“When Snow White’s father is matched up with Lady Vain – a scheming witch brewing to rule the kingdom – Snow White becomes a thorn in Lady Vain’s side. Only Snow White can foil her dad’s wedding to stop Lady Vain… Snow White proves she can rule the kingdom, while bringing balance back to the scales of good and evil”
– Happily N’Ever After 2 DVD Description.
Happily N’Ever After 2 is direct-to-video sequel to 2007’s Happily N’Ever After. Vanguard Animation produced the first film, but had no direct involvement in the production of the sequel. Instead, the sequel was produced by Vanguard’s secondary partners, Berlin Animation Film. None of the cast from the first film, including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Patrick Warburton, and Andy Dick, return for Happily N’Ever After 2. Cam Clarke, who has appeared in many of the movies on this blog, appears in Happily N’Ever After 2 in multiple roles under the alias ‘Kelly Brewster’.
Some thoughts from me (Potential spoilers below…)
I watched the first Happily N’ever After and I didn’t think it was really right for this blog. Not only does it not focus on the Princess character, it was also just a little boring. Happily N’ever After 2 is a better fit.
The plot revolves around Snow White, who in this version of the story is a superficial socialite who has trouble relating to the peasantry. She snubs visiting the orphanage with her father to go clubbing with her friends Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks, and Little Bo Peep. The main crux of the plot is that Snow White needs to learn that looks aren’t everything, and that it’s whats inside that counts. They lay it on pretty thick… they even go so far as to name the villain “Lady Vain”!
What’s great is that Snow White isn’t even that terrible. Yeah she’s a bit self-centred, but it’s not to a point where she’s being outright malicious. It comes across more as a mix of her feeling peer-pressured by her more jerkish friends and her just being a teenager who hasn’t quite learned how to pay attention to the needs of others. And yet, everyone acts like she’s an absolute terror.
She literally makes headline news because she and her friends ‘cut’ in line to get into a club. I say ‘cut’, but the bouncer invites them to jump ahead of the other club goers. I’ve never been clubbing (Which I’m sure is an absolute shock, a grown woman who spends her free time cataloging Bad Princess movies isn’t into the club scene), but from what I’ve seen in the media this seems to be sort of expected behaviour. Celebrities like Snow get special treatment, such as priority entry to clubs. I’m not saying this should happen, just that it does. So why is this big news? The worst thing that Snow White does in the film is under the influence of magic, so it’s hard to blame that one on her.
As you might expect, Snow White learns that it’s wrong to be jerkish to people, true beauty lies within, etc. The entertainment comes from how much of a ham-fisted attempt the movie makes to drive this moral home. On top of that, the animation is pretty sub-par. While the original Happily N’Ever After didn’t look great, it at least looked better than the sequel. If you like dead-eyed stares, you’ll love this movie!
So all in all, I’d definitely recommend taking a look at this one! It’s wonderfully clunky and out-of-touch, and that provides a solid amount of laughs that keep this one entertaining.
Bad Princess Movies 
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