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Shrek
Movie Stats & Links |
| Starring: |
Voices of: Mike
Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow |
| MPAA Rated: |
PG |
| Released By: |
Dreamworks,
SKG |
| Web Site: |
www.shrek.com |
| Kiddie Movie: |
Sure, they won't
get the adult jokes. |
| Date Movie: |
She hopefully
chuckle at the adult humor. |
| Gratuitous Sex: |
Nah. |
| Gratuitous
Violence: |
A kick-ass, fake,
wrestling match. |
| Action: |
See
"Gratuitous Violence." |
| Laughs: |
Lots for adults,
some for kids. |
| Memorable
Scene: |
The wrestling
match. |
| Memorable
Quote: |
"Although she
lives with seven other men, she's not easy." |
| Directed By: |
Andrew Adamson,
Vicki Jensen |
| Produced By: |
Aron Warner, John
H. Williams, Jeffrey Katzenberg |
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Shrek
A Movie Review |
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As I was sitting and watching "Shrek" I kept
wondering to myself if the kids in the audience were enjoying the
movie. Me, I was chuckling my butt off with all of the inside jokes,
Shrek farting in the pond, Shrek and Donkey in a wrestling match,
and Eddie Murphy putting on one of his best performances in years as
Donkey. But I wondered if the kids got it, I wondered if the movie
was colored brightly enough to dazzle them (the animation was a
tinge on the darker side), and I wondered if Shrek was scary or
lovable, and for the hour and a half I just wondered. Then, as I was
leaving the theater, the consensus among the little ones whose
conversations with their parents I eavesdropped on, well, the kids
didn’t get a lot of the jokes, but they did seem to like the movie
nonetheless.
"Shrek" tells the story of an ogre. An ogre is an ugly,
monster-looking creature that lives in the swamp. He’s perfectly
content living by his lonesome, scaring those that come looking for
him, and just being himself. But then, thanks to Lord Farquaad’s
exiling of the fairy tale creatures from town, well, they end up
exiled in Shrek’s swamp. In the meantime Shrek is befriended by
Donkey, himself on the run, who is that annoying, won’t shut up,
tells you whatever he wants, kind of side-kick.
Well, Shrek wants his swamp back so he heads to find Lord
Farquaad and ask that he move the fairy tale characters elsewhere.
In the meantime Lord Farquaad wants to be king but in order to
accomplish his task he must marry a princess. Of the three to chose
from he opts for Princess Fiona who is held captive by a
fire-breathing dragon. Lord Farquaad, not wanting to risk his life,
plans to have his best soldier go get the princess, but when Shrek
shows up and kicks his army’s ass, well, Lord Farquaad makes a
deal with Shrek that if he goes and gets him the princess, well, he’ll
give him his swamp back.
So, yea, Shrek and Donkey are off to get Princess Fiona; You
guessed it, while doing so Shrek and the princess fall in love; And
yea, they live happily ugly after.
The story is simple, which I suppose helps keep the kids
interested. The jokes, usually not blatant, are really geared for
the parents in that you get pokes at Disney with the likes of
information desk reminiscent of "It’s a Small World,"
turnstiles to get into Lord Farquaad’s castle, and Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs being spotlighted. Then you get fun scenes like
Princess Fiona kicking ass ala "The Matrix", and like I
mentioned before, the tag-team wrestling match.
All in all "Shrek" is alright, but really, for the
kids, they won’t get a lot of the subtle humor. They’ll probably
like the story, the boys will like the dragon (up until they find
out it’s a dudette dragon), and the girls will like the princess,
but I think the movie could have done better with brighter animation
and not so many inside jokes for the parents because even getting
older we can still enjoy a good cartoon. The winning thing for me in
this movie was Eddie Murphy who was just hilarious as Donkey. Sure,
it sounded like Eddie Murphy, but he pulled of the annoying
side-kick role perfectly. Shrek, however, was voiced by Mike Myers,
and well, Myers used his "Fat Bastard" voice and for the
few scenes in Austin Powers it was funny, but for an entire movie I
just didn’t think it worked that well, in fact it became a little
annoying and some of the kids couldn’t pick up on the accent to
understand him sometimes.
Wrapping up, "Shrek" had potential but just didn’t
get to that next level. Personally, for me, the animation was trying
to be too perfect for a fairytale. The "Toy Story" series
take place in a real house so I can appreciate the animation going
for a more realistic look. Shrek, on the other hand, is a fairytale
through and through and for that, I prefer it look like one. It was
a cute story that didn’t need to be drawn with groundbreaking
animation (although the princess was hot). It’s 3 ½ stars out of
5 for "Shrek."
That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!! |
