Film Reviews

Happily N'Ever After

• Rating:
• Director: Paul J.Bolger, Yvette Kaplan.
• Starring: George Carlin, Sarah Michelle Geller, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sigourney Weaver.
• Details: US / Germany / 86mins (G).

** Preview ** With Shrek and Hoodwinked executing the post-modern take on the fairy tale with skill, you can't really blame producers of a similar project expecting the same level of success. Or can you? Knock offs, watered down rehashes and limp remakes always, always stink and the same goes for Happily N'Ever After. Set in Fairy Tale Land, whose population boasts every fairy tale character ever known, the happy endings of its inhabitants are overseen by a good wizard (Carlin). When he goes on holiday and leaves the job to his idiot students, the evil characters see their opportunity for revolution and, headed up by Frieda (Weaver), the wicked stepmother of Cinderella (Geller) - or Ella as she likes to be called – they put their plan into action. Ella, along with Rick (Prinze Jr.) and Prince Humperdink (Patrick Warburton) attempt to halt the takeover and ensure that happy endings return to the land. Being told that there are no preview screenings is always a warning sign and a little research shows why - the reviews haven't been kind to Happily N'Ever After. In fact they've been atrocious, with the dry humour and lacklustre animation suffering most of the abuse.

Review by Gavin Burke