Sorry, but I can't see what all the fuss is about

Rating: Null/10 (9 April 2002)

This movie is really pretty formulaic, right down to the Eddie Murphy support character, (lifted from Disney's Mulan). It's enjoyable enough, and the bit with the family of birds gave me a grim chuckle. But I'm not convinced we've got anything that special on our hands here. When it was released critics seemed to be falling over each other to praise its deconstruction of the fairy tale myth. This doesn't strike me as anything that original. Postmodernism and irony have been part of Western cinematic tradition for quite a while now. So let's not credit the makers of this film too much on that front. In general I'd say that this film lacks the sense of charm, and universal appeal that a film like "Toy Story" is grounded in. And also, censoring lyrics from an, ill-fitting, cover version of Leonard Coehn's song "Hallelujah" didn't win it any points with me either.