The 83rd Academy Awards opened with a montage of Hathaway and Franco delving into the mind of former Oscar winner Alec Baldwin in an Inception-inspired moment, narrated by the smooth-voiced Morgan Freeman.
Perhaps the funniest moment of the opening montage, however, was Hathaway and Franco both donning leotards and tutus to join Natalie Portman in Black Swan.
The pair attempted to impress the hard-nosed Vincent Cassel with their dancing abilities, and left Portman looking flustered with their 'talent'.
Hathaway also returned to her former duty at the Oscars in 2009 when she joined then-host Hugh Jackman for a duet to open the show.
Paying tribute to the track, Hathaway donned a tuxedo to perform a comic rendition of On My Own from Les Miserables.
Directing the song at Jackman, who sat in the front row of the ceremony and found himself the butt of many a presenter's joke, Hathaway belted out lyrics including: 'He stuck his fake retractable claws into my heart when he left me on my own.'
But Franco, determined not to be outdone, later donned a pink dress and blonde wig to come on to the stage as Marilyn Monroe and tell a joke about Charlie Sheen.
However, if he had been hoping the joke earn him a reputation as a controversial host, it paled in comparison to Ricky Gervais' choice numbers at the Golden Globes earlier this year.
Other montages throughout the show included a look back to Gone With The Wind and Lord of the Rings.
And one of the most memorable montages of the evening was a clever piece using auto-tune technology to make songs out of dialogue from films including Twilight, which saw Edward and Bella sing 'He Doesn't Own a Shirt' about Jacob, Toy Story 3 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
One of the advantages of having a younger host, however, is that Franco used is considerable knowledge of social networking site Twitter to tweet fans throughout the show as the ceremony went out live on US television.
Using the hash tag #OscarsRealTime, Franco tweeted photographs and video of himself behind the scenes.
Here is the Hollwood Reporter's review:
'Despite an overall rewarding of brilliant performances and no truly shocking didn't-see-that-coming upsets, the 83rd Annual Academy Awards will likely be remembered as the night James Franco couldn't act like a host.'
The Hollywood Reporter
Time to move back to a more conventional host for next year, maybe I'll be able to watch more than half of it.
