Psycho's Movie Reviews #109: Happily N'ever After (2006)

Happily N'Ever After is a 2006 computer-animated family comedy film directed by Paul J. Bolger, produced by John H. Williams, and written by Rob Moreland. It is based on the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. The title is the opposite of a stock phrase, happily ever after; the name is contracted with an apostrophe between the N and the E. The film stars the voices of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze, Jr., Andy Dick, Wallace Shawn, Patrick Warburton, George Carlin, and Sigourney Weaver. This film was one of Carlin's final works before he died. The film premiered in Germany on December 16, 2006, was theatrically released in the United States on January 5, 2007, by Lionsgate, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 1, 2007, by Roadshow Entertainment. The film was panned by critics and audiences and was a box office flop, only earning $38 million worldwide on a production budget of $47 million.

Plot:

The story begins with the idea that the Wizard controls all of the fairy tales and maintains the balance of good and evil in Fairy Tale Land. With the help of his assistants the uptight Munk and the goofy Mambo, the Wizard is checking to make sure that all the fairy tales under his care are "on track" to have their traditional happy endings. However, the Wizard is leaving for Scotland for a little vacation. He leaves the kingdom in the hands of Munk and Mambo.

Ella is a girl who is better known as Cinderella. She lives as a servant to her stepfamily and often dreams of the Prince who will sweep her off her feet. Her best friend at the palace is Rick, the prince's servant. Rick takes it upon himself to deliver the invitations to the royal ball to Ella. Ella sees Rick only as a friend, but Rick secretly loves Ella, although he is too proud to admit it. Rick can't really understand what Ella likes about the Prince. Rick's Three Amigos, the comic chefs in the palace kitchen, believe that Rick has a bad case of "Prince envy". The Prince does everything by the book and plans to meet his maiden at the ball.

However, things don't go as planned at the ball. Thanks to the assistants, Ella's evil stepmother Frieda gains access to the Wizard's lair during the Prince's ball. She manages to chase off Munk and Mambo and tip the scales of good and evil, causing a series of fairy tales to go wrong and have unhappy endings, including Jack getting stepped on by the Giant yet surviving, Rumpelstiltskin winning his bet with the miller's daughter and taking her baby, and the unseen demise of Little Red Riding Hood. She summons an army of Trolls, evil witches, three Big Bad Wolves, the Giant, and Rumpelstiltskin to her castle. Ella finds out and escapes to the woods where she meets Munk and Mambo. The trio set out to find the prince who has goes looking for his maiden (not knowing it was actually Ella) in hopes that he will defeat Frieda and save the day.

Together, they flee to the Seven Dwarfs' home. Witches, wolves, and trolls attack them. The Seven Dwarfs hold off the trolls, while they flee with the help of Rick who had stolen a flying broom. Frieda decides to go after Ella herself. She succeeds in capturing her and returns to the palace, with Rick, Munk and Mambo in pursuit. Frieda tortures Ella because if the story had run its course she would have married the prince while Frieda would never get anywhere in life. Rick, Munk, and Mambo slip into the castle and attack Frieda. During the fight, Frieda generates a pit in the floor. Mambo knocks her in, but she uses her staff to fly back up again. After a short battle, in which Rick takes a blast meant for Ella and falls into a deep sleep, Frieda creates a portal by accident. Ella knocks Frieda back and punches her into the portal. Rick awakes from the spell and he and Ella kiss, finally admitting their feelings for each other.

Ella and her true love Rick decide to choose their destinies in a world of happy endings and get married. Rumpelstiltskin has shown that he has come to care for the baby and the miller's daughter lets him stay in the castle as the baby's nanny. The Wizard returns from vacation where he wasn't told about what happened while he was away.

In the mid-credits, Frieda is shown trapped in the Arctic surrounded by love-struck elephant seals.

Release/Reception/Box Office:

The film was theatrically released on January 5, 2007 by Lionsgate and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 1, 2007 by Roadshow Entertainment. Freddie Prinze, Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar and Andy Dick were praised by critics for their performances in the film.

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 4% based on reviews from 80 critics. The site's critical consensus is: "Happily N'Ever After has none of the Moxy, edge or postmodern wit of the other fairy-tales-gone-haywire CG movie it so blatantly rips off."[6] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 28 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating “generally unfavourable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “C" on an A+ to F scale.

The film opened #6 behind Dreamgirls, Freedom Writers, Children of Men, The Pursuit of Happyness, and Night at the Museum, which was at its third week at the #1 position. The film made $6,608,244 during its opening weekend. The film made a total of $15,589,393 at the US box office and $15,300,096 foreign, grossing a worldwide total of $30.1 million on a $47 million budget, making it a box-office failure. By August 2010, the movie has grossed $38.1 million worldwide. It made $16.7 million in DVD sales in the United States.

My Review

From what I remember I watched this film when I was younger and I remember liking it then. I wasn't reminded of it until recently when I was sorting my movies out (getting rid of the ones I don't watch anymore, trading them in at CEX). My curiosity was enticed so I decided to give it a rewatch... and honestly it's not as amazing as I first remembered, but it wasn't bad. Honestly for an animated family picture it was pretty decent. Sure you could say that it's a ripoff Shrek, the movies were released in the same decade and there are quite a few similarities. I see that, a little. But I can see this more of a stand alone movie, sure the whole fairy tales crossover world is done quite a lot (*cough cough* Shrek and Hoodwinked (which Patrick Warburton also starred in {I'll be talking about this one soon})) but it's not the worst movie ever created. It's better than Shrek 3 if that's what you are thinking. The animation isn't too bad, I mean there are a heck of a lot better designs and animations in the cinema world, but it's not terrible like some that are best kept unknown...

I was pleasantly surprised. The cast, although the movie didn't do as well as it could've, were really into their performances. Like there are a lot of really big named actors and actresses in this; Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr, Sigourney Weaver, Patrick Warburton, Wallace Shawn, Andy Dick, etc. Like OMG, despite the smaller budget the creators had a lot of faith and determination in this project. Patrick Warburton as the Prince is amazing, he's the best character in this film.

Even though it was filled with generic fantasy styled score and cheesy indie 2000s music, the soundtrack isn't too bad. I mean the songs are forgettable, but I found them a joy to remember and bob my head to... I may or may not have added one or two to my phone.

{This one especially, it's a bop}

Other than that... yeah it's pretty darn decent and I will admit that this is a guilty pleasure/nostalgia trip for me. I recommend a watch if you wish it, just don't expect too highly of it because it is pretty predictable and the characters may be a bit generic and flat at times, but that's not always a bad thing... at least not to me anyway. 6/10!

BUT MY GOD THE SEQUEL IS SHIT, I haven't watched it myself but I'm not going to from pictures alone the animation is god awful, a major downgrade.