Happily Never After (Blu-ray) (2007)

"...extremely witty and imaginative...  Chad Webb, 411Mania.com
"Hilarious...a delicious family treat!  Film Advisory Board
"Colorful, crowd-pleasing toon.  Peter Debruge, Variety

Editor's Note For those who couldn't get enough of SHREK, HAPPILY N'EVER AFTER supplies a similar take on fairy-tale traditions. 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.

	Andy Dick - Voice Of
	David Dulac - Cinematographer
	Deane Taylor - Art Director
	Douglas Langdale - Writer
	Freddie Prinze, Jr. - Voice Of
	George Carlin - Voice Of
	Jill Talley - Voice Of
	John H. Williams - Producer
	Lisa Kaplan - Voice Of
	Patrick Warburton - Voice Of
	Paul Buckley - Original Music By
	Paul J. Bolger - Director
	Ringo Waldenburger - Editor
	Robert Moreland - Writer
	Sarah Michelle Gellar - Voice Of
	Sigourney Weaver - Voice Of
	Stefan Beiten - Executive Producer
	Yvette Kaplan - Director

Sight and Sound
"There's plenty of slapstick and action, while the script throws in some imaginative metaphysics..." 10/01/2007 p.58

Los Angeles Times 7 of 10
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...That "Happily N'Ever After" resembles "Shrek" at all is no accident, given that they share the same producer, John H. Williams...Even though Prinze and Gellar are real-life spouses, their computer-generated selves never quite click...Voice vets Shawn and Warburton do their best to provide some much-needed backup playing secondary characters, as does Weaver, who brings chutzpah to the film in her role as the "Empress of Evil." Design-wise, Weaver's scepter-wielding Frieda with her over-the-top bosom and impossibly high stiletto heels is an imposing sight who comes off as much dominatrix as wicked stepmother...Also fun is a battle royal involving the seven dwarfs taking on an aerial assault from a cadre of witches riding chopper-like brooms. - Alex Chun

ReelViews 6 of 10
The familiar fairy tales we were weaned on aren't good enough any more. First, Shrek playfully toyed with some of our old friends by having them interact in atypical ways with a big, green ogre. Then along came last year's Hoodwinked, which refused to leave poor Red Riding Hood alone. Now, Happily N'Ever After wants us to consider what might happen if a legion of bad guys were to band together in Fairytaleland to abolish happy endings. While I have no problem with a movie fracturing fairy tales, the results need to show more evidence of creativity and wit than what is on display in Happily N'Ever After. 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. - James Berardinelli