Ever After (1998 film)
- Alternative Character Interpretation: When Danielle and the Baroness have a quiet heart-to-heart, it concludes with Danielle gently inquiring to her stepmother if she ever loved her father. To this, Rodmilla soberly sighs "I barely knew him". Is she being a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk and implying that she married him so quickly for the money? Or is it supposed to mean she bitterly envies that her step-daughter had more time with her father, while she was only married her new husband for a brief while before their time was cut short by his untimely death?
- Aluminum Christmas Trees: The manner Danielle rescues Henry from the bandits is certainly amusing, but it was inspired by a real-life moment from the 12th-Century
where a German king besieged the castle of his political rival, but a peaceful surrender was agreed with the women being allowed to leave with whatever they could carry so they lifted their husbands onto their shoulders and headed out of town. The king found this pretty funny and accepted the women's clever trick. - Crazy Is Cool: Leonardo da Vinci. Everything he says or does is awesome.Leonardo da Vinci: I shall go down in history as the man who opened a door!
- Hilarious in Hindsight. Lee Ingleby makes his film debut here as Gustave, Danielle's childhood friend. Meanwhile, the character of Prince Henry is a romanticized version of the historical Henri II of France, with his Arranged Marriage to Catherine de' Medici omitted. More than 20 years later, Lee Ingleby would play a more accurate version of Henri II in the Catherine de' Medici-centered series The Serpent Queen.
- Hollywood Pudgy: The way Rodmilla and Marguerite treat Jacqueline.
- Moral Event Horizon:
- After Danielle punches Marguerite for insulting her dead mother, Marguerite steals Danielle's copy of Utopia, the last thing her father gave her before he died. Rodmilla then gives Danielle a Sadistic Choice: the book gets burned, or Marguerite gets the shoes that belonged to her dead mother, the only memento Danielle has of her. After some thought, she silently hands the shoes over. That alone would be pretty rotten, but Marguerite crosses the MEH when she intentionally burns the book anyway just out of spite at Danielle punching her. Then Rodmilla crosses it when she holds back a tearful Danielle and forces her to watch the book burn when she tries to save it. After that scene, there was no way either of these characters could gain any sympathy in the eyes of the audience. But Danielle is still whipped afterwards. While Henry later reveals that copy of Utopia was actually from the castle library, it still crosses this.
- Rodmilla crosses it even further near the end. Right after having Danielle rejected and publicly humiliated by Prince Henry at the Mask, she then taunts Danielle mercilessly while the girl is doing her morning chores. When a tearful Danielle begs Rodmilla to tell her if she ever loved her, even for a moment, Rodmilla responds, "How could anyone love a pebble in their shoe?" She then tops this right afterwards by happily selling Danielle into slavery to her Stalker with a Crush! She so deserves her unhappy ending after this heinous act.
- One-Scene Wonder
- Jeanne Moreau as the French aristocrat who summons The Brothers Grimm themselves to tell them her own version of Cinderella — that of her ancestor.
- Princess Gabriella of Spain. She only appears at her wedding to Henry, but her hysterics and the realization that she is dealing with the exact same problem he is makes her very memorable.
- Special Effects Failure: Da Vinci's "walking on water" scene isn't exactly convincing — it's obvious he's walking on something solid that's just below the water.
