When the Wizard (George Carlin) takes a holiday from Fairy Tale Land and leaves his assistants Munk (Wallace Shawn) and Mambo (Andy Dick) in charge, everything that could go wrong does. Rick (Freddie Prinze Jr.) narrates as the Prince rsquo;s all around servant who just happens to be in love with Cinderella.
What happens when the scales of good and evil are tipped in favor of the bad guys? Well the bad guys take over, with Cinderella rsquo;s mdash; just plain Ella (Sarah Michelle Gellar) here mdash; evil stepmother Frieda (Sigourney Weaver) becoming the ring leader.
Once Frieda is in control, her main concern is making sure that Ella does not get her happy ending. With Mafia-style wolves, wicked witches riding souped up chopper brooms, and trolls that disco to the Monster Mash at Frieda rsquo;s disposal, Ella has to overcome a lot mdash; not to mention needing to find the Prince, who just happened to run off.
Prince (Patrick Warburton), who might be handsome but does not have a lot going on in that pretty little head of his, follows everything a little purple book tells him to.
Right away you can tell that Ella isn rsquo;t really meant to be with him. But we follow the story, enjoying our time spent with the ditzy Prince and secure in the knowledge that Ella will eventually make the right choice.
Even though Ella expects it to be the Prince, he isn t the one who comes her her rescue.
Rick steps up to take care of things even if in the end Ella does chose the Prince over him. But Ella realizes that she has to fight her own battles against her evil stepmother and in the last scene of the movie she stops letting the guys fight all her battles for her.
My favorite character is Rumplestiltskin, (Michael McShane) who wanders around carrying a baby he stole.
He is simply great, even with the baby humor. While Munk and Mambo are meant to be the comic relief for the good guys, they paled in comparison to the evil comic relief of the bad guy Rumplestiltskin.
Happily N rsquo;ever After has some smart lines, things that will fly over a kid s head, but things a parent would enjoy or at least appreciate. I like the idea of fairy tales gone bad and while this isn rsquo;t a perfect example, it is a family friendly, and very funny, version. The DVD also comes with all sorts of extra features including an alternate ending which you just have to see.
Does it all end happily? You ll have to watch and see.
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