| Happily N'Ever After | |
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 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by |
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| Written by |
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| Based on | TheFairy Tales by
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | David Dulac |
| Edited by | Ringo Hess |
| Music by | Paul Buckley |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Lionsgate Films[1] |
Release dates |
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Running time | 87 minutes[1] |
| Countries | |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $47 million[3] |
| Box office | $38 million[3] |
Happily N'Ever After is a 2006 animatedfantasyadventurecomedy film directed by Paul J. Bolger, produced byJohn H. Williams, and written by Rob Moreland. It is inspired byfairy tales of theBrothers Grimm andHans Christian Andersen and loosely based on the 1999 animated German television seriesSimsala Grimm.[4][5] The title is the opposite of astock phrase,happily ever after; the name is contracted with anapostrophe between the N and the E. The film stars the voices ofSarah Michelle Gellar,Freddie Prinze, Jr.,Andy Dick,Wallace Shawn,Patrick Warburton,George Carlin, andSigourney Weaver. The film was one of Carlin's final works before his death in 2008.
Lionsgate theatrically releasedHappily N'Ever After in the United States on January 5, 2007. The film was panned by critics and grossed $38 million worldwide against a production budget of $47 million, becoming abox-office bomb. Despite its negative reviews and poor performance, it was followed by adirect-to-video sequel in 2009 calledHappily N'Ever After 2: Snow White—Another Bite @ the Apple.
The story begins with the idea that theWizard controls all of thefairy tales and governs the Scales of Good and Evil, an artifact that maintains the balance of all good and evil in Fairy Tale Land. With the help of his assistants, the uptight Munk and the rascally Mambo, the Wizard checks to make sure that all the fairy tales under his care are "on track" to have their traditionalhappy endings. However, the Wizard announces his leave forScotland for a little vacation, so he leaves the kingdom and its stories in the hands of Munk and Mambo. Though Munk intends to have the stories go by their traditional endings, Mambo desires for the characters to break free of their pre-destined fates and choose different endings.
Right after the Wizard's leave, both Mambo and Munk fulfill their duties by watching over the story ofCinderella taking place. As per tradition, known as Ella, the character lives as a servant to her haughty stepmother, Frieda, and her equally mean stepsisters. Too fearful to stand up for herself, Ella often dreams of the Prince who will rescue her from her life and sweep her off her feet. However, unknown to Ella, she is pined after by her best friend Rick, a servant of the Prince, and the Prince in question is buffoonish and chauvinistic. As a result of Rick's efforts, Ella is invited alongside her stepfamily to the ball, but Frieda refuses to let the girl go. Fortunately, theFairy Godmother arrives and grants Ella a gorgeous dress, as well as glass slippers to wear, on the condition she returns home before midnight.
However, the fairy tale suddenly falls off-track during the ball when Munk and Mambo’s shenanigans attract Freida to the Wizard's lair, leading to her stealing his Staff and discover his book of fairy tales. Once she realizes what will happen to her if Ella succeeds in marrying the Prince, she unbalances the Scales, causing multiple fairy tales to go wrong and have unhappy endings, including Ella’s. She summons an army ofTrolls, evilwitches, threeBig Bad Wolves, theGiant, andRumpelstiltskin to her castle. Ella finds out and tries to enlist Rick's help, but Rick, frustrated with her affection for the Prince, refuses, so she escapes to the woods where she meets the exiled Munk and Mambo. They both explain the situation to her and decide to find the Prince (who, unaware of Ella's identity, is searching for his "mystery maiden"), in hopes that he will defeat Frieda. Meanwhile, Frieda sets her villainous army out to capture Ella, causing Rick to have a change of heart and go rescue her.
The trio find theSeven Dwarfs' home, only to discover Frieda's army waiting there for an attack. The Seven Dwarfs help the trio defend themselves from the attackers, and they successfully escape with the help of Rick. Unfortunately, after the battle, Rick and Ella have another falling-out over the Prince, with Rick insisting the Prince is not the hero they need. Ella refuses to believe his claims and leaves him so she can find the Prince herself, but after listening to Munk and Mambo's retelling of her original story, Ella grows uncertain if that is what she wants in life, suddenly realizing Rick’s feelings for her. With some encouragement from Mambo, Ella decides to go after Rick. However, Frieda, angered by her army's inability to capture Ella, decides to go after her herself. Frieda succeeds in kidnapping Ella, but Rick, Mambo, and Munk manage to sneak into the castle to rescue Ella, and together the foursome enter a battle with Frieda over the staff.
During the struggle, Frieda knocks Rick out with a blast from the staff, but she accidentally creates a portal and loses the staff as she struggles to fight against Ella. Ella, finally fed up with Frieda's treatment of her, punches her in the rift, banishing her from Fairy Tale Land forever and setting the stories back in place. After Rick wakes up, he and Ella both confess their feelings for each other, while the imprisoned fairy tale characters (including the Prince) drive out the villains.
With the Scales tipped back into balance and the kingdom regained, Ella and Rick decide to choose their own destinies in a world of happy endings and get married, while a few other fairy tale characters (including the reformed Rumplestiltskin) start to follow suit. Finally, the Wizard returns from vacation, and both Munk and Mambo agree not to tell him about the events that occurred.
In the mid-credits, Frieda is shown trapped in the Arctic surrounded by love-struckelephant seals.
In 2000, Berlin Animation Film (a subsidiary ofDresdner Bank) wanted to invest their funds (allocating at $100,000,000) in animated projects, and were interested in using the funds on a film adaptation ofSimsala Grimm. Greenlight Media was looking to sell the series to the United States, so they partnered with Berlin Animation Film andJohn H. Williams ofVanguard Animation to produce the film. Williams told writer Rob Moreland about the film, to which Moreland suggested that the story would revolve around the Wizard going on vacation and Yoyo and Doc Croc messing up the fairy tales' happy endings, which would result in the villains, led by Cinderella's stepmother, causing mayhem and taking over the land of Simsala.[5][6][7]
The film was to be produced intraditional animation like the series, only with the art style and backgrounds based on the art of Dutch painters to give it a storybook feel. Hahn Film AG, which helped produce the animation for the first season ofSimsala Grimm, was set to provide lead animation production.[8][9] Animators and concept artists were hired in early 2001. The concept artists, including Mariano Gabriel Vidal,[10] Sahin Ersoz,[11][12][13][14][15] Ralph Niemeyer[8][16] and Paul J. Bolger, produced early designs and storyboards for the film.[17] Niemeyer spent 2001 working alone on his designs while the story was still being developed.[8] In addition to concept designs, Bolger helped Hahn Film train their crew to international standards.[17]
Simsala Grimm creators André Sikojev, Stefan Beiten and Claus Clausen wrote the first draft for the script, which had a darker tone in contrast to the series' light-hearted tone. The draft was rejected by Williams and co-producer Michael Hefferon, and Vanguard commissioned a new comedic draft, written by Moreland.[18] Gerhard Hahn and Sahin Ersoz were initially considered to direct to the film,[19][20][21][11] but were replaced with Bolger, who was offered the position as director in January 2002.[5][22][23]
Several actors signed on to provide voices for the film. The cast includedAndy Dick as Yoyo,Wallace Shawn as Doc Croc,Freddie Prinze Jr. as Rick,Sarah Michelle Gellar as Ella,Patrick Warburton as the Prince,George Carlin as the Wizard, andSigourney Weaver as Frieda.[5][6] Gellar and Prinze Jr. recorded some of their scenes together.[24][25]Robert Michael Jeter was initially set to voiceRumpelstiltskin, but died on March 30, 2003, so the role was re-cast withMichael McShane.[25][26]
In October 2002, Greenlight was affected by theearly 2000s recession, causing financial issues and disruptions to their projects.[27][8] They were looking for other companies (such asMillimages and Magma Films Ltd) to produceSimsala Grimm's second season at the time, so they decided to back out of producing the film, and sold the rights and interest of the film to Dresdner Bank, although they would still hold back-end participation.[27][7][19][20][21] Berlin Animation Film handed its projects over to its new subsidiary, Berliner Film Companie, which employed 100 animators. Rainer Söhnlein was hired as Berliner Film Companie's CEO to supervise and finish the film.[28][7][19][20][21] All connections toSimsala Grim were removed, with the name of the film being changed toHappily N'Ever After, the story being rewritten, and Yoyo and Doc Croc being replaced with the new characters Mambo and Munk (whose designs were partially influenced byTimon and Pumbaa fromThe Lion King[29]).[19]
Even with the film having all references toSimsala Grimm removed, Hahn Film remained on board as the lead animation provider during this time. Concept art and designs, storyboards and animation tests for the new film were done by Ravinder Kundi,[30] Jean-Paul Bondy,[31] Miguel Alaminos Hódar,[32][33]Nancy Beiman,[34] Christian Kuntz[35][36][37][38] and Tahsin Ozgur.[9]
Due to the growing success ofcomputer-animated films, which were seen as more profitable during the early 2000s, the 2D animated version ofHappily N'Ever After would get scrapped by John H. Williams as atax write-off. The project switched over to the new computer animation format; Hahn Film was fired from the project, and 100 animators were laid off, but Paul J. Bolger remained on board as the film's director.[5][8][39] Some rough animation and the entire 2D storyboards had already been completed by that time.
IDT Entertainment's animation unit, Digital Production Solutions, was originally set to provide the computer animation production services for the film.[40][41] When the work was given to them, the company refused it, deeming it unacceptable.[9] A new CGI production studio was formed within Berliner Film Companie. Vanguard brought on J. Chad Hammes to co-produce the film for Berliner Film Companie after finishing his work onValiant. The 3D film was animated usingAutodesk Maya and rendered withMental Ray atMental Images.[5][6] Bolger helped out with the animation process, providing footage of the actors' recording sessions to the crew to use as reference for animating the characters, and drawing the designs for the fairy tale book's illustrations, which were painted by one of his friends.[42] Additional animation and visual effects were produced at The Lab Sydney,[43]Method Studios,[44] Mr. X,[5] Elliott Animation,[45]Nitrogen Studios,[5][6] Quadriga FX andBardel Entertainment.[46]
It has been believed that the film was originally set to be distributed via Vanguard's distribution pact withThe Walt Disney Company which had released the studio's 2005 debut filmValiant, but distribution rights were eventually secured withLionsgate in early 2006,[47][48][49] with help from the film's foreign sales distributor, Odyssey Entertainment.[5]Happily N'Ever After marked Lionsgate's first theatrical animated film.
Feeling that the film wasn't where it needed to be in its current state,Yvette Kaplan andDoug Langdale were hired by the distributor to direct and write additional material.[5][50][51][52][9] Langdale stayed in Los Angeles to write the new script, while Kaplan spent four months in Berlin working at Berliner Film Companie, where she, along with Ringo Hess, re-edited the film in full. Once the first redraft of the script had been completed, Kaplan directed the storyboards and animation for the new scenes.[52]
She returned to Los Angeles, where she directed the scoring of the film, working with composer Paul Buckley on the new music score.[53][54] The original music score, supervised byJames L. Venable, and composed by Andy Carroll, Nick Amour, Phil Sawyer,[55] Will Johnstone, Danail Getz, Tricia Holloway,[56] Michael Patti, Robert Puff, David G. Russell andJennifer Kes Remington,[57] was largely scrapped. Kaplan voice directed some of the original actors for the new scenes, while Langdale handled the direction for the other actors. Kaplan oversaw the final audio mix atSkywalker Sound.[52]
Production wrapped in April 2006.[58][59] According to author Rolf Giesen,Happily N'Ever After was the most expensive animated film in Germany, and cost €44 million as a result of its delayed production.[20][21]
The film had a premiere inWestwood, California on December 16, 2006, followed by its North American release by Lionsgate on January 5, 2007.[60]
The film was released onDVD andBlu-ray byLionsgate Home Entertainment on May 1, 2007. It made $16.7 million in DVD sales in the United States,[3] and drew 17,000-20,000 viewers in Germany, with 200 copies released.[7][20][21]
As of 2022, the film has received a 6% onRotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 81 critics. The site's critical consensus is: "Happily N'Ever After has none of the moxy, edge or postmodern wit of theother fairy-tales-gone-haywire CG movie it so blatantly rips off."[61] OnMetacritic, the film has aweighted average score of 28 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.[62] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale.[63]
Many critics have also unfavorably compared the film to theShrek series. Matt Zoller Seitz ofThe New York Times wrote that "Anyone who dismisses the 'Shrek' movies as lowbrow junk should seeHappily N'Ever After, a cartoon feature that apes those films' visuals, soundtrack choices and rude jokes, while throwing away their sweetness and conviction[...] the filmmakers are content to repeat fairy-tale tropes in a smug directorial voice."[64] Writing forEmpire, Simon Braund felt that "[The film] comes up severely wanting, a perfectly workable premise[...] hamstrung by lazy plotting and limp dialogue that ill-serves a solid voice cast. It looks good, but lacks the essential wit, sophistication and invention to make it fly."[65]
Peter Debruge ofVariety was more mixed on the feature, praising the film's voice acting and dialogue, but criticized "...its insincere love story" and "over-sexualized character design".[66] Writing forLos Angeles Times, Alex Ching found that a few of the vocal performances were enjoyable, but criticized the romance between the two main characters and felt the celebrity voice cast was "[...] not nearly enough to shake the feeling that 'Happily N'Ever After' is the last hangover from the animation glut that was 2006."[67]
The film was released inthe first week of the year on January 5, 2007, and it opened #6 behindDreamgirls,Freedom Writers,Children of Men,The Pursuit of Happyness, andNight at the Museum, which was at its third week at the #1 position. The film made $6,608,244 during its opening weekend. The film made a total of $15,589,393 at the North America box office. On a $47 million budget, the movie grossed $38.1 million worldwide, making it abox-office bomb.[3]
Ruth Lambert was nominated forBest Animated Voice-Over Feature Casting at the23rd Artios Awards for her work on this movie.[68]
Adirect-to-video sequel, titledHappily N'Ever After 2: Snow White—Another Bite @ the Apple, was released on DVD on March 24, 2009 byLionsgate Home Entertainment.
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