Susan Sarandon said that she loved getting animated in both the hand-drawn and live action way in "Enchanted," Disney's new movie that turns the studio's classic fairy tale formula on its head. Yet for all her theatrics, Sarandon said her evil witch/stepmother costume prevented her from casting a spell over the crowd during filming.

After all, she was in the heart of New York City, where outlandish fairy tale get-ups aren't entirely out of place.

"I love the fact that nobody even batted an eye in Times Square," Sarandon said with a laugh during a recent @ The Movies interview. "They had to close us down for a number of hours because they couldn't control the crowd. It wasn't that the crowd was gawking -- the crowd was just going about its business on a Friday night."

Sarandon plays Queen Narissa in the "Enchanted," the ruler of the animated fairytale world of Andalasia. She's also the stepmother of Prince Edward (James Marsden), who claims that he's found his true love in Giselle (Amy Adams), a sunny maiden who, if Narissa can help it, will not ever have her chance to succeed her in the throne.

Casting Giselle into a mystical portal that ends up in the not-so magical real world of New York City, Narissa feels that all of her problems are solved -- until Edward goes to rescue his true love.

Dispatching her servant, Nathaniel (Timothy Spall), to find Giselle before Edward can, Narissa eventually decides to take the plunge into the Big Apple herself and take matters into her own hands.

The film, which also stars Patrick Dempsey as a divorce lawyer soured by romance who's taken aback by Giselle's unbridled optimism about true love, opens in theaters Wednesday.

To prepare for the role of the evil queen, the noted activist and "Dead Man Walking" Oscar winner chose to study none other than the animated Disney classic "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

"I looked primarily at the Evil Queen Snow White because she was elegant, but horrible and very vain. She had no sincerity or any kind of conscience or empathy," Sarandon said. "Those sorts of characteristics just free you up totally."

One thing Sarandon insisted on with her portrayal of the queen was that to be evil, she always didn't have to be over-the-top.

"When we started the animation process I was encouraged to scream a lot, but when I went back and looked at the cartoon, I found that she was much more confident and manipulative," explained Sarandon, who also got to be sinister as the queen's alter ego, an old hag witch who offers Giselle a poison apple. "Those sorts of characters are scarier because they are not screaming. They have their outbursts, but the manipulation is much scarier."

While Sarandon has the right tone for Queen Narissa, her beauty makes her stand out even more.

At 61, Sarandon is as stunning as ever. And apart for donning some heavy prosthetics to play the Old Hag in one scene, Sarandon's Narissa perfectly fits into the Disney's mold for evil queen/wicked stepmother characters -- she's stately, statuesque and charismatic.

"I think it's more interesting because you're always taught that evil is ugly, and in fact, there is something to be said about the fun of being somebody that is evil and completely self-involved," Sarandon said.

Balancing Humor, History

What separates "Enchanted" from the previous Disney fairytale productions is the source of the humor in the film. Under the direction of animation ("Tarzan")-turned-film ("101 Dalmatians) filmmaker Kevin Lima, the seemingly out-of-touch characters from Andalasia swing the door wide open for some decidedly tongue-in-cheek moments -- an approach that took Sarandon by surprise at the beginning of the production.

"At first, I thought to myself, 'Did I understand what they want to do here?'" Sarandon said. "But I have to say it did make me feel great that Disney had a sense of humor about itself. They really went for it on this with everybody's characters."

At the same time, though, "Enchanted" wasn't made to belittle the memory of Disney's classic animated past: it's merely testing whether fairytale themes like true love can prevail in a cynical society where dreams of love don't always come true.

"It's really nice that the film plays on all of the genre's expectations, but when it goes there, something cuts across it," Sarandon observed. "'There's a scene where Amy starts to sing and Patrick says, 'Let's not.' But when she does finally sing and everyone joins in like in those big Disney musical numbers, he says, 'How do they know that song?' That's fun. If you're 15 years old and you've grown up on these cartoons, you can feel even smarter than they are because now you're kind of making fun of them yourself -- but they're still close to your heart."

One thing we don't get from Sarandon in "Enchanted," unfortunately, is a song, but that doesn't mean she can't keep dreaming.

"I was hoping for one of those Captain Hook-like talking evil songs where talk about how much they love to do bad things," Sarandon mused.

Mousing Around

Of course, Sarandon wasn't a stranger to Disney's animated classics when she began studying them for the role. But if you think her favorite is one with a princess and an evil queen, get ready to perk up your ears.

"It's 'Dumbo.' It just moved me and I really never identified with princesses, and neither did my daughter," said Sarandon, who has a girl from a previous relationship and two sons with her longtime partner, actor-director Tim Robbins. "We like the music for some of those cartoons, but there was something about 'Dumbo' and believing that you could do something. There's also his whole journey and being separated from his mother. My kids and I always loved 'Dumbo.'"

Getting a little deeper into the psychology of the film, could "Dumbo" also be the reason that Sarandon picked a partner named Tim, a la the movie's sidekick with the magic feather, Timothy the Mouse?

"I have to admit, that's the first time anybody has asked me that question," Sarandon said, laughing. "I don't know. I'll have to look into that. I'm scared of that thought now."