Because while I have a love of horror movies, I also have high school friends with small children.

She REFUSES to let me show her three girls the whimsical magic of “Donnie Darko,” even though that film is clearly appropriate for children.  (It has a talking rabbit.)  So the five of us watched 2007’s “Enchanted,” and I liked it a lot.  Because the laughter of little girls can be infectious after a long day.

If you’re an adult, you can have good fun watching Disney lampoon its own cliches, all the while avoiding them — the gently spurned would-be stepmother here, for example, isn’t “wicked.”  The fish-out-of water humor of a Disney princess inhabiting the “real world” is accessible to adults.  And Susan Sarandon is a pleasure to watch in any film — I actually never realized before what a great voice she has until I heard it connected with her animated equivalent here.  (The movie is bookended by animated segments.)

You can also have great fun trying to recognize the genteel characters as actors you’ve seen in other movies.  The bubbly, clueless princess here is none other than the reserved, highly intelligent Lois Lane in “Man of Steel” (Amy Adams).  I spent the whole film trying to figure out who the prince is, until I realized it was Cyclops without his visor (James Marsden).  And the character of Nathaniel is none other than Timothy Spall, who every film fan will recognize as Thomas Tipp from the priceless “Vanilla Sky.”  Spall is also in another group of movies … apparently there is this really popular film franchise about a boy wizard?  (It might be based on a book series.)

Seriously, this is a fun, safe movie for small children that you can also enjoy with them.

Since the girls liked this so much, I am going to screen “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” for them if my friend lets me babysit.  That’s a fun, fish-out-of-water story with a strong female protagonist too.