Happily N'Ever After
Lionsgate | Release Date: January 5, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
28
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
9
Negative:
13
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
VarietyPeter Debruge
Colorful, crowd-pleasing toon. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This movie is the worst kind of offender: it thinks its funny and clever, but it is neither. The filmmakers have mistaken banality for wit and silliness for humor, and that doesn't begin to address how visually clunky this motion picture is. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Happily was begun as an old-fashioned 2-D "flat" cartoon and then switched by producer John Williams (of "Shrek") and director Paul J. Bolger to 3-D during production. The style finally is an uncomfortable amalgam of both. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesAlex Chun
Putting a spin on classic fairy tales is nothing new, and unfortunately that's just what the "Shrek"-lite animated feature Happily N'Ever After brings to the big screen. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
In all, it's a peculiar mishmash, simultaneously bland and suggestive. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsElizabeth Weitzman
While the cast members, Dick and Prinze in particular, have fun with Robert Moreland's sassy script, the exaggerated, unappealing animation seems to belong to another movie altogether. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
After the first hour or so of strained puns and wisecracks, you start feeling that the sooner the ending comes, the happier it will be. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubTasha Robinson
Even Eddie Murphy's endless hyper "Shrek" vamping is more entertaining. Read full review
40
EmpireStaff (Not credited)
Shrek this ain't. A lacklustre effort hampered by limp dialogue and lazy plotting. Read full review
38
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Who would have thought an animated comedy satirizing the predictable nature of fairy tales could be so grim? Read full review
30
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
Winds up answering the question of what "Shrek" hath wrought, and between its plastic-looking visuals and cynical attitude, the news isn't good. Lacking the genuine wit and humanism of that film and any number of forebears, this one deserves its dumpin'. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
N'ever was an apostrophe so misplaced, n'ever was the prospect of good cheer so perversely defeated.
30
The New York TimesMatt Zoller Seitz
This is another tired kidsploitation product. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The rationale behind this unattractive animated comedy, a U.S.-German coproduction, seems to be that since it can't create a fairy-tale world of its own, it might as well riffle through many of the more familiar ones, with particular emphasis on Cinderella's, pretending to deconstruct them with postmodernist glosses, adolescent wisecracks, and a few high-tech anachronisms. Read full review
25
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
As stiff and slogging as animated films come. Read full review
25
New York PostLou Lumenick
An ugly, unfunny, headache-inducing fairy-tale spoof. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
The best that can be said of this charmless animated picture is that whether or not it ends happily -- an outcome you're unlikely to give a hoot about -- it does, happily, end. Read full review
25
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Happily N'Ever After carjacks "Cinderella" and puts her wicked stepmother behind the wheel. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeTy Burr
A pallidly "hip" revision of classic fairy tales that would be better told straight up if anyone had the nerve. It will divert small children, but so will a brightly colored object if you twirl it. Read full review
20
Village VoiceElla Taylor
Director Paul J. Bolger and screenwriter Rob Moreland have drained the affectionate wit out of the Shrek franchise's satire, giving us instead a barely sketched out story line and quantities of unimaginative CGI. Read full review
16
Entertainment WeeklyGregory Kirschling
Stuffed with stock characters -- the vain prince, the critter sidekicks -- who adamantly stay stock. Read full review
0
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
If you really want the kids to see a colorfully cryptic meta fairy tale, be subversive and go rent 'em some Alejandro Jodorowsky. No child deserves Happily N'Ever After. Read full review
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