Happily N'Ever After [Blu-ray]

Director: Paul Bolger Paul Bolger

Overview

Cinderella's wicked stepmother has tipped the balance of power toward the dark side in Fairy Tale Land, and now it's up to the put-upon princess to restore order and ensure that good triumphs in an animated adventure featuring the voices of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sigourney Weaver, and George Carlin. For years, the Wise Wizard has worked hard to ensure that the scales of good and evil were always well-balanced, but as with any hard worker the Wise Wizard needs a relaxing vacation every once in a while. When the Wise Wizard goes on holiday, his faithful assistants Munk and Mambo make the crucial mistake of allowing Cinderella's wicked stepmother, Frieda, come into possession of their master's magical staff. With time fast running out before Frieda casts a shadow of darkness and sorrow over Fairy Tale Land, Cinderella must now awaken from her romantic dreams to take on her fearsome stepmother with a little help from her best friend, Rick, and a virtual army of heroic dwarves and fairies.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/01/2007
UPC:	0031398211877
Original Release:	2006
Rating:	PG
Source:	Lions Gate
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound]
Language:	English
Time:	1:37:00

Special Features

Happily N'Ever After? - alternate ending; Deleted scenes: Lost in fairy tale land; 3 fun featurettes:; Journey of the Characters in the Enchanted Forest; Creating the Happily Story: Bringing N'Ever Afer to Life; From Storyboard to Fairy Tale: A Comparison; Director's commentary; Games from the department of fairy tale security:; Munk's Fairy Tale Fix; Mambo and Munk's Magical Matchmaker; Create Your Own Witch's Broom

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

George Carlin	Der Zauberer
Mike McShane	Rumpelstilzchen
Rob Paulson	Freund #2
Patrick Warburton	Prinz Humperdink
John De Maggio	Zwerg #1
Tom Kenney	Freund #3
Tress MacNeille	Hexe #1
Jon Polito	Wolf #1
Phil Proctor	Freund #1
Kath Soucie	Stiefschwester #1
Jill Talley	Stepsister 2
Sherry Lynn	Additional Voices
Kevin Richardson	Additional Voices
Mickie McGowan	Additional Voices
Bob Bergen	Additional Voices
Debi Derryberry	Additional Voices
Bill Farmer	Additional Voices
Laraine Newman	Additional Voices
April Winchell	Additional Voices
Jan Rabson	Additional Voices
Roger L. Jackson	Additional Voices
Jack Fletcher	Additional Voices
Andrew Dolan	Additional Voices
Shae D'Lyn	Additional Voices
Patti Deutsch	Additional voices
Jennifer Darling	Additional Voices
John Cygan	Additional Voices
Lee Arenberg	Additional Voices
Kathy Lamkin	Voices
Marietta Marich	Voices
Cyia Batten	Voices
Lew Temple	Voices
Paul Buckley	Composer

Technical Credits

Robert Moreland

Paul Bolger	Director
Robert Moreland	Screenwriter,Screenwriter
Wilhelm Auer	Producer
Chad Hammes	Producer
Peter Widmann	Producer
John H. Williams	Producer
Charlie Woebcken	Producer
Silke Zakarneh	Producer
Nicole Stinn	Producer
Louise Goodsill	Executive Producer
Ralph Kamp	Executive Producer
Nikolaus Weil	Executive Producer
Andre Sikojev	Executive Producer
Tom Ortenberg	Executive Producer
Ken Katsumoto	Executive Producer
Stefan Beiten	Executive Producer
Ruth Lambert	Casting

Editorial Reviews

Just when you thought the Shrek movies had said all there was to say in the genre of self-aware animated fairy tales, along comes Happily N'Ever After, which adds -- well, not much more, but enough to be worth making another movie? It's debatable. In terms of its financial resources, Vanguard Animation's Happily N'Ever After is more in line with the previous year's Hoodwinked, from Kanbar Animation. In other words, it's not really fair to compare it to a DreamWorks production like Shrek. The digital animation is relatively crude, the songs are bargain-basement thefts (Sopranos theme "Woke Up This Morning" is ripped off as a villain's march), and the vocal stars are the perennial B-list pairing of Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. -- 'nuff said. This Cinderella redux sputters out of the gate, with a heavy dose of Prinze's jokily self-referential narration, and a definite has-been quality to the scenarios. Even the supporting vocal talent seems pretty musty -- Patrick Warburton, Andy Dick, and Wallace Shawn are not only veterans of multiple animated movies, but have also played these same characters in those movies (a vapid stuffed shirt, a weaselly sidekick, a neurotic sidekick). But Happily N'Ever After does find its pace a bit in the second act, literally taking flight when a bunch of witches board their motor-powered broomsticks, trailing clouds of colored exhaust as they attack Snow White's cottage, defended by a combat-ready Seven Dwarfs. Their aircraft is not particularly original, either -- Harry Potter and the Star Wars films are both heavy influences -- but at least the context is somewhat new and interesting. In the end, that's the best Happily N'Ever After can hope for -- to find occasional bursts of originality within a played-out framework.