Classic Disney animation meets contemporary urban chaos when a frightened princess is banished from her magical animated homeland to modern-day New York City in a romantic comedy penned by Bill Kelly (Blast from the Past), directed by Kevin Lima (Tarzan), and featuring music by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz. Princess Giselle (Amy Adams) lives in the blissful cartoon world of Andalasia, where magical beings frolic freely and musical interludes punctuate every interaction. Though Princess Giselle is currently engaged to be married to the handsome Prince Edward (James Marsden), her fate takes a turn for the worse when the villainous Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) banishes her to the unforgiving metropolis of New York City. As the cruelty of the big city soon begins to wear down the fairy-tale exterior of the once-carefree princess, the frightened Giselle soon finds herself falling for a friendly but flawed divorce lawyer (Patrick Dempsey) whose kind compassion helps her to survive in this strange and dangerous new world.

An exemplary achievement as a film, and an equally exemplary achievement as a DVD. Ostensibly New Line's first Infinifilm disc (Little Nicky was, in fact, the first, with an Infinifilm version hidden as an easter egg), the DVD contains a selection of fairly normal features plus new features that utilize branching technology. The transfer is excellent. The film has been mastered anamorphically at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Colors are strong and accurate throughout (and the disc includes color bars to assist with setup) with deep blacks and good shadow detail. Fleshtones are accurate throughout. The image is sharp and clear, with no artifacts or softness. The Dolby 5.1 audio track has an excellent mix, with subtle use of atmospheric and ambient surround. The bass, when called up, is tight and clear and does not thump or rattle. Straightforward directional effects are few and far between in the mix, simply because they're not often called for. The ambient effects, however, more than make up for this, with each set given its own atmosphere. The Infinifilm feature places a broad semi-transparent blue bar at the bottom of the screen from time to time. Each time it appears, it offers one or more choices; by making a selection, the viewer is sent along a branching path to a snippet of information: filmographies, background information, clips from one of the two documentaries, and so forth. This certainly functions to broaden the experience of watching a film such as Thirteen Days, though not every movie would seem to call for this approach. Not content with offering this aspect, New Line has provided both a filmmaker's commentary track (executed as a roundtable with Kevin Costner, Roger Donaldson, David Self, and others), a historical figures commentary track compiled from a variety of recordings, a historical background commentary presented in subtitles, historical figure biographies, and cast and crew biographies. Additionally, there are two documentaries, "The Roots of the Cuban Missile Crisis" and "Bringing History to the Silver Screen," along with a brief visual effects piece, a number of deleted scenes with director commentary, and the theatrical trailer. This is certainly a DVD worth owning, considering the wealth of material included; the extra materials are fascinating, and will take time to digest.