Happily Never After, and cartoon rant.
It’s been a while since I’ve actually wanted to see a recent animated movie. Not since Shrek 2 have I actually waited around to see anything animation studios produce these days, because - almost inescapably - it’s all shit. Shrek 2 wasn’t even that good to begin with. But it signalled the end for my enthusiasm.
Happily Never After was, however, a kinda fresh idea. Shrek did the whole ‘let’s parody the classic fairy tales’ thing, but Happily Never After actually dove right into the core of the fairy tales, rather than take elements from them and incorporate them into an original story. Or, so the hype suggested.
Really, Happily Never After isn’t anything else than okay. The voice work is good, and some of the jokes are pretty funny, especially the opening, but the ‘humor’ really outstays it’s welcome when you realize the cartoony sound effects, corny puns and doofy villains aren’t really there for parody. The writers and animators truly believed this was funny. And sure, some animated movie fans might think so too - if they’re under ten years of age.
The animation wasn’t even that good, either. This is from the people who made Shrek, and Shrek had some really good animation for 2001. Shrek is a visually beautiful movie. Happily Never After just feels lazy. The backgrounds don’t appear interactive at all, just like map paintings, backdrops the characters move in front of. The facial expressions and body language don’t sync up to the voice work - which I blame the animators for, since the VO’s are really good, actually - and it just appears smooth and flat. Little interesting textures, and very cartoony over all.
There’s a fine line when it comes to successful animation. Madagascar was superb, because it was simple, but looked great, while The Wild absolutely failed because the textures were too lifelike and crowded, and didn’t fit the cartoony feel they were going for. It would’ve looked much better with animatronics. The case with Happily Never After, is that if they were going for a funny yet epic tale, comparable to Shrek, they should’ve stuck with the animation from Shrek. Stylized, maybe, but the textures and lighting would’ve looked great in a movie like this. If not, they should’ve just made it a cartoon.
I miss cartoons. Even though I’m not a kid anymore doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy cartoons and animated movies, and I’d love to see something good, even though I realize that children are the target audience, and the movies are structured thereafter. While I’m thrilled that Disney is giving up the whole ‘let’s release sequels to Disney Renaissance films’ thing, I’m gonna miss the cartoons. Pixar’s great and everything, but a real cartoon would be nice.
Oh… wait.
Maybe there is hope after all.
