Happily N'ever After
Jun. 17th, 2007 10:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreHappily N'ever After is the latest(to my knowledge) entry in the retelling Fairy Tales with attitude movie trend...you know, Shrek, Hoodwinked, Ella Enchanted, endless TV movies and minis, etc. I loved the first Shrek, really liked the story but hated the animation on the second, I adore Hoodwinked, I liked Ella Enchanted, I love 10 Kingdoms and have found a variety of the other fairy tale TV movies and miniseries to be likable enough, but I have to say, much as I love the subgenre(and we aren't even getting into Fables, Lullaby or Castle Waiting, as they're all comics, much less all the novels...) but it's entirely possible that the trend is starting to wear itself out.
HNA is set in a fairy tale world where, by keeping the scales of good and evil perfectly balanced, good always wins and all stories end happily. Of course, this set off my trouble meter less than 5 minutes in, as, if the scales are perfectly balanced, how the heck does good manage to always and unconditionally win? Moving on...the wizard in charge of keeping the scales balanced decides to go on vacation, leaving his two apprentices in charge just as the latest Cinderella's story is about to take place. Ella, of course, is hopelessly in love with the local prince, a nice but utterly useless fellow, while RIck, a ckitchen boy, is hopelessly in love with Ella. On the night of the ever so famous ball, the Wicked Stepmother(voiced by Sigourney Weaver and by far the best part about the movie) overhears the two apprentices bickering over the scales(one accidentally almost got the frog prince eaten by fooling around) in a tower and, when she investigates and finds out what's about to happen, kicks the apprentices out, steals the wizard's staff and tips the scales in the favor of evil. Thinking that only a true hero(read: prince) can save them, Ella sets off to find the prince, who the stepmother sent away, and Rick sets out after Ella.
The movie is amusing enough, but is very much a "because these are popular these days" piece. I doubt I'll remember much beyond the stepmother being kinda cool and the animation reminding me of the 7th King's Quest game(I think the 7th...the one where Rosella goes to the other world and gets turned into a troll and her mother follows her to save her) which is a point in it's favor. Part of the problem is that Ella's supposed to be strong and sympathetic if all about the wrong guy and Rick is supposed to be brave, clever and snarky, but Rick has maybe 2 good lines and both characters really just seemed shallow and petty. And the apprentices, while amusing, were pretty generic. At only 80 minutes, it's no loss to watch it, and it's amusing and diverting enough, but, ehile not bad, there's nothing great or exceptionally stand out about it.
Oh, and Sarah Michelle Gellar is anorexic when animated, too.
In other news, it reminded me that I had started watching Shelley Duvall's Fairy Tale Theatre(mostly rewatching so far, actually) last year, but then I got sidetracked by dorama...I should get back to that.
ETA: In the alternate ending, the Prince's name is revealed to be Humperdink. This raises the movie a notch or two.
HNA is set in a fairy tale world where, by keeping the scales of good and evil perfectly balanced, good always wins and all stories end happily. Of course, this set off my trouble meter less than 5 minutes in, as, if the scales are perfectly balanced, how the heck does good manage to always and unconditionally win? Moving on...the wizard in charge of keeping the scales balanced decides to go on vacation, leaving his two apprentices in charge just as the latest Cinderella's story is about to take place. Ella, of course, is hopelessly in love with the local prince, a nice but utterly useless fellow, while RIck, a ckitchen boy, is hopelessly in love with Ella. On the night of the ever so famous ball, the Wicked Stepmother(voiced by Sigourney Weaver and by far the best part about the movie) overhears the two apprentices bickering over the scales(one accidentally almost got the frog prince eaten by fooling around) in a tower and, when she investigates and finds out what's about to happen, kicks the apprentices out, steals the wizard's staff and tips the scales in the favor of evil. Thinking that only a true hero(read: prince) can save them, Ella sets off to find the prince, who the stepmother sent away, and Rick sets out after Ella.
The movie is amusing enough, but is very much a "because these are popular these days" piece. I doubt I'll remember much beyond the stepmother being kinda cool and the animation reminding me of the 7th King's Quest game(I think the 7th...the one where Rosella goes to the other world and gets turned into a troll and her mother follows her to save her) which is a point in it's favor. Part of the problem is that Ella's supposed to be strong and sympathetic if all about the wrong guy and Rick is supposed to be brave, clever and snarky, but Rick has maybe 2 good lines and both characters really just seemed shallow and petty. And the apprentices, while amusing, were pretty generic. At only 80 minutes, it's no loss to watch it, and it's amusing and diverting enough, but, ehile not bad, there's nothing great or exceptionally stand out about it.
Oh, and Sarah Michelle Gellar is anorexic when animated, too.
In other news, it reminded me that I had started watching Shelley Duvall's Fairy Tale Theatre(mostly rewatching so far, actually) last year, but then I got sidetracked by dorama...I should get back to that.
ETA: In the alternate ending, the Prince's name is revealed to be Humperdink. This raises the movie a notch or two.
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Date: 2007-06-20 03:51 am (UTC)