Happily N'Ever After

Although it got hit hard by critics, I would recommend Happily N'Ever After for fairy tale fans.

Essentially, Cinderella's step mother takes over the wizard's tower, where she is able to overbalance the scales of good and evil and thereby take over the kingdom. Cinderella and friends have to save the day.

I think the main problem with the movie was that they really aimed too low. This is primarily a children's movie, and there isn't a lot of depth to really capture an adult audience. Of course, being who I am, I enjoyed the mixture of traditional fairy tales and the twists involved in all the bad guys suddenly being the winners. The voice acting was well cast, and the animation was more consistent than exceptional. (Possibly I am so used to the stylization of anime that American stylization just looks strange to me.)

I did think it was cute, and it got a few laughs out of me -- although I'm not sure that ALL of them were places I was "supposed" to be laughing! In the end, I would recommend it, at least if you're reading this, but keep in mind if you do watch it, it's really pretty fluffy.