from fairy tale princess to real world woman in Enchanted, Adams says, “I always just felt that it was Giselle’s path. It was an unlikely way to arrive there, but it was always where she was supposed to end up.”

As Susan Sarandon, who plays the evil Queen Narissa, sees it, happily ever after can only happen as an ongoing journey. “Do I think it’s possible to walk into the sunset? Yeah, but not without an effort.” Says Sarandon, “I don’t think it happens that easily. And I think one of the things this movie says is that you need to work at it. You walk into the sunset and somebody gets stuck; and you have to wait for them, and you go further into the sunset and wait for the next thing that happens.”

But those behind Enchanted also emphasize that just because true love and happily ever after aren’t quite as simple in the real world as they are in so many of our favorite fairy tales doesn’t mean they aren’t valid needs and possible realities.

“We all pretend that we don’t need to feel or experience that kind of love,” say Idina Menzel, who plays Robert’s real-world love interest Nancy. “But it’s really from a fear of being hurt and having our heart broken, and in the end, we really want the passion and romance and the true love.”

James Marsden, who plays the innocently narcissistic Prince Edward, looks at his character’s seemingly egotistical love of himself not as a flaw but as a truth he has never been given reason to disbelieve.

“When somebody asks him, ‘Do you like yourself?’ He says, ‘Of course I do. What’s not to like?’” says Marsden. “But it doesn’t come from a place of I’m better than you, it’s an innocence and a simplicity.”

And in a world where even loving ourselves can prove to be a difficult task, that simple message is one that can also be very powerful.

As screenwriter Bill Kelly reflects on the often depressing world that surrounds us and the world he helped to create in Enchanted, he finds himself challenged by the idea that cynicism is just taking the easy way out.

“You know it’s easy to be cynical,” says Kelly. “But to carry innocence and celebrate innocence and simple joys in your life, that takes a little effort and a little determination to create that magic; but it’s worth it.”

“I think we’ve lost touch with magic, and we need it,” says Dempsey. “We’re gonna have to find love and we’re gonna have to find acceptance. It’s that simple and it’s that complex.”

And so, as Enchanted gears up to hit movie screens across the country in full force, the simple questions for us seem to be—Are we ready to believe in true love? Are we ready to believe in happily ever after? And are we willing to embrace a kind of magic that is powerful enough to exist inside even our crazy world?

Are we ready to believe in true love? Are we ready to believe in happily ever after? Are we willing to embrace a kind of magic?