Happily N'Ever After (2007)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

So much average

Admirable film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The concept of fairy tales turned on their heads is absolutely nothing new. We saw it time and time again in the 70s and 80s, mostly on Saturday Morning cartoons (Rocky and Bullwinkle) or in children's books (Sesame street.) However, it was 2001's Shrek that brought that concept into mainstream movies as since its' release, we've seen lots of other "fractured fairy tale" films come out; some good (Hoodwinked) and others, not so much (Tortoise vs. Hare.)Vanguard Animation's offering in this genre is known as Happily N'Ever After where when the wizard who looks after all fairy tales and makes sure they go by the book leaves on vacation, all the fairy tale villains, led by Cinderella's conniving and power-hungry stepmother, here called Freida seize control. Now it's up to Cinderella, or as her friends know her, Ella and her friend Rick, the palace dishwasher to save the day. This is one of those films that while it has some things working for it, many of the choices the filmmakers made work against it. What works for it is the animation, which is very nice and colourful and looks like something you'd see on a stained-glass window or tapestry, as well as the voice acting, especially Sigourney Weaver as Freida and Patrick Warburton as the not-so-charming Prince.What works against it is, sadly, everything else. There are plot numerous plot holes throughout, such as the fact that Ella has never been to the palace before the ball, yet somehow knows Rick, or the fact that after the stepsisters angrily leave the ball when the Prince decides to dance with Ella instead of them, they are never seen or mentioned again. The animation is also reused many times, with the fairy tale book that opens and closes the story always flipping past the same pages. Furthermore, almost all of the jokes were clearly put in just for the kids ("we had to call it something and Canada was already taken", "Monk is a bossy know-it-all with a butt the size of a shopping mall.") If those above problems were fixed, we would've had something just as good as Shrek. You could say that this film is my guilty pleasure. You probably won't want to see it again after watching it, but I've seen it more than once, the reason being that I like to look at what we got and dream of the great film that we could've had.

I watched this movie on DVD as I was convinced it would be like Shrek, a movie I liked a lot. Not only is this a 'wannabe Shrek movie', it's an awful animation by itself. The animation was stiff, the voice-acting was poor, the story and script were painfully bad, some really horrible jokes that were intended to be funny sent shivers down my spine (e.g. the end of the tale/tail -> we get it: NOT funny!), ...Cinderella, who is supposed to be a nice character is a real bimbo. You don't really care about her. The narrator is so cynical that there is more eye-rolling in the movie than real acting.We were absolutely fascinated with this movie afterwards and started looking up reviews. This is 'The Room' of the animation films. So DO watch it, just to see how an animation movie should NOT be.We were even more amazed to find out there were all these extra's on the DVD with even a testimony by Sigourney Weaver telling she was positively impressed with the script and chose to play the evil stepmother because it was 'such an original and round character' while it actually struck us how cliché and black-and-white this character was. I couldn't shake off the impression that she wasn't entirely honest because her eyes did not support what her mouth said in that interview. It really looked like she had played in the movie of her rich cousin, blinded by his delusions of his own talent, and was afraid to refuse the part or admit the movie just sucked because she didn't want to hurt his feelings. Other interviews in the extra's simply avoided the subject of the movie itself and were all about "creating animation in Europe is so cool", "we had so much fun in Berlin", "Berlin's a real party", "blablabla".We were thunderstruck so we immediately watched the sequel (the available clips) on YouTube and it was even worse than this one. The animation looked really awful there. I've seen storyboards that looked more like animation. We were sooo surprised! "Why on earth would they want to make a sequel on this movie?!" I think they just wanted to extend the party in Berlin. This time, the movie was about Snow White in puberty. So I decided to rate this movie 2 stars for the simple reason that the sequel is still worse and deserves no more than 1 star.

Loved the animation, enjoyed the music and really like the whole idea behind the movie (what if fairy tales didn't follow their set storyline rules?) It just didn't come out a good as it could have. Some of the characters are too flat and their stories aren't detailed enough so you never really feel attached to them. They're clearly aiming for a Shrek sort of theme but the humor is just not funny most of the time. Also, here and there it gets a little boring because things are being repeated again and again. I gave it 6 out of 10 because it's certainly not a bad movie to watch with your kids, at home.

this is one of worst movies I've ever seen.. they could have had a better actor play the wizard and Peters was an awful person to play the step mother, they could have had Sarah Jessica Parker or someone from the sex in the city crew. I thought that twist in the movie was okay. it was more geared for little kids and it was a ridoulous story line. I wouldn't buy it for myself maybe if I had a kid but I don't think it was geared for adults and high school students, I chuckled maybe twice during the whole movie.I would not see it again if I had a chance. if you love kiddy/Disney movies. cars was a better movie. it was a waste of money, I wouldn't rent again ever. save your money. Gellar did a better job in Simply Irresistible. This was just as bad as Step sister from planet weird.