MORAL OF THE STORY

WHERE IT HEADS: - Has Adam Sandler been defanged? "Bedtime Stories" is his first family-friendly comedy, not to mention his first for the Disney banner. But if Sandler can startle us in a dark, obsessive role like "Punch-Drunk Love," he can surprise us here, too. In a modern-day fairy tale about hopes, aspirations and family. The story line is Disney to the core: Skeeter is an underappreciated figure that - like Cinderella - has been misjudged by close relations, then gets a big chance to ascend the social and economic ladder. The stage is then set for a series of wild, mildly amusing and utterly implausible events - including, of course, love. Sandler is playing his usual underachiever, though a tad less angry and a bit more wistful than his raunchier characters. His dad once ran a motel in Hollywood. Alas, he was forced to sell to a germ phobic hotelier. His son now works as a handyman at the high-rise luxury hotel that occupies the spot.When his sister loses her job as a school principal, she pages her brother to share baby-sitting chores with a friend while she goes on a job interview out of state. Having been strangely estranged from his niece and nephew, his only child-minding skill resides in an ability to spin bedtime stories.These are particularly memorable since Sandler channels his career angst into these tales. They range from a medieval castle to the Old West and outer space, but the theme of the peasant who would be a prince is ever present. The hero strives to get a better job and win over a maiden, always besting an opponent that looks suspiciously like the hotel's obsequious manger.Soon the children are contributing to and even editing his stories. (They prefer happy endings.) Then, weirdly, the stories start coming true in real life. Or at least parts of them do. Now if Sandler could just figure out how this happens.
THE RIGHT: - There is one great Sandler moment, when he makes a desperate bid to evoke laughs from the unamused kids, by eating a toothpaste sandwich that comes with the automatic added bonus of not having to brush your teeth afterward. And a trained guinea pig, who plays the children's pet, is the go-to guy for all kinds of silly laughs.
THE WRONG: - But I'll pass on the Cinderella part, where in place of those magical shoes, Skeeter seems to be promising to keep lovingly sticking around 'like the stink on your feet.' Nose clips, please this line could be put in an emotional way.
WHERE SHOULD YOU HEAD: - The overall feeling engendered by "Bedtime Stories" is exactly that -- a story long on imagination and short on logic that brings on smiles and dreams of sugar plums dancing in the head. It winks nicely at parents and smiles broadly to children.