Apologies for the lack of opinions lately. I've been on holiday and had a spot of writers block. I'm...
Apologies for the lack of opinions lately. I've been on holiday and had a spot of writers block. I'm not entirely happy about the new scheme for rewards, but I should still be writing again soon. :)
Member since:13.01.2001
Reviews:70
Members who trust:60
In some ways, Shrek still retains the elements of a traditional fairytale, with themes about love, friendship and accepting who are, a good guy who saves the day, a villain, a princess, a cute animal sidekick and a happy ending. But in Shrek, the good guy is a big green ogre with a crude sense of humour, the sidekick is a loud-mouthed donkey, the villain is four feet tall and the princess fights her own battles.
STORY:
All is not well in fairytale land. By order of the wicked prince, all nursery rhyme and fairytale characters, from the Gingerbread Man to the Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood, have been captured and confined to the swamp area in woods. Here they intrude on the home of Shrek, an ogre who cherishes his solitude and who they look upon as their saviour.
Not happy about this, Shrek and the talking donkey he inadvertently saves, set off to take their complaint to the evil Lord Farquaad, who sends them on a quest to rescue the beautiful Princess Fiona
from a tower guarded by a fire-breathing dragon to become his wife.
THOUGHTS:
Obviously a lot of thought was put into making the characters as funny and believable as possible. Shrek probably has the biggest range of colourful and larger than life characters that I’ve seen in an animated movie, each that has their own individual personality that comes across well in the script, (voice) acting and animation.
The highly classified actors who do the voices really bring the characters to life. Eddie Murphy (The Nutty Professor) is an absolute riot as Donkey, Mike Myers (Austin Powers) is fantastic as the gruff ogre with a heart, Shrek and John Lithgow (Third Rock from the Sun) is both creepy and humorous as evil Lord Farquaad. The only person I found to be slightly disappointing was Cameron Diaz (Charlie’s Angels) as Fiona. But to be fair she didn’t really have much to work with.
Fiona has a secret which she is very ashamed of, she’s an idealist and a romantic, but other than these insights we never see another side to her personality. She is far less vivid than any of the others. She’s also the most traditional character in this fragmented fairy story. The tried to make out she was 21st century bad-ass chick who can take care of herself, but in truth she only kicks ass in the scene and spends the rest of the time whining. In the end she was just too much of a girly girl to make any real impact on me.
The story is fairly predictable. Shrek is a feel good film with no sudden twists and turns, and no particularly sad or distressing moments, though it has all the qualities that make a good children’s film, from romance to thrills to humour. But personally, I didn’t think Shrek was that funny – a lot of the jokes are very obvious and clearly aimed at the young kids who are the main target audience. But the sarcasm is a pleasant change to your usual children’s film and some the humour gets more tongue in cheek and witty as it goes on and by the end I was laughing out loud.
Another area Shrek excels in is it’s clever and frequent use of pop culture (“That’s enough Donkey, that’s enough” and “God bless us every one!”) and other modern aspects like Tic-tacs, photo booths and a Blind Date type set up where the Magic Mirror offers Lord Farquaad the choice between Fiona, Snow White and Cinderella.
And I come at last to the animation, the one thing that really makes the film. The good thing about animation is that you can do lots of things you couldn’t do with live action films; the downer is that it’s not always realistic. But over the last few years it’s improved immensely and Shrek is the very best in a range of excellent films including Antz, A Bugs Life and the Toy Story films. Detail of textures is just one of the areas of improvement.
FAVOURITE SCENES:
Even after going on for so long I still don’t think I’ve given you much of an idea of the essence of Shrek. Maybe bullets of my favourite scenes will help.
§ The horny female dragon coming on to the donkey, who complements her on her big teeth and ‘minty freshness’. § The cute little gingerbread man being tortured by having his legs pulled off. § Robin Hood and his Merry Men singing the song about why they do what they do (for the girls not to help the poor), which is VERY funny for adults
CONCLUSION:
Shrek isn’t your usual animated movie, but it is an excellent family film – it’s funny and original with delightful characters and the best animation I’ve seen yet. But for me, two ogres leaving in a ‘Just Married’ carriage is not the romantic ending of the year. I think maybe I’m not quite ready for 21st century fairytales, but I think it’s worth seeing so you can make up your own mind.
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Production Year: 2002 - Family - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal - Starring: Marisa Tomei, Lacey Chabert, Lynn Redgrave, Flea, Tim Curry, Rupert Everett
I have been meaning to see this for a while now but am not really a cinema person, perhaps now it has come out on video, I'll see it; by the looks of your opinion, I will not be disapointed.
djcasper 12.10.2001 01:47
I really enjoyed Shrek.
My fav scenes were the "Blind Date" & "Snow White & Cinderella Punch Up" at the end.
Great Op!
Full of verve and witShrekis a computer-animated adaptation of William Steig's ... more
delightfully fractured fairy tale. Our title character (voiced by Mike Myers) is an agreeable enough ogre who wants to live his days in peace. When the diminutive Lord Farqu...
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Everyone's favourite larger-than-life hero returns in SHREK 2, the #1 animation of all ... more
time hailed by critics and audiences alike as even better than its Oscar-winning predecessor! Happily ever after never seemed so far far away when a trip to meet the...
Advantages: Shrek has excellent animated properties as well as a great cast of characters and very strong sense of humor. Disadvantages: This film really sucks if you're in it for an original storyline. Besides which, it's technically a movie for older kids even though the humor is targeted at adults and teenagers.
Advantages: Amazing CGI, a bunch of well-paid voicing cast and a cat with big eyes. Disadvantages: Not enough understandable humour content for young children
![Shrek [DVD] [2001]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78533830.jpg "Shrek [DVD] [2001]")
Jul 11th, 2001
very helpful by (98%):
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