Shrek! What a load of drokking shazbot! (Shrek (DVD))

Member Name: Crazy-Christian

Product:	Shrek (DVD)
Date:	04/07/01 (529 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It's only 90 minutes long!

Disadvantages: The last 89 minutes!

First, let’s start with that title. Shrek sounds to me like a 70's euphemism used by entertainment media as a substitute for real swearing. The comic 2000A.D. had its lead character, Judge Dredd, say "Drokk", and Robin Williams’ Mork uttered the thoroughly filthy (at least on Ork) "Shazbot!" on frequent occasions. This would seem consistent to me as my first thought on leaving the cinema after seeing this movie was, Shrek! What a load of drokking shazbot!

So, who and what is ‘Shrek’? Well, Shrek is a green-skinned, monstrous, stupid, ugly ogre. Or, at least, that’s how most people judge him when they first see him. Shrek, however, is much more sensitive than he looks and much less prone to grinding people’s bones. Fed up with unfair stereotyping he just wants to lead a quiet life of solitude in his homey swamp. His peace, unfortunately, is constantly interrupted by gangs of torch-carrying villagers (who he soon scares away) or a talking Donkey, part of a group of fairy-tale characters who are being ‘relocated’ by the evil (well, slightly naughty would be more accurate) ruler, Lord Farquaad. He decides to go and see the would-be-King, along with his new ‘companion’, the Donkey, as his guide.

Shrek marches into the castle unaware of a tournament taking place to find Farquaad’s champion, so his Lordship can use him to rescue a beautiful Princess locked-up in a tower and guarded by a fierce dragon. He intends to make her his bride so that he can rightfully become King. Shrek unintentionally becomes his champion and under threat of what appears to be about one thousand archers agrees to go on the quest.

Will he rescue the Princess? Will he take her back to Farquaad? Will they feel attracted to each other although he is an ogre? Will the deep dark secret of the Princess be revealed? Will there ever be an end to these stupid questions!

This is wher
e I have a problem with the movie: with WHAT it is. Shrek is the new animated feature by Dreamworks SKG who previously produced "The Prince of Egypt". They so desperately want to challenge the mighty Disney studio for cartoon supremacy and this film has been hyped as being ‘Disney with attitude’. It’s supposed to be smarter, funnier, hipper, and just downright BETTER than the rest.

Most of the reviews seem to concur with this and I was really looking forward to seeing it. It starts well with Shrek’s rather unconventional use of a page out of a fairytale book (I won’t spoil it for you – unlike Shrek!) and the relocation of the fairytale characters such as Pinocchio. Lord Farquaad is very short but despite, or because of this, craves perfection in all around him. He forces the ‘freaks’ out of his land and you’re thinking, Great, shades of ethnic cleansing in a cartoon – this is fresh and intelligent. But this plot is never developed. Shrek only agrees to save the Princess because the Lord will move the people away from Shrek. Which he does. And Shrek doesn’t even care about them! His attitude doesn’t change. It’s only his love for the Princess that makes him challenge Farquaad and it’s only by default that the creatures are saved!

This is a wasted opportunity to put real meaning into a cartoon. Rather the supposed ‘attitude’ only means that the characters burp and fart a lot – whoopee, what an advancement for the animated feature! In every other respect it is a traditional cartoon, replete with a contrived happy ending (which is obvious once the secret of the Princess is revealed), schmaltzy sentimentality and patronising moralising. (In this case, the latter is rather confused. It seems to be saying that you should never judge or make fun of someone who looks different – unless they are short, in which case it is ok to ridicule them.
Or am I missing something here?)

Taken as a whole this film is a failure, as it doesn’t do what it sets out to do. There are many parts of it that are good though. The animation is more 'rounded' in the Toy Story style and works quite well. The voice acting is good. Comedian Mike Myers (Austin Powers) plays Shrek with his trademark Scottish accent – much liked where I saw the movie! Cameron Diaz is excellent as the Buffy-like Princess and Eddie Murphy is likeable as the talking Donkey, although his material is never funny enough.

There are some funny sight gags (the Matrix rip-off being the best) and the film does hold your interest throughout. It makes fun of the typical Disney-type song and tends to rely on contemporary and classic pop songs instead, a definite strength of the film. It fails badly with the villain, though. John Lithgow gives his all as Farquaad but he really isn’t given enough bad things to do and his demise is predictable and anti-climactic.

To be fair though, the remainder of the audience seemed to enjoy it, including my family. My wife thought it was ‘funny and sweet’ and the kids both laughed at it. So, maybe it’s just because I’m a miserable so-and-so, but I failed to be charmed by this movie. It could have been so much more if it had developed its themes more precisely and followed through on its intentions.

Go and see it by all means, but don’t expect too much of it.

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