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The Reel Tim Massett
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by kellie abrahamson kabrahamson1@aol.com
C- Rated PG 87 min.
I love fairy tales. I’m a girl, it’s part of my DNA. Happily N’Ever After takes what we know about classic fairy tales and lets us see what they would be like if the bad guys actually won for a change. It’s a great idea… too bad the film fails to deliver.
All’s quiet in Fairy Tale Land. The heroes are saving damsels in distress. The heroines are meeting princes and becoming princesses. The evil doers are getting what’s coming to them. But, when the wise old Wizard (George Carlin) who runs things decides to leave his two assistants Munk (Wallace Shawn) and Mambo (Andy Dick), in charge while he goes on vacation, all heck breaks loose. A certain wicked stepmother named Frieda (Sigourney Weaver) gets her hands on the Wizard’s magical staff and decides to let the bad guys win for a change. Meanwhile, Cinderella (Sarah Michelle Gellar) teams up with her best friend and Prince Charming’s (Patrick Warburton) snarky servant Rick (Freddie Prinze Jr.) to put an end to Frieda’s scheming. The duo end up discovering that their happy ending isn’t quite what anyone (other than audience members over the age of 5) expected.
Many times when I’m sitting in a theater watching a children’s movie, I use my own kids as barometers. If I’m not laughing but they are, I tend to cut the movie some slack since it’s clear I’m not the target audience. This happened with Happily N’Ever After. I sat there and maybe cracked two or three smiles during the first half of the film and wondered if it was me. Maybe I just wasn’t getting it. As I paid closer attention to the reactions of the crowd and my own children, it was clear that it wasn’t me. The film is just not that funny, even when it tries to be. My kids laughed out loud twice which says a lot for the comedy here. There is quite a bit of adult humor that flies right over the heads of children, but also fall flat with those that the gags are aimed at. Rick, for example, harbors a huge crush on Cinderella and bags on the prince from the very start. This prompts a supporting character to quip that the young man suffers from “Prince envy.” Hardy-har-har.
The story itself was handled clumsily. I realize this is a children’s movie, but the evil doers were more silly than sinister much of the time, making the heroes quest seem less important than it’s supposed to be. Sure, the castle was filled with big bad wolves and ogres, but the kingdom itself never really seemed to be in any danger. Maybe if Frieda had caused the land to go into eternal darkness or something, I would have cared more about what happened to Fairy Tale Land. As it is, not so much. Perhaps this was a clever allusion to the political state of the US: the castle being the White House, the wolves being Republicans, the evil being conducted behind closed doors instead of in your face, etc. Maybe not. Either way, I was unimpressed with the dilemma the good guys faced and honestly didn’t care if they saved the day or not.
Nothing seemed to fit or flow together. It’s as if they threw a bunch of scenes in a hat and pulled them out at random to create the finished product. The pacing seemed off from beginning to end. At the height of the action (if you can call it that) a boring, lovey-dovey music video interrupts the story. It was a pointless addition in relation to where the story was at the time and any momentum that was built up went crashing right into the ground as the first notes played.
There are some good points about Happily N’Ever After. The casting was terrific, particularly Sigourney Weaver, whose voice is extremely effective in this role. Freddie Prinze, Jr.’s performance is also noteworthy, as his narration drives the plot and provides a couple of chuckles. I was also quite tickled with the character Rumpelstiltskin (Michael McShane). Thanks to Frieda’s meddling, the dwarf ends up getting his hands on a baby, who he becomes very protective of and frequently pauses his maniacal laughter in order to calm the child. It’s goofy but it was just weird enough to evoke a laugh out of me.
I dug the concept behind Happily N’Ever After. I love twists on fairy tales and I’m always up for seeing the bad guy get the upper hand, for at least a little while. But, without a solid script and proper editing, the film is dead in the water. I strongly recommend waiting for the DVD release rather than seeing this film in theaters.
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