Genre Criticism

Happily Never After

Plot

The story begins with the idea that the Wizard (George Carlin) controls all of the fairy tales and maintains the balance of good and evil in Fairy Tale Land. With the help of his assistants the uptight Munk (Wallace Shawn) and the decidedly goofy Mambo (Andy Dick), the Wizard is checking to make sure that all the fairy tales under his care are "on track" to have their traditional happy endings. As we meet him however, the Wizard is leaving for Scotland for a long-overdue vacation. He leaves the kingdom in the hands of Munk and Mambo.

Ella is a girl who is better known as Cinderella (Sarah Michelle Gellar). She lives as a servant to her step family, dreams of the Prince (Patrick Warburton) who will sweep her off her feet. Her best friend at the palace is Rick (Freddie Prinze, Jr.), the palace dishwasher. Rick takes it upon himself to deliver the invitations to the royal ball to Ella. Ella sees Rick only as a friend, but Rick secretly loves Ella, although he is too cool and proud to admit it. Rick can't really understand what Ella likes about the Prince. Rick's Three Amigos, the comic chefs in the palace kitchen, believe that Rick has a bad case of "Prince envy". The Prince does everything by the book, and plans to meet his maiden at the ball.

However, things don't go as planned at the ball. Thanks to the assistants, Ella's evil stepmother, Frieda (Sigourney Weaver), gains access to the Wizard's lair during the Prince's ball. She manages to chase off Munk and Mambo and tip the scales of good and evil, causing a series of fairy tales to go wrong and have unhappy endings including Jack getting stepped on by the Giant (John DiMaggio), Little Red Riding Hood being eaten by the Big Bad Wolf, and Rumpelstiltskin (Mike McShane) winning his bet with the miller's daughter and takes her baby. She summons an army of Trolls, witches, 3 Big Bad Wolves, the Giant, and Rumpelstilkskin to her castle. Ella finds out and escapes to the woods, where she meets Munk and Mambo. The trio set out to find the prince who has gone looking for his maiden (not knowing it was actually Ella), in hopes that he will defeat Frieda and save the day.

Together, they flee to the Seven Dwarfs' home. Witches and trolls led by The Ice Queen attack them. The dwarfs hold off the trolls, while they flee with the help of Rick who had stolen a flying broom. Frieda decides to go after Ella herself. She succeeds in capturing her and returns to the palace, with Rick, Munk and Mambo in pursuit. Frieda tortures Ella because if the story had run its course she would have married the prince while Frieda would never get anywhere in life. Rick, Munk, and Mambo slip into the castle and attack Frieda. During the fight, Frieda generates a pit in the floor. Mambo knocks her in, but she uses her staff to fly back up again. After a short battle, in which Rick takes a blast meant for Ella and falls into a deep sleep, Frieda creates a portal by accident. Ella knocks Frieda back and punches her into the portal. Rick awakes from the spell and he and Ella kiss, finally admitting their feelings for each other.

Ella and her true love Rick decide to choose their destinies in a world of happy endings and get married. Rumpelstiltskin has shown throughout the movie that he has come to care for the baby, and the miller's daughter lets him stay in the castle as the baby's nanny. The Wizard returns from vacation where he wasn't told about what happened while he was away.

In the final scene, Frieda is shown trapped in the Arctic surrounded by elephant seals.

Analysis

Genre criticism analyses a piece according to its genre. Happily Never After is considered to be a fairy tale. Here are the characteristics of a fairy tale. Just like a typical fairy tale it started and ended with the special words like "once upon a time," and "they lived happily ever after." The story takes place in the castle and in the forest. It has a good character which is the protagonist of the story. In this film Ella is our good character.There is also a character which is a royalty. In the film, it is Prince but he is not the leading man. Magic is involved. In this case, the evil step sister took hold of the magic staff of a wizard that manages the fairy tale world. Lastly, the story revolves around a single plot. The films main plot line is about Cinderella's struggle from the cruelty of his step mother. With just slight bit of a twist from the original tale.