Shrek Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)August 6th, 2001
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It took three years and over 275 artists and computer geeks to bring Shrek to the big screen, and the PDI/DreamWorks (the peeps who made Antz) film kicks off with a crappy "modern rock" song that was popular, oh, about three years ago ("Hey now/you're an all-star/pull your pants down/you lame-o"). It's hardly an auspicious start for something that, on the surface, looked like it could have been one of the bright spots of the summer release schedule.
Luckily, things - including the music (there's a new Eels song and a Bob Dylan cover) - get much better. Shrek, based on William Steig's book, is a quality production, from its appearance to its voice work and even to its laughably predictable story. It's the first feature-length film to showcase computer-animated human characters, and, while it seemed creepy and distracting in the trailer, it's really incredibly detailed and enjoyable.
The film's main character is the titular Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers, Austin Powers), a big green ogre who loves his privacy and lives in an isolated swamp far away from just about everybody. With both the accent and rotten teeth of a Scotsman, Shrek is often besieged by gangs of torch and pitchfork-wielding men intent on either driving him from his home or, possibly, from the face of the Earth (it's a kids' movie - their motives remain unclear). But Shrek can usually scare them off simply by raising his voice a bit. He is, after all, an ogre.
Shrek's dream lifestyle comes to a screeching halt one day when his swamp becomes overrun with fairytale characters that have been banished from a nearby kingdom. Everyone from the Little Gingerbread Man to the Three Little Pigs have nowhere else to go after being given the boot by the diabolically short Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow, 3rd Rock From the Sun), a man intent on creating the perfect empire over which he shall rule like a king. To do so, Farquaad is told, he needs to marry a princess, and we see him as a contestant in a very amusing animated version of The Dating Game.
Farquaad settles on Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz, Charlie's Angels), who is, like every decent princess should be, locked away in a dragon-guarded tower as she eagerly awaits her first kiss. Because Farquaad has Short Man's Syndrome, he has decided it would be better to get someone else to rescue the princess and bring her to him. Enter Shrek, who is willing to do just about anything in exchange for the removal of Pinocchio and Goldilocks from his piece of land.
Shrek, along with the wisecracking donkey (Eddie Murphy, Nutty Professor II) he reluctantly befriends, sets off to slay the dragon and rescue the princess, who, of course, turns out to be the foxiest animated babe since Lara Croft. It comes as no surprise that Shrek and Fiona fall in love, but the princess' dark secret is a nice touch, helping kids learn that whole moral about books and covers.
The film gives nods to everything from Babe to The Matrix (the latter is getting kind of boring, but the Shrek folks get some slack because this film took so long to make). Shrek and company even run into a spoof of Disneyland, one of two jabs at producer Jeffrey Katzenberg's former employer (the other, apparently, is that Farquaad looks like Disney's Michael Eisner - the ultimate inside joke as the average viewer has no idea who he is, let alone what he looks like).
Myers is a pleasure to listen to, as his Shrek is essentially a toned-down version of Austin Powers' Fat Bastard (his accent was thicker, but test audiences didn't care for it). There was also some tweaking with Diaz's character, but more for her appearance than her voice. The original versions of her Fiona looked too realistic, and they, too, were revamped for the benefit of the audience. One thing that wasn't kicked down a notch is Murphy's Donkey, who plays a brasher version of his Mushu from Disney's Mulan and steals just about every scene.
Shrek is full of jokes about farting, earwax, bad breath and body odor, and I'll bet you my right arm that the same critics who have blasted every film released in 2001 for containing the same kind of humor will be raving about how good Shrek is and how it's perfect entertainment for the entire family. It is, but cut Freddy Got Fingered and Tomcats some slack, will you?
1:30 - PG for mild language and some crude humor
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