The film is so self aware and pseudo hip that it's incredibly annoying. It uses every cutesy "hey look at me" film class 101 trick, including bad narration from Freddie Prinze Jr.
Happily N'Ever After (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:76
Fresh:3
Rotten:73
Average Rating:3.1/10
Consensus: 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.
Theatrical Release:Jan 5, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $15,519,841
Synopsis: Set in Fairy Tale Land, this comedy features the heroes and villains of stories from Rumplestiltskin to Sleeping Beauty. The job of the wizard (George Carlin) is to ensure everyone has happy... Set in Fairy Tale Land, this comedy features the heroes and villains of stories from Rumplestiltskin to Sleeping Beauty. The job of the wizard (George Carlin) is to ensure everyone has happy endings. But when he leaves on vacation, he entrusts his tasks to his inept assistants, and Cinderella's evil stepmother (Sigourney Weaver) begins to wreak havoc on the endings of fairy tales. Though she's interested in menace in general, she particularly wants her stepdaughter, Ella (Sarah Michelle Gellar), to suffer. She vows to keep her from Prince Charming (Patrick Warburton), much to the delight of his servant, Rick (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), who is in love with Ella himself. HAPPILY N'EVER AFTER takes aim at the stories everyone knows by heart. Here Prince Charming needs a guidebook to behave like royalty, with Warburton fashioning a delightfully doltish contrast to traditional romantic heroes. Character actor Jon Polito plays a big bad wolf who could have been an extra on GOODFELLAS. As the wicked stepmother, Weaver turns decades of experience playing strong women into portraying this archetypal baddie. With its celebrity voices, HAPPILY N'EVER AFTER is an amusing reversal of Disney's fairy-tale films of the past. [More]
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze, George Carlin
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze, George Carlin, Andy Dick, Michael McShane, Patrick Warburton, Wallace Shawn, Jon Polito
Director: Paul J. Bolger
Director: Paul J. Bolger
Screenwriter: Rob Moreland
Producer: John H. Williams
Composer: Paul Buckley
Studio: Lions Gate Films
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Reviews for Happily N'Ever After
The only real laughs are supplied by the Seven Dwarfs, who are portrayed as hillbilly garden gnomes.
This movie is the worst kind of offender: it thinks its funny and clever, but it is neither. The filmmakers have mistaken banality for wit and silliness for humor, and that doesn't begin to address how visually clunky this motion picture is.
From the producers of the Shrek series comes this annoying Shrek ripoff, a wannabe fairytale spoof with no imagination.
If children will sit still for 'once upon a time' in a book, why does it all have to be dumbed down (and turned up) for the screen?
Shrek this ain't. A lacklustre effort hampered by limp dialogue and lazy plotting.
The film aims for sassy but lands in soggy, the victim of lazy scripting and pacing.
Putting a spin on classic fairy tales is nothing new, and unfortunately that's just what the Shrek-lite animated feature Happily N'Ever After brings to the big screen.
Limping into theaters at the least admirable time of year, the film is a disaster on a scale we may not have seen yet in this genre. That would make it a new low.
When played with stale jokey-jokes and lame one-liners, as it is here, it’s not funny at all.
Tolerable, but far from magical, "Happily N'Ever After" is just another one of what is becoming a genre: Lackluster CGI_animated films.
Not counting derivative, obnoxious, poorly animated, and woefully unfunny, what Happily is most of all is dull.
As an animated film, it may share the bright palette of a Disney feature, but its computer animation lacks the polish and detail of a Pixar film.
You expect a certain amount of sugar and snark in a modern children’s film, but this tossed-off retelling reeks of folks just out to make a cheap buck.
The computerised animation is cut-rate; the script keeps piling on clunker jokes that even toddlers will find lame; and Prinze proves he isn’t any better an actor in two dimensions than he is in three.
The wizard appears for two minutes at film's start before he smartly abandons the movie. You'll wish you had the good sense to walk out with him.
Inexperienced youngsters will be content with Happily N'Ever After, but their parents will recognize a pale, B-movie variation of the far-superior Shrek films.
Latest News for Happily N'Ever After
June 23, 2008:
George Carlin: 1937-2008
George Carlin, the award-winning comedian, actor, and author responsible for one of the most groundbreaking routines in the history of American comedy, has passed away at the... More...
April 28, 2007:
Trailer & Poster review ![]()
More...
January 19, 2007:
Weaver Joining Cameron's "Avatar"?
Sigourney Weaver is having a busy year: Not only is her voice in theaters now, as the wicked stepmother in "Happily N'Ever After," but she'll also be seen in the... More...
January 11, 2007:
Box Office Guru Preview: Can Sony "Stomp" the "Museum?"
Can Ben Stiller and his living artifacts four-peat at the top of the North American box office, or will one of the new releases take the crown over the four-day Dr. Martin... More...
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