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What’s the Story?

Reviewed by Cynthia Fuchs

According to the narrator, lowly dishwasher Rick (Freddie Prinze Jr.), HAPPILY N'EVER AFTER is a variation on Cinderella. Wicked stepmother Frieda (Sigourney Weaver) has grown weary of always "losing" the battle between good and evil in her much-repeated story. Seeking redress, she seizes the magical staff belonging to the wizard (George Carlin) and declares herself the winner. Frieda is proactive, calling together assorted villains -- trolls, wolves, witches, and a giant -- in order to thwart Ella (Sarah Michelle Gellar)'s happy ending.

Is It Any Good?

2

Rick's narration is colored by his own desire for Ella. But since she feels compelled to follow the plot of "the book" dutifully and repeatedly, she only has eyes for lunkheaded, big-chested Prince Humperdinck (Patrick Warburton). (He, for one, has no problem with his role, as he's able to admire himself as others do.) Only resentful Rick seems capable of imagining another option -- at least until he feels rejected by Ella, at which point the plot takes a pause while Rick sulks.

Oddly lackadaisical, Happily N'Ever After also has shoddy animation and an uninspired soundtrack. Everyone involved apparently worked only halftime: Weaver's evil cackle seems on a loop, a singing duet by Prinze and Gellar sounds like it was recorded on a four-track in someone's basement, and the wizard literally appears for two minutes at film's start before he smartly abandons the movie. You'll wish you had the good sense to walk out with him.

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