Shrek the Third

I’ll just come straight out and say I’ve never been a huge fan of Shrek. While I still go to the theatres to watch them, I find many things wrong with the Shrek series. I remember when the first one came out and everyone was impressed with the animation, the characters and the storyline with its theme of beauty being on the inside. The animation of Shrek is fine, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the genius of Pixar. I always find that Dreamworks animation looks a little grainy, while Pixar films are vibrant and clean. I like most of the characters of Shrek although many are one-note wonders. I still like Eddie Murphy’s donkey but he has regrettably turned down the annoyance factor as the movies progressed. And while I usually love Mike Meyers work, I do not like what he does with Shrek. Why did he have to go with the Scottish accent again? I didn’t even like it in Austin Powers. If you want to see Mike Meyers do some great Scottish, go further back and watch the classic So I Married an Axe Murderer. The voice of Shrek was supposed to be done by Chris Farley but he unfortunately died before he could finish. It would have been awesome to have Farley’s voice coming out of Shrek’s mouth. Stupid drugs. And what actually annoyed me most about the original Shrek story is that Fiona had to be transformed into an ogre in order to be with Shrek. I would have much rather preferred a cross-species relationship (much like Donkey and Dragon), as that would have helped it’s beauty-on-the-inside theme a lot more.

The second Shrek managed to push my buttons as well. While I did enjoy Puss in Boots, I was horrified with the sexual innuendos found throughout the movie. I understand putting in jokes for parents that are above the kid’s heads, but they went too far. The three maidens trying to take off the transformed Shrek’s clothes was a little much, the fairy godmother was usually crass, and the final song was not a good choice. Livin’ La Vida Loca is not a kid’s song, it’s basically about a woman who drugs, sleeps with, and robs a guy who is helpless to her advances. I’m a Believer was much more family-friendly.

And now onto Shrek the Third. Like it’s previous installments, I do find myself laughing at some of their jokes and mildly enjoying their story. My biggest problem with this third film is how un-ogreish Shrek has become. In the first one, he was burbing, farting and generally scaring all those who hadn’t met him before. Now he’s become a green Barney. When he goes to the school to pick up Justin Timberlake’s tepid Arthur, no one seems phased by Shrek’s appearance. He’s an ogre, people.

Shrek the Third deals with realizing your place in the world and preparing for fatherhood. Wow, another milestone in the journey of life. Dreamworks is already working on Shrek 4, which will probably deal with raising an ogre-child. I’m thinking Shrek 10 will deal with the Fiona’s menopause and Shrek thinking about retirement.

The one thing I loved about Shrek the Third was the army of princesses. Snow White (Amy Poehler), Rapunzel (Maya Rudolph), Sleeping Beauty (Cheri Oteri), Cinderella (Amy Sedaris) and Doris the Stepsister (Larry King) were a riot. Sleeping Beauty’s fall down attack was brilliant and Snow White’s sarcasm is just what this film needed. If the princesses are in the foreground of Shrek’s fourth film, I’ll definitely check it out. With Shrek the Third, I would wait till DVD just so you can watch the princess scene over and over again. But if you want to take some kids (yours, nieces, nephews or random kids off the street), go ahead, this installment is not as sexual as the second. Thank goodness.

Reviews coming soon: Hot Fuzz, Knocked Up, Ocean’s 13, Evan Almighty, 1408, Live Free or Die Hard.