Disappointing This Shrek Fan but Alright for Kids, Shrek the Third

You know it happens every time…you watch a movie, you love it, then you just can’t resist the first several sequels that come out. It seems like anymore - be it from a flooded market where so many works just get buried as soon as they come out or from simple lack of creativity - whenever any movie makes it big a sequel is sure to follow. Such is the case with the Shrek movies.

In case you’re new to the series (it’s a trilogy now and I’m not going to place any bets that they won’t keep producing them) Shrek is an ogre who starts out living alone in his swamp perfectly happy to live out his days without bothering anything that doesn’t bother him. Unfortunately the townspeople near his swamp didn’t like the idea of an ogre being there and constantly formed mobs to pester him with pitchforks until he couldn’t take it anymore.

In the first movie we follow Shrek as he leaves his swamp and meets up with a talking donkey that will not leave him alone, is sent off on a mission to rescue a princess from a dragon for the cowardly prince Farquaad - somewhat disenchanting the princess, Fiona, I might add - and battling all opposition in his way. Through the course of the film Fiona gets over her dislike of the ogre (thanks in part to the loquacious Donkey) and reveals her need to break a malicious spell that has been put on her.

In Shrek 2 the newly wed Shrek and Fiona must travel to the land of Far Far Away to meet Fiona’s parents who are less than pleased at their daughter’s choice in men and try everything they can to separate the couple, turn Fiona back into her rightful self and marry her off to Prince Charming with the help of the scheming Fairy Godmother. The fairy tale characters that were a smaller part of the first movie come on in full force and many more are added as the two must battle their way through Charming and his cohorts to be together.

Now, in Shrek the Third Fiona’s father is deathly ill and the subject of the next in line must be discussed. Obviously this unwillingly domesticated ogre will not submit himself to the social rigors of being a king and will do anything possible to put someone else on the throne. In the old king’s final gasps he imparts to Shrek that there is another, his nephew Artie.

Shrek travels far away…to a boarding school where the luckless Arthur is hung from the rafters by the geeks in braces and his esteem goes down from there as one travels up the popularity ladder. When he is told that he is really a king Artie…or, more appropriately, Arthur Pendragon…happily tells off the entire school for how poorly they’ve treated him and they’re off. Along the way they meet a kooky hermit, Merlin, who urges Shrek to find his inner peace before helping him, Donkey, Puss in Boots, and Artie get back home.

Meanwhile in Far Far Away the jilted Prince Charming has been gathering all the fairytale villains who got the raw end of the deal with their stories and planning to take the throne for himself with only Fiona and a few other fairytale princesses to stop him. Oh yes, and Fiona’s pregnant, a fact that has had Shrek in a state of distracted neurosis.

First off, if you haven’t seen the previous two movies it’s very easy to catch up in this one, but you might be confused as to where certain characters came from and it will spoil parts of the other movies for you if you watch this first. That said, if you loved the first movie with its off-color humor (though disguised so some younger kids won’t get it, it’s still more mature humor), its vibrant characters and engaging fairytale quest (with a spin)…you may very well be disappointed as the trilogy progresses.

I thought the second movie was alright, not quite as good as the first but still with something of what made Shrek special in the first place. On the same token, Shrek the Third feels just as canned and hollow as the 15th Land Before Time movie…in other words, they’ve completely butchered an excellent animated film down to just another thing to keep the kids quiet for a little while.

We still have all the same big-name voice talents including Mike Meyers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, Julie Andrews (immortalized for her roles in The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins), and even Justin Timberlake as Artie and Larry King as Doris the Ugly Stepsister, but in this particular film those talents were pretty well wasted.

As a mere kid’s movie Shrek the Third has it, it’s much more kid-friendly than the first and even a bit more than the second, but the entertainment value has been drained out along with the off-color comedy (and no, they don’t go hand-in-hand, I think it could have been made more kid-friendly without forsaking the unique charm of the film) and I found myself hard-put to sit through it.

Overall I’d say this is a pretty good “babysitter” film but I’m definitely not a fan myself which is unfortunate as I loved the first movie and was fairly entertained by the second. Sorry Shrek fans, I think we may have come to the end of the Yellow Brick Road and it’s a dirt track from here on out.