DVD Review: Happily N'ever After
Published April 30, 2007
When the Wizard (George Carlin) takes a holiday from Fairy Tale Land and leaves his assistants Munk (Wallace Shawn) and Mambo (Andy Dick) in charge, everything that could go wrong does. Rick (Freddie Prinze Jr.) narrates as the Prince’s all around servant who just happens to be in love with Cinderella.
What happens when the scales of good and evil are tipped in favor of the bad guys? Well the bad guys take over, with Cinderella’s — just plain Ella (Sarah Michelle Gellar) here — evil stepmother Frieda (Sigourney Weaver) becoming the ring leader.
Once Frieda is in control, her main concern is making sure that Ella does not get her happy ending. With Mafia-style wolves, wicked witches riding souped up chopper brooms, and trolls that disco to the "Monster Mash" at Frieda’s disposal, Ella has to overcome a lot — not to mention needing to find the Prince, who just happened to run off.
Prince (Patrick Warburton), who might be handsome but does not have a lot going on in that pretty little head of his, follows everything a little purple book tells him to. Right away you can tell that Ella isn’t really meant to be with him. But we follow the story, enjoying our time spent with the ditzy Prince and secure in the knowledge that Ella will eventually make the right choice.
Even though Ella expects it to be the Prince, he isn't the one who comes her her rescue. Rick steps up to take care of things even if in the end Ella does chose the Prince over him. But Ella realizes that she has to fight her own battles against her evil stepmother and in the last scene of the movie she stops letting the guys fight all her battles for her.
My favorite character is Rumplestiltskin, (Michael McShane) who wanders around carrying a baby he stole. He is simply great, even with the baby humor. While Munk and Mambo are meant to be the comic relief for the good guys, they paled in comparison to the evil comic relief of the bad guy Rumplestiltskin.
Happily N’ever After has some smart lines, things that will fly over a kid's head, but things a parent would enjoy or at least appreciate. I like the idea of fairy tales gone bad and while this isn’t a perfect example, it is a family friendly, and very funny, version. The DVD also comes with all sorts of extra features including an alternate ending which you just have to see.
Does it all end happily? You'll have to watch and see.
- DVD Review: Happily N'ever After
- Published: April 30, 2007
- Type: Review
- Section: Video
- Filed Under: Video: Fantasy, Video: Family, Video: Comedy, Video: Animation
- Writer: Katie McNeill
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It wasn't great and I won't be watching it again. But just the once through wasn't that bad.
At least you said it wasn't great :)
And it was better than Doogal.....
For the lesser fractured fairy tales, I much prefer Hoodwinked, which I think is vastly underrated.
I haven't seen either one of those. But now at least I'll have to watched 'Hoodwinked'. I'm still a 'Sleeping Beauty' kind of girl anyway. You can't go wrong with the classic Disney versions.
That is true, gotta be classic Disney though, the recent outings have been a little lackluster.
Have you heard that JohnLasseter is getting together new shorts with the classic characters? Including one with Goofy setting up a home theater!
I also liked the inclusion of the old short at the start of Meet the Robinsons, which was probably the best thing about that movie.
Isn't it sad that they are releasing things like 'Cinderella 3'? The classic stuff is always the best, although I have to admit 'Lilo and Stitch' and 'Finding Nemo' are favorites of mine.
I had not heard that John Lasseter was putting new shorts together! That is so cool. I'll have to keep my eyes open for those now.
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You actually enjoyed this? You're the first I've encountered who did. I had the unfortunate experience of seeing this on the big screen, and even the kids there were squirming to leave.....