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Happily N'ever After

Director: Paul J. Bolger
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr.
Rated G
87 minutes


Everyone has them. Those warning bells/spidey sense that tell us something is not right. When it comes to movies definite red flags should go up when you see rave reviews by sources you’ve never remotely heard of, like a radio station in Newark or an online movie review site. The only thing worse is when a movie’s greatest boast is “from the producer(s) of…” this desperate plea clings to the hopes that the sucker… er, viewer liked the previous movie enough to shell over some cash for an inferior product. Such is the case with Happily N’Ever clinging to a flimsy connection with the top notch Shrek films.

And this is coming from a sucker for animation, especially fractured fairytales, and the trend of kids animated features written for adults ala, Shrek and Incredibles. Happily N’Ever however offers little better than a cheap knockoff. It’s unfortunate since it started strong with a joke about wanting to call Fairytale Land, Canada, but it was taken. Then they bust into a They Might Be Giants theme song.

From there the fractured Cinderella story has lots of potential, unused potential. Sure there are moments of goodness, but for the most part instead of exploring the fracture, the film dwells on shoving the “you don’t have to be a prince to save the day” moral down our throats. In the end, you’ve seen worse, and you’ve definitely seen better. If nothing else rent Hoodwinked, a far superior fractured fairytale that takes on Little Red Riding Hood.

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