Movie Review: "Once Upon a Mattress"

Synopsis: Lady Larken (Zooey Deschanel) is expecting...but she isn't married! To avoid shaming the kingdom, she and her fiancée must wed; the only problem is, the queen of the kingdom (screen legend Carol Burnett) won't let anyone say "I do" until her son finds a bride...and Mother Dearest is making it nearly impossible for that to happen! Out of desperation, the price ventures into a faraway land and finds the Princess Winnifred (Tracey Ullman), whom he is immediately smitten with...but, the queen isn't impressed! She sets up an impossible test for the princess: Winnifred will sleep on top of twenty mattresses, under which there is a single pea.  If Winnifred falls asleep, she fails...and the queen does everything to make her insanely tired! Everyone in the castle has been waiting forever and a day to get married...but, if the princess doesn't pass this seemingly insurmountable test, they'll be waiting even longer! Can she do it?
Also starring screen legend Tom Smothers.

The Good: This was a fun musical adventure, with great musical numbers, amazing choreography, and a winning story.  Having two stars of yesteryear among the cast was a big plus, and gave this a classic feel.  Though the ending is obvious from the outset, seeing the finale made me want to cheer nonetheless.  This film even taught me a new word--incipient--which rarely happens these days, as I have a large vocabulary. All in all, I had a blast with this, except...

The Bad: I didn't like how a pregnancy outside of marriage was a main plot device.  Also, there's a scene with a sex talk of sorts, though both of those topics were handled with very old-school decorum.  The biggest concern, however, was the outfits of the female characters; too many low-cut dresses were seen.

Conclusion: I grew up on songs from Broadway musicals; my mom was a big fan, so, I heard tunes from productions ranging from The Phantom of the Opera to Les Miserables to even Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat countless times.  I'm sure I was the only kid I knew who knew who Michael Crawford, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Michael Ball even were.  So, this kind of thing is right up my alley...and that's why I enjoyed it.  It may be over a decade old, but it's a serious throwback to even older Disney movies...the kind you rarely see from any studio anymore.  Plus, I still can't believe it taught me a new word.

Score: 4/5