Happily Ever After (film)



Happily Ever After was an unofficial sequel to Disney's Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs, produced in 1988 and released in 1993 by Filmation. As the studio had actually gone under in 1989, the movie was also Filmation's last project. As with most Filmation productions, it featured low budget animation and a typical high fantasy/adventure setting, though to get away from the Disney setting, it took some serious plot detours.

The movie opens literally as the previous story ends with Snow White and The Prince are off to go get married after the death of the wicked Queen. Unfortunately, just as this is taking place, the Wicked Queen's brother Lord Maliss pays a visit at his sister's home and gets caught up on the state of events. Naturally, he vows revenge on Snow White. He kidnaps the Prince but loses Snow White. She ends up back at the house of the seven Dwarfs, who are actually absent for the film as instead their cousins, the seven elementally powered dwarfelles have moved in. This leads to one big girl posse chasing down Lord Maliss to rescue The Prince. Along the way, they are followed by a hooded individual named the Shadow Man.

As you might be able to tell from the plot summary, the film takes more than a few liberties with the fairy tale's setting.

The movie was critically panned upon its release due to its rather cliche story and the low quality of the animation. Despite bombing hard at the box office, the film did manage to develop a cult following on VHS.

Tropes included:
"Snow White: THAT'S Mother Nature?!"
 * Action Girl: This Snow White has quite a bit more spine than other incarnations; many people regard this as one of the few good qualities of the movie.
 * An Aesop: Smoking is evil, mmm'kay?
 * Artistic License Biology: Scowl, who's male, lays an egg.
 * Avenging the Villain: Maliss's motive.
 * Dead Little Sister
 * Beware the Nice Ones:
 * Big Damn Heroes:
 * Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Scowl and Batso.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: Mother Nature, despite a tendency to blunder her experiments badly (and dancing like a hippie slut), is the most Badass character around.

"Thunderella: He was sooo terrible! Blossom: Unbelievable my dear! He was wearing last year's cape!"
 * Butt Monkey: Scowl. Sunburn to a lesser extent.
 * Call a Smeerp a Rabbit: Snow White calling Maliss' dragon form a 'bird'.
 * The Cassandra: Shadow Man, at first.
 * Catch Phrase: Sunburn's "X burns me up!"
 * Covers Always Lie: The dwarfelles are way bigger than the cover suggests. Plus, they made Shadow Man appear to be the Big Bad of the movie.
 * Darker and Edgier: Tried, at least.
 * Dark Is Not Evil: Shadow Man?
 * Disney Death:
 * Distressed Dude: The thrust of the film's plot is the heroes storming Lord Maliss' castle to rescue the Prince.
 * Doomy Dooms of Doom: Lord Maliss rules the Realm of DOOM--oom--oom--oom--oommmm....
 * Earn Your Happy Ending
 * Elemental Powers: Five of the dwarfelles; the other two are more unorthodox. You can guess their powers just by looking at their names: Sunburn, Muddy, Blossom, Marina, Thunderella. Then there is Critterina, who can command animals, and Moonbeam, who, well, controls the moon.
 * Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Prince.
 * Expy: The Shadow Man looks like an older version of Orko.
 * The Prince also looks a bit like a less buff version of Prince Adam.
 * A lesser known example, but Batso looks and acts almost exactly like Belfry from Filmation's Ghostbusters.
 * Scowl is the cigar-smoking animal minion of the main villain that's meant to show the harmful effects of smoking, just like Outlaw Scuzz from Bravestarr.
 * Eye Beams: Again, Maliss.
 * The Fashionista: Blossom.


 * Five-Man Band: The Dwarfelles can fall into this:
 * The Hero - Sunburn
 * The Lancer - Muddy
 * The Big Guy - Critterina
 * The Smart Guy - Blossom
 * The Chick - Marina and Moonbeam
 * Tagalong Kid - Thunderella,
 * Team Mom - Snow White
 * Mentor Archetype - Mother Nature
 * Mysterious Protector - The Shadow Man
 * Four-Temperament Ensemble: Snow White and the dwarfelles with tangible personalities. Snow White is melancholic, Thunderella is phlegmatic, Sunburn is choleric and Muddy is sanguine.
 * Heel Face Turn:
 * Hoist by His Own Petard:
 * "I Want" Song: "Get It Right".
 * Incoming Ham: "WWWWWWWWWWWHAAAT'S GOING ON HEEEEEERE?!!"
 * Large Ham: Maliss. Malcolm McDowell, people.
 * Limited Animation: Hoho, of course.
 * Loving a Shadow: Snow White ends up falling for Shadow Man hard.
 * Minion with an F In Evil: Batso and his inability to grasp the concept of "being bad".
 * Mix and Match Creatures: Rhino-wolves! And the creatures spawned by Mother Nature.
 * Mythology Gag: Igor from Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night appears very briefly in Mother Nature's garden.
 * Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Scowl gets in the way of Maliss chasing Snow White, thus letting her escape. The prince still gets screwed.
 * Then there's the scene near the end.
 * No Indoor Voice: Maliss, a lot.
 * Owl Be Damned: Scowl the owl. Although for all his boasting about how "bad" he is, he's pretty incompetent.
 * Panty Shot: Done a lot with Thunderella, for some unknown reason.
 * Power Incontinence: Thunderella's main gripe.
 * Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Snow White.
 * Scaled Up: Maliss' favored mode of transportation and attack is to turn into a red dragon, and unlike most examples, it was actually pretty effective up until Scowl interfered.
 * Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Mother Nature is prone to this.
 * Shapeshifter Swan Song:
 * Shoo Out the Clowns: Scowl and Batso have no involvement whatsoever in the climax of the film.
 * Storming the Castle
 * Surrounded by Idiots: The goons that the Wicked Queen has left to Lord Maliss (who seem, by the way, suspiciously similar to the ones who worked for Maleficent) are even more bumbling than the dwarfelles -- particularly Scowl.
 * Taken for Granite: Maliss' Nightmare Fuel-inducing cloak at the climax of the film.
 * Talking to Himself: Critterina and Marina, Moonbeam and Thunderella.
 * Tsundere: Sunburn.
 * Villain Song: "Bad". More like Mook song, though.
 * Walk Into Mordor: Averted. One DOES simply walk into the dark, dreary, dangerous Realm of Doom.
 * You Monster!: Spoken by Snow White to Maliss