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Happily N'Ever After (2007)
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Lionsgate Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (12th June 2007). |
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The Film
 We all liked them, kids and adults alike. Then various producers saw the opportunity, starting to produce them in vast numbers and eventually affecting the overall quality. In recent years, you could add that we still like them - but only if they´re good. I´m talking about the CG (computer-animated) films, now part of the core business in Hollywood. “Pixar Animation Studios” started it all and led the way with “Toy Story (1995)” and so far ending up with “Cars (2006)”. Their newest feature “Ratatouille (2007)” will open this summer. Pixar´s quality has usually been outstanding and only a few other studios have really matched that. “Shrek (2001)” - with its sequels instantly comes to mind and films like “Antz (1998)”, “Ice Age (2002)” and “The Polar Express (2004)” did justice to the genre. “Happy Feet (2006)” looked great with a “different” approach, but left me somewhat cold. Now it feels that we´re in the situation where the new CG-anímated feature is coming every month and the quality is rather mediocre in many of them (e.g. “Open Season (2006)” and “The Wild (2006)” comes to mind from last year). Many would like to rewind a bit, to the times when almost every new CG-feature was a minor event. Now Hollywood is almost suffocating the whole concept. I have to admit, that “Happily N'Ever After (2007)” by director Paul J. Bolger and additional director Yvette Kaplan (co-director of “Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)”) was the film that went pretty much out of my radar. It´s produced by “Vanguard Animation” (their debut feature was “Valiant (2005)”). The film pretty much “bombed” at the US box office and is now getting the second chance in home theatres. Based on the different parties at the opening credits, the film is more like “US-German co-production”, with international crew. The film has a very interesting idea: What if all the loved and well-known fairy tales made known by the Brothers Grimm would have a totally different ending and even the “bad guys” would have the upper hand for a change? Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty, Rumpelstiltskin, Cinderella and other tales would be seen in a very different light. Also, what if all of those tales and especially their endings would be “controlled” by The Wizard (George Carlin - e.g. “Cars (2006)”) in the “Fairy Tale Land”? In the tower with The Wizard, there´s a magical “scale”, keeping the right balance of good and evil and always maintaining that “happy ending”. The Wizard is monitoring every tale. Elsewhere, the maid Ella (Sarah Michelle Gellar - e.g. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)“ TV-series and “The Grudge (2004)”) - or should I say Cinderella, is dreaming about the Prince Humperdink (Patrick Warburton - e.g. “Men in Black II (2002)”), while living under her wicked stepmother Frieda (Sigourney Weaver - e.g. “Aliens (1986)” and the upcoming “Avatar (2009)”). Near is her friend, the house servant Rick (Freddie Prinze Jr. - e.g. “Scooby-Doo (2002)” and the sequel, to both of which he also worked with Gellar). Ella´s dream is about to become true, when she´s getting the invitation from the Prince himself, of course to attend to the glorious royal ball (well, many of you know the rest). Now back to the tower with The Wizard, who´s about to leave for a brief holiday. He leaves his trusted, but playful, assistants Mambo (Andy Dick) and Munk (Wallace Shawn - e.g. “Toy Story (1995)” and “Toy Story 2 (1999)”) in charge. Of course, something goes wrong and the scale accidentally moves to the “evil”-side. The bored and power hungry wicked stepmother Frieda will find her way to the tower, where she´s realising the grand opportunity: She will twist the tales upside down and is sending a call to the “bad guy” from each of the fairy tales to join forces. Now the common “losers” of the tales - witches, trolls, wolfs and giants - are taking over the Prince´s palace and the whole faith of the kingdom is hanging in balance. Frieda also gets the assistant of her own, when the opportunist Rumpelstiltskin comes to her aid (with the baby, I might add). It´s time for Ella and Rick to step in and try to salvage the situation and they´ll get some help from the others also, even from some unexpected parties. It´s not easy to release a new CG-animation film in a very competitive market, especially when the audience is now so used to the certain pace and structure (and trusted sequels). The days of the old, more subtle Disney-animation are probably over and now the audience is expecting to see a fast-paced mixture of comedy and action and/or those different animals/insects/other creatures making a “journey” to the unexplored areas. There are probably some that are getting a bit bored to the whole “genre” and carefully read the reviews before going to the theatre to see them. The critics (apparently) didn´t particularly like “Happily N'Ever After”, but I don´t fully see the reason for all the major criticism (some of it, yes). Granted, the film eventually falls short from its original goal (which sounds clearly better on paper), but it can still be an entertaining film, with good characters/voices and a fresh visual look. The humour is also very slightly “black” in some scenes (the film is rated “PG”), which at least appealed to me. Perhaps the European involvement shows in this sense (the original concept was actually quite dark based on the director). If the major idea of the story is that everything is suddenly somewhat “twisted”, I feel that the overall feel should also lean to that direction. For those parents who are wondering, the film is pretty much “kid friendly”, but at least for the first time it´s good to see the film with them (e.g. Rumplestiltskin (Michael McShane) and the wolves can be a bit scary to the youngest ones, even when they´re not really “bad guys”). The film is ultimately suffering from its pace, which starts off rather slow and then picking up the pace with the selected “action-scenes” that feels too “planned” and calculated - also too light and not very exciting. It feels that the action scenes don´t seemingly incorporate into the story, they´re merely added here-and-there - just to bring that “action” to the audience. The story works in some areas - and I can´t blame the characters, but as a whole it doesn´t reach the finish line. It just doesn´t deliver what is promised. Something is lacking and all the different “areas” of the story are too isolated from each other. Of course, even when the film cost approx. $47 million, compared to e.g. “Cars” ($120 million) it´s still a “low budget” CG-animated-movie. This probably meant that some ideas simply “had to go” and sadly it shows on the final product. The use of music is also a bit flawed. There´s one scene that you could call a “musical montage” (the other is found from the “deleted scenes”), but it´s again “out of place”. Also the “modern pop music” doesn´t fit for the film in the first place. What I like about the film is its visual world, reminding the “old school drawing”-style, especially the background. Colours and lightning are wild and sometimes quite “experimental” with plenty of contrasts. To me the style is a nod to the old classics, but still adding a fresh, modern look. It may be lacking some of those polished and perfected (with time and money) qualities e.g. from the Pixar-productions, but the route that “Happily N'Ever After” chose visually is a good one, supporting the story. It´s just too bad, that the screenplay couldn´t fully live up to the artistic and technical values.
Video
“Happily N'Ever After” is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen (1080p 24fps) and is using MPEG-2 compression. These CG-animated-productions are usually what you could call “reference material”, due to the fact that they´re fully digital from start to finish. In other words, CG-animations are closest to “perfection” in HD. I can´t vouch for every CG-animation on HD and nothing is ever perfect, but at least “Happily N'Ever After” looks nearly flawless. It has very strong and vivid colours, let alone black levels and the image is sharp and clean. You really have to start looking some “issues” and perhaps some small details in the background can get a bit restless during the film and some of the fine textures are not complete “smooth” (they shimmer a bit). All this is still mainly just something you have to look for and “Lionsgate” has provided a quite stunning transfer. There´s no visible compression or edge enhancement issues. Bitrate seems to be around 20-24 Mbps, sometimes peeking more and sometimes less. The film is using “BD-50”-disc and there are 16 chapters. The film runs 87:05 minutes. Note that the disc is confirmed to be "Region A" (packaging states disc is "Region 1”). Review equipment: Sony Bravia KDL-40W2000 LCD (1080p) + Playstation 3, via HDMI cable.
Audio
3 audio tracks are included; English DTS-HD Master 5.1, English Dolby Digital 5.1 (at 640 Kbps) and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (at 640 Kbps). English and Spanish subtitles are included. I watched the movie with DTS-HD track, which was downconverted to 1536 Kbps DTS (equal to “full bitrate” DTS from the selected standard DVDs). At this point my receiver can´t support the full DTS-HD-audio, but fortunately the HD tracks are backwards compatible. It´s hard to find any real “faults” from the audio either, which is punchy and clear, offering also some directional cues (with some pans with the dialogue) and nice surround-activity. The audio is not super-aggressive to my ears, but the various action-scenes deliver in that front also and they´re “loud”. Satisfying mix, which should please for the audiophiles also. Note, that unlike many earlier HD-releases by “Lionsgate”, DTS-HD-track is now “Master” (not “High Resolution”).
Extras
Blu-ray-release ports almost all the extras from the SD DVD-release. It´s only missing two additional “Games”: “Mambo's Memory Mix-Up” and “Create Your Own Witch's Broom” (and some “bonus trailers”). Note, that “Witch's Broom”-game is listed on the back cover instead of “Choose Your Own Fairy Tale”. All extras (except “Games”) are presented in 480p standard definition. Extras don´t include any subtitles. First you can choose from two customised menus, where you could choose “Good” or “Bad” menu screens (each menu is then “hosted” by characters of the film). -Audio commentary by director Paul J. Bolger is pretty good, mainly because he´s so easy to listen to and also informative. He started the project in 2001 with some early designs back in his home in Ireland and then he moved to storyboards. The first, “darker” concept of the story changed when “Vanguard Animation” came on-board and the production took lighter, more cartoonish and “kid friendly” tone. He talks plenty of different techniques, which includes e.g. matte paintings (many backgrounds are hand painted and then incorporated to 3D CG) and key frames (performances of the character) and also generally about the visual style (when the “evil” takes over in the film, the lighting and colour change). The colours are often “pushed”, with a lot of contrasts and they tried to achieve a somewhat “hand made”-look. Some of the characters are also deliberately more cartoonish than others (also visually) and there are some “inside jokes” and references to e.g. earlier animations. The casting process was already done when Bolger fully stepped in, but he has no complaints on the choices. Most of the voices were recorded separately, but at least Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr. did some of their scenes together (based on the extras). He also speaks how the different actors gave many opportunities for the animators, since the voice is a big part of each character. The original actor of Rumplestiltskin died, so the voice of the character has to be re-cast. -“Journey of the Characters in The Enchanted Forest” -featurettes run 16:20 minutes with “Play All”, but can be viewed also separately (all are basically interviews with director Paul J. Bolger): *Development of the Characters (8:53 min): This is the “tour” of the different characters of the film, their look and costumes. You´ll see e.g. some early drawings. *Posing Out the Action (2:35 min): Introduces some drawings and storyboards, which were made for the animators (like instructions and guidelines of some sort). *Playing Out the Part (1:49 min): Shows the different “walking-techniques” that the characters had. They were often recorded to video first, again to help the animators to achieve something similar. *Color, Light & Effects (3:02 min): What the title says. Focuses on the different styles of the film that were achieved by e.g. colours and lights. “Good” a bit more yellow-ish, while the “bad” is more green-ish. Often the “evil” is also underlit. -“From Storyboard to Fairy Tale: A Comparison” -featurettes run 3:02 minutes with “Play All”. With these 3 scenes you can see “storyboard”, “layout”, “animation” and “final render” at the same time via split screen. Scenes are: *Dance on the Ball (0:36 min) *Frieda´s Takeover (1:02 min) *Meet the Dwarves (1:23 min) -“Creating the Happily Story: Bringing N'Ever After to Life” -featurettes run 11:52 minutes with “Play All”, introducing some of the members from the cast & crew (some interview-segments have also some footage from the voice recording-sessions). For some reason the interviews look really blurry (so much for HD): *Sigourney Weaver (2:03 min) *Freddie Prinze Jr. (2:42 min) *George Carlin (1:19 min) *director Paul J. Bolger (2:13 min) *co-writer Robert Moreland (1:50 min) *animation director Dino Athanassiou (1:42 min) -7 Deleted Scenes are next (sadly, not in HD) and they run 7:14 minutes with “Play All”: *Tipping the Scales (2:13 min) *Prince or Rick (0:58 min) *Hiding (0:26 min) *Sidekick (1:05 min) *Karate (1.00 min) *Fairy Godmother (0:53 min) *I Love Her (0:35 min) -Happily Ever After? - Alternate Ending (2:16 minutes) is also included. Part of this ending is actually included in the film, after the end credits have rolled for while. -“Games from the Department of Fairy Tale Security” is the only section of extras that are in 1080p. These 3 “interactive games” work mainly within the menu structure (I assume) and are quite simplistic (often “choose answer”) stuff: *Munk's Fairy Tale Fix *Mambo and Munk's Magical Matchmaker *Choose Your Own Fairy Tale This disc is packaged in a standard Blu-ray case (comes in a cardboard slipcover).
Overall
“Happily N'Ever After” is undoubtedly a flawed CG-animated film, promising more than ever delivers, but it´s not a “bad film”. I find the film a perfectly suitable way to spend a rainy afternoon, just when you want to watch some light entertainment with a few laughs and good visual galore (and it has Sigourney Weaver). The world is full of more mediocre cartoons and animations. The Blu-ray-release looks and sounds great, including some decent amount of extras, so pretty good effort in that department. If you´re looking for that “reference material”, this transfer is at least close. For more info, please visit the homepage of Lionsgate Home Entertainment.
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