Should you bring the kids? Yes, although it drags a bit and kids might get antsy. It also contains plenty of crude humor, and the evil stepmother is quite provocatively dressed. For that reason, I don’t recommend it for kids younger than six. For more info, see "Bringing the Kids" below.

THE STORY: This movie is the ultimate anti-fairy tale. It takes place in Fairy Tale Land, where everyone is where they're supposed to be, doing what they're supposed to be doing. Cinderella (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is rockin' out at the ball. Rapunzel is letting her lovely hair down from the tower. And Sleeping Beauty is about to get that big smooch we're all familiar with.

But just as everything seems to be headed for happily EVER after, things take a turn for the worse. The wise Wizard (George Carlin) who keeps the scales of Good and Evil in balance goes on vacation, leaving his two assistants, Munk (Wallace Shawn) and Mambo (Andy Dick), in charge. But they slip up and let Cinderella's power-crazed Wicked Stepmother, Frieda (Sigourney Weaver), get hold of the Wizard's magical staff. Her evil plan: to take over Fairy Tale Land, let the Bad Guys win, and turn all the endings to Happily N'EVER After!

Truth be told, Mambo wouldn't mind shaking things up. "I just wish we could mix it up a little bit, ya know?" he says. "Make it a little edgier! THEN let 'em have their happy ending." He suggests making the seven dwarves seven feet tall and giving Rapunzel a dandruff condition.

With things all awry, Cinderella (Ella to her friends) has to figure out how to make things right. Although she spends much of the movie searching for Prince Humperdink (Patrick Warburton – "Puddy" on Seinfeld) to help her, she begins to realize that maybe THAT isn't the particular happy ending for her.

It just might involve her pal, Rick (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) – the Prince's servant who's secretly in love with Ella. Together, they enlist an unlikely army of Dwarves and other fairytale creatures to help restore the balance of Good and Evil.

THE WRAP-UP: Though similar in look to "Shrek" and "Hoodwinked," this movie falls woefully short of those two movies. It has some fun characters (most notably, Andy Dick as Mambo), but the storyline never really meshes, and drags for most of the movie. I wish they had kicked the girl-power up a notch by having Ella take matters into her own hands early on, instead of spending most of the movie searching for the Prince to help her.

BRINGING THE KIDS:

PRESCHOOLERS (ages 2-5): This movie was put out by the same folks who produced Shrek and Shrek 2, and you can tell. Most of the jokes (many of them crude) go over preschoolers' heads, and the female characters – especially Frieda the Wicked Stepmother – are quite provocatively dressed with plenty of cleavage. For that reason, I would stick with tried-and-true fairy tales for little ones. "Hans Christian Andersen's 200th Anniversary: The Fairy Tales," released in 2006, includes 30 newly animated classic fairy tales, including: The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, The Princess and the Pea, The Snow Queen, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Wild Swans, The Nightingale, and many more.

GRADE-SCHOOLERS (ages 6 - 10): This movie is really aimed at the grade-school crowd. Though the storyline drags and seems disjointed, it picks up in the second half with plenty of action (including some hand-to-hand combat involving trolls and dwarves!). On the plus side, seeing Ella embark on a journey of self-discovery and arrive at a new ending she never imagined…well, it just might have girls thinking about their own life path. Let's be real here. How often does Prince Charming sweep a girl off her feet?! Better to teach girls to make their own way in the world, so they're not burdened with unrealistic expectations about life.

TWEEN / TEEN (ages 11+): This movie has a fun soundtrack with many new songs, performed by Population Music, along with some oldies like Monster Mash and Disco Inferno. Still, it really skews younger.

SCORE: 2.5 out of 4 Reels