Sarah Michelle Gellar

Starring the voices of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sigourney Weaver; directed by Paul J. Bolger

Call me rash but I wager the worst flick of 2007 is Sarah Michelle Gellar’s latest clunker, Happily N’ever After.

A low-budget animation turd not-so-coincidentally timed for the one-year anniversary of the similar fairy tale parody Hoodwinked, this Shrek wannabe is a badly-written, badly-animated disaster.

In Fairy Tale Land, happy endings are governed by a magic wizard and his animal sidekicks in the tower of Cinderella’s would-be castle. One tragic day, however, the wizard decides to go on vacation, allowing Frieda The Wicked Stepmother (Sigourney Weaver) to usurp his power by rewriting classic fables Rapunzel and Rumplestitskin so that the badguys temporarily win. It’s up to the castle’s prince-envious dishwasher Rick (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and rags-bound Ella (Gellar) to reverse this PG-rated evil plot, as if there’s any chance otherwise).

Lately everything Ms Gellar has touched has turned to Scooby-Poo. I’d blame it on her anemic taste in scripts but that’d be far too fair. Sarah Michelle’s nonexistent performance as the bland heroine Ella is typical of her pedigree of film roles (The Grudge, The Return, Scooby-Doo) and is the heart of what’s wrong with this turkey. How you can care about a story when the voice of its hero is uninspired, weak-willed and frequently misplaces her inflections?

Gellar’s hubby is tolerable by comparison but the rest of the big stars, particularly Weaver as the scheming stepmother and Patrick Warburton as the bumbling Prince are grating one-note jokes. This is not recommended for kids of any age as there is a serious risk it could permanently impair their imaginations.

Rating: 0 stars out of 5