Ella (Sarah Michelle Gellar) lives with her stepmother (Sigourney Weaver) and two stepsisters in the fairy tale kingdom.
The entire fairy tale world is presided over by The Wizard (George Carlin) and his apprentices Mambo (Andy Dick) and Munk (Wallace Shawn). All of the happy endings are kept in place by balancing balls that must remain in place or everything will go out of balance.
Prince Humperdink (Patrick Warburton) announces a ball to be held so that he can find a partner.
At the same time, The Wizard decides to go away on a holiday, leaving Mambo and Munk in charge.
It isn't long before Mambo, while playing around carelessly, knocks the balls out of balance, and from then on, everything starts to go wrong.
When Ella's stepmother learns that things are a little off, she decides to write and create her own story, tipping things in her favour.
The film, narrated by the Prince's servant Rick (Freddie Prinze Jr.), then turns the story we know and love on its head.
The script by Rob Moreland & Doug Langdale is clever enough, at least in its initial premise. They have done a pretty good job at creating three-dimensional characters with real emotions and real conflicts. Sadly, this is about the only part of the film I can feel comfortable in recommending.
The music (by Paul Buckley & James L. Venable) isn't bad, but nor is it spectacular either. The film feels a bit over-scored in my opinion, and not at all in a good way (not that there really is a good way to over-score a film).
The animation itself is even sub-par, especially considering what computer animation is capable of. I realise this is a slightly older film, but earlier computer-animated films leave this one for dead.
The voice cast are okay, but not great. There is little sense of characters playing off one another, and very little chemistry between any of them.
If I didn't have to watch this film in order to review it, I probably wouldn't have bothered.
3 out of 10.
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