Happily Ever After (1989)

Happily Ever After
No, that's not Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Genre: Fantasy Musical Family Adventure Directed by: John Howley Produced by: Lou Scheimer Written by: Robby London Martha Moran Starring: Dom DeLuise Phyllis Diller Zsa Zsa Gábor Ed Asner Sally Kellerman Irene Cara Carol Channing Tracey Ullman Photography: Color Distributed by: Filmation Associates Release date: June 30, 1989 (Philippines) May 28, 1993 (United States) Runtime: 75 minutes Country: United States Language: English Box office: $3.3 million

Happily Ever After (originally released as Snow White: The Adventure Continues in the Philippines) is a 1989 American animated musical fantasy film written by Robby London and Martha Moran, directed by John Howley, and starring Irene Cara, Malcolm McDowell, Ed Asner, Carol Channing, Dom DeLuise and Phyllis Diller.

Plot

The Evil Queen is dead and Snow White is on her way to see the seven dwarves when Lord Maliss, the Queen's brother, sees her in the looking glass. He attacks her in the form of a dragon, taking Snow White's prince to the Realm of Doom.

Why It Won't Live Happily Ever After

1. The main problem with the film is the fact that it was made with little intention other than cashing in on the Disney animated canon. And unlike Filmation Associates' other film that was accused of being made with this purpose as well, Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, this film doesn't even try to make a new and compelling story out of a sequel of the story of Snow White. And instead, all it tries to be is a cash-in on the Disney classic's success. And similar to Quest for Camelot, this results in the film having no identity of it's own apart from trying to imitate another successful property and doesn't even know exactly what it wants to be for the most part; a blatant Disney clone or a sequel to the original film with completely nonsensical and out-of-place for the Snow White universe (an issue that will be discussed in much greater detail in WIWLHEA# 10).
2. As a result of it's main purpose being to cash in on Disney's Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs' success, the story is so unoriginal that it quickly becomes incredibly boring. Not to mention the massive amount of filler also present in the film. These two factors combined make the movie ultimately incredibly uninteresting and constantly dragging on to the point where it actually feels longer than it actually is.
3. The animation, while not outright "bad", has some major issues. As there are instances in the film where the characters' movements will come off as incredibly stilted and more often than not, the characters and the backgrounds for the film will not merge well (the latter of which being the more noticeable and prominent issue). Not to mention how the animation itself feels more like it was taken from the Disney animated canon than anything, and the concepts for the film's visuals are bland, boring, and where taken from the original Snow White from Disney (one of the many things this film takes from the Disney classic).
4. Laughable dialogue. An example being Thunderella's "He's gonna do something, horrible! I know it!"
5. The characters are incredibly bland and boring, when they're aren't outright pointless.
   • Snow White is just the generic kind-hearted heroine who's only motive throughout the entirety of the film is to rescue her prince something that Disney's Snow White would never do.
   • The Prince also has almost no personality and feels like a rip-off of, you guessed it, the prince from the Disney Snow White film and his hair is even a rip-off of He-Man.
   • Lord Maliss, while an entertaining villain for the most part and the most interesting character of the film, still has his moments of being goofy rather than threatening and his motive (him wanting revenge on Snow White for indirectly causing the death of his sister, the Evil Queen) could've been stronger. And said motive also doesn't make sense when you think about it because Snow White didn't cause the death of the Evil Queen, as she died when lightning struck the cliff that she was standing on and caused her to fall of the side of the mountain.
   • Batso and Scowl are unfunny comic reliefs that make Bebop and Rocksteady from 1987 tv show, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles look like amateurs.
   • There's also a huge amount of pointless side characters and comic reliefs that only contribute to the already enormous proportion of this film dedicated solely to pure filler. A major example of this being the Dwarfelles (the cousins of the seven dwarves), who contribute absolutely nothing the the film apart from Sunburn and Thunderella. Speaking of Thunderella, she's incredibly annoying and always whines about how bad she is at controlling her powers. And Scowl and Batso are unfunny comic reliefs who are the film's biggest contributors to it's filler.
6. The voice acting, while decent for the most part, still wastes the talents of the actors that worked in it. Irene Cara (as Snow White), Malcolm McDowell (as Lord Maliss), Phyllis Diller (as Mother Nature), Michael Horton (as the Prince), Dom DeLuise (as the Looking Glass), Carol Channing (as Muddy), Zsa Zsa Gábor (as Blossom), Linda Gary (as Critterina/Marina), Sally Kellerman (as Sunburn), Tracey Ullman (as Moonbeam), (as Thunderella), Jonathan Harris (as the Sunflower), Frank Welker (as Batso), and Ed Asner (as Scowl).
7. The audio mixing is incredibly awkward and noticeable (and not in a good way). Although this is rather rare in the film, the occasions when it does occur are incredibly noticeable due to how awkward and out-of-place it sounds.
8. Whenever the film tries to be funny, it often falls completely flat and comes off as either bland or forced instead. Such as whenever Batso and Scowl try to crack jokes.
9. Some of the characters' names here are rather absurd. The most obvious examples being Batso and Scowl, who are a bat and owl respectively and who's names are just plays on the names of their species (Batso is "bat" with a "so" at the end and Scowl is "owl" but with a "sc" added to the beginning).
10. The movie features an enormous amount of fantasy elements such as dragons and other things that feel completely out of place in the story of Snow White. Not only that, but since one of the original Disney film's greatest strengths is it's simplicity and how it manages to make the film a charming classic, the fact that this film happens to be (or is at least was made with the intention of being) a sequel to the original story and not a retelling like Snow White and the Huntsman, it feels like it's actually disregarding and disrespecting the original and passing it off as "just a fairytale". Heck, the original film even manages to be more interesting in spite of it's simpler plot!
11. The songs come out of absolute nowhere with no build-up to them whatsoever. Not to mention that they're still incredibly lazy and poorly written. They also feel like they're were shoved into the film for following the "musical animated film" formula that was especially powerful at the time. And yes, they are nothing but more filler.
    • Scowl's "The Baddest" is just a generic rap song.
    • "Thunderella's Song" is incredibly cheesy and is meant to be a "believe in yourself" number, as if the film was also trying to shove in an aesop as well.
    • "Mother Nature' Song" is a tango-like song filled with laughably bad puns and ridiculously corny lyrics.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Lord Maliss is an entertaining villain due to how hammy and over-the-top he is. Not to mention how he's easily the most interesting character in the film due to him being the only one who gets a backstory and real motive for his actions.
2. The whole idea of the Dwarfelles (a group of the cousins of the seven dwarves from the previous story who have elemental powers and are led by Mother Nature) is an interesting one, in spite of being poorly executed.
3. The animation does have it's perks, as most of the characters' movements are fluid and the surprisingly original character designs.
4. Decent voice acting for the most part.
5. Disney had no involvement with this film.

Reception

Happily Ever After received generally negative reviews from critics and audiences alike upon it's release. Criticizing it's soundtrack, plot, characters, and shameless attempts to cash in on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. During it's theatrical release, the film made a domestic gross of $3,299,382, making it a box office disappointment given it's substantial advertising campaign and having been expected to become "one of the biggest hits of the year".

Trivia

• The video went on moratorium 25 October 1996.
• This is the last production made by Filmation which was released years after they were shut down due to legal disputes.

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