Happily N'Ever After (2007)

  This was... not good.  I'm pretty sure I added it because I thought it was Queer Friendly, but it turns out that was just a product of bad animation.

Cinderella (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is destined to end up with a Prince (Patrick Wharburton).  That's the way the story goes, enforced by a wizard (George Carlin) and his two assistants, Munk (Wallace Shawn) and Mambo (Andy Dick).  But an evil stepmother (Sigourney Weaver) seizes power while the wizard is on vacation and it's up to Ella, the two assistants, and the kitchen dishwasher (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) to make things right.

This is the Fairy Tale of the Nice Guy.  Rick the dishwasher lives in the shadow of the prince, pining over Cinderella, and has convinced himself that she would be better off with him.  He gets pissed every time she mentions that she'd prefer the prince and takes every opportunity to drag that guy, who doesn't seem bad or even mean-spirited, just a little dumb and sheltered.  Because how dare she?  He's in love with her so she owes him her love in return.  There is no indication that she knows Rick beyond a passing acquaintance and zero real interaction.  She's polite, friendly, but never shows that she has a moment's feeling for Rick.  

It would be one thing if Cinderella and Rick were in love and she found out she was going to marry the prince anyway and needed to get out of it.  That I could see.  But she's excited for her future and Rick acts like a total asshole about it.

So plot-wise, this is not awesome, but it's mostly watchable thanks to Sigourney Weaver absolutely hamming it up as the evil stepmother.  She gives an A+ performance to a D- script.  Gellar is absurdly boring and spends most of her time just saying people's names over and over.  I don't want to hate on the animation too much, because it's clear that this was a small company and it was in 2007.  It does have a very specific style; it's just not one I care for.  I found it plastic and stiff.

It apparently did well enough to garner a sequel but I will not be adding it to the queue.  The original is streaming on Starz currently.