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| Shrek
Year: 2001
Classification: Animation
Country: USA
Directed:
- Andrew Adamson
- Vicky Jenson
Actors/Actresses:
- Mike Myers as Shrek
- Eddie Murphy
- Cameron Diaz
- John Lithgow
- Steven Spielberg
Literally true: Fun for children of all ages.
The basic plot involves a green ogre (Shrek) who agrees to rescue the beautiful princess Fiona and deliver her to Lord Farquaad inorder to save his home as well as those of familiar fairy tale characters which include Robin Hood, the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and Three Blind Mice. The rescue is complicated by the fact that Princess Fiona is protected by a female dragon. Unlike Finding Nemo whose creators take a traditional approach when developing the plot, this film is "hip" (at times anachronistic) largely because of dialogue entrusted to Murphy's Donkey and the generous use of popular tunes. At one point, also, Fiona displays martial arts skills worthy of Bruce Lee. But like Finding Nemo, this film offers great entertainment value to those in all age groups.
Co-directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, adapted from a story by William Steig, Shrek's quality of animation is outstanding, earning for it an Academy Award as best animation feature. Sometimes the humor is off the proverbial wall. Sometimes the plot seems unnecessarily complicated (e.g. the brief appearance by Monsieur Hood), if not frantic. Children probably enjoy the mayhem more than do their elders who probably appreciate the witty repartee more than they do. That is quite an admirable achievement. I also appreciate the wealth of special features which accompany this DVD version.
An overrrated comedy?
Based on William Steig's bizzare backwards fairy tale, DreamWork's SHREK has fantastic animation, great voice casting and infamous "irreverent" humor. An ogre and a donkey rescuing a princess for an under-endowed King. How cleverly post-modern. Ha and indeed ha. Yes, it's a worldwide cartoon phenomenon or something like that. Now don't get me wrong, I like the recent movies like this one that trade traditional cute jokes for movie lampooning and irreverent gags, but I find it hard to avoid the fact that this "hilarious" comedy is somewhat overrated. Shrek (Mike Myers) and Donkey (Eddie Murphy) are a good odd-couple and there are some great jabs at Disney throughout the film's running time. But fart gags and weird humor aside, it's not as clever as it thinks it is. There are some fantastically funny moments in the film, especially the gingerbread man sequence and lines like "In the morning, i'm making waffles!" And the escape from the dragon's castle is a tour-de-force of fantastic animation and strange gags. However it's far more funnier if you take it as the sum of its parts rather than the movie as a whole. It may sound like just knocking success, but if you actually sit back and watch it, well, it really depends on if you want to sit through a cartoon with gross-out humour and fart gags. From a technical standpoint, the CGI photo-realistic water and fur simulation is brilliant. Since the success of TOY STORY, computer-generated cartoons have come a long way and it's impossible to deny that the CG is impressive. But then, so was the CG in Godzilla (Lesson: Impressive effects do not a good movie make). Watching SHREK in comparison to Pixar's competition MONSTERS INC, the latter is a more clever premise. Shrek gets 5 stars for animation, but it's a 3 star movie for laughs. the DVD extras are impressive though, with Commentaries, mock interviews, 'making of' docos and trailers.
im makin' waffels
why the hell does everyone say that??BR>good movie dont see shrek 2 looks dumb
Buy Shrek at Amazon.com
Buy posters at Allposters.com
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