Sappy fairy tale meets Cynical New York.

Rating: 5/10 (28 May 2016)

I'll give this bloated ball of sugar one high five, making me laugh and gag at the same time. The animated opening had me checking the film's running time as a cloyingly sweet princess to be sings of "Happily Ever After" while the grating handsome prince prepares for his wedding day while a wicked queen plots to send her where there are no happily ever afters. That of course leads her to coming out of a manhole right in the middle of Times Square, causing me to become distracted by Broadway theater marquees (circa 2007), one ironically displaying "Wicked" which originally starred Idina Menzel who appears here in a non-singing role as the neurotic fiancée of the hero who happens to rescue princess Amy Adams after bumping into her during her struggle to figure out where the heck she is and what she is going to do.
Call me cynical, jaded, or even bitter, but I far more enjoyed the reactions of the New Yorkers as they responded to the strange characters all of a sudden wandering the streets. Of course, as New Yorkers are used to strange characters are roaming the streets but one thing we do not do unless it is on a Broadway stage or in a film like this, break out into song in the middle of the street. There is a slight gay sensibility to this that strives for camp, not always a good idea to do purposely. Some moments seem straight out of the West Village Halloween parade.
The songs themselves are rather mediocre, each sounding like the previous one and none of them really memorable. I am certainly praying that this is not in the lineup of Broadway musicals, because I certainly would like to see something fresh on stage not rehashed fairy tale stuff that has been done on stage over and over again. This also perpetuates the stereotype that women are princesses and must find their handsome prince in order to be happy, while the realism of the world is much stronger and creates much disappointment to the young girls who get used to this and find out that real life is not always happily ever after. In looking for handsome prince to sweep then way too, the girls obsessed with fairy tale like this find out the realism of the situation of what man and women are like in real life.
But there are some wonderful surprises, and I give the creators credit for trying something unique. I would have liked to have seen more of Susan Sarandon as the evil queen, joining in the ranks of Glenn Close, Sigourney Weaver and Anjelica Huston who have gone from serious dramatic roles to the deliciously campy. Sarandon get a glorious entrance and that I wouldn't mind seeing on stage, just not in a stage musical version of this.