What I Watch - Once Upon a Mattress

I recently got around to watching the 2005 TV-movie version of Once Upon a Mattress (there were TV versions from the 60's and 70's, but I haven't seen those), and while I thought it was okay, a lot of the time it felt like "Mattress Lite" to me.  I mean, I love the Original Broadway Cast album to death (not literally.  My copy is still alive and kicking), so I knew that I wasn't going to be entirely satisfied with it, but so much has been cut out to make it fit into 90 minutes.  And while there are some awesome people in it--Tom Smothers, Edward Hibbert, Zooey Deschanel--they really have very little to do here, with the exceptions of Carol Burnett and Tracey Ullman.  And I don't know if I'll ever get over what they did to "Normandy."  I mean, it's hard to buy it as a song about a honeymoon destination when you know that it was originally a song about where Lady Larkin was planning to run away to avoid showing she was a "maternal bride-to-be."

Of course, there were a few things I liked.  The costumes are ah-mazing!  I have so much love for the costumes, I can't tell you.  The choreography is very good, too.  And I like the idea of casting Dauntless older (like in his forties), since it makes the entire kingdom's desperation so much more palpable.  Since part of the conceit of the show is that no one is allowed to get married until the prince does, you can bet that everyone in this version is pulling for Winifred to pass the test.  And while Tracey Ullman is great in the part of the titular princess, I'm still not sure how I feel about that British accent.  

...Is it truly terrible that the reason I finally got around to watching this is because Matthew Morrison is in it, and I wanted to see more of him after watching the Glee preview?