שלום! Sorry, but I no longer have time to read or write for this site. I wo...
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Just for fun, I thought I'd do a review of this DVD, which a friend bought for us in Norway, of all places!
I'm sure you've all read many opinions on this movie, so I'll try to point up my most important points, and try not to go into too much detail here.
The basic plot is as follows: Evil Ruler want to become a "real king" so needs to marry a princess (where was the pea and the mattresses, I wonder?). Evil Ruler is a wimp, and decides to send some idiot to rescue the princess of his choice. Parallel to this, Simple Ogre is angry with Evil Ruler because his swamp now is a refugee camp for all the fairy tale characters that the Evil Ruler has deported. Simple Ogre goes to complain and ends up agreeing to bring the princess to Evil Ruler in exchange for clearing out his swamp. Quest begins, Ogre finds princess, Ogre falls for princess, Ogre loses princess, Ogre gets princess back. The end.
Into this mix is a conglomeration of other characters including the ever present, hero's side-kick. We all know that Disney practically invented and perfected the side-kick parts in their movies (sometimes ad nauseum, and often to our horrified chagrin). It seems that almost every animated film since has been laden with side-kicks that basically do little for the plot except they always seem to have to save the day. With this film, DreamWorks doesn't do anything special with this part, besides getting Eddie Murphy to do the voice of this
ass... um donkey of a side-kick.
Mike Myers plays the voice of Shrek (our Ogre) with a very inconsistent Scottish accent (raising him to 2nd in the list of bad accents in movies, directly after Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins). John Lithgow, however, plays Lord Farquaad (Evil Ruler) to perfection. And Cameron Diaz does a lovely job as Princess Fiona - the object of everyone's affections, including the viewers, from start to finish. Brava, Cameron!
I have to admit that this movie has its down-sides. Some people have said that the implied violence in this movie is not appropriate for younger children. However, I must doubt this, since I can't imagine any child old enough to see this film who would believe that a Gingerbread Man would really feel pain, for instance.
Another thing about this film is that some of the jokes just go way over the heads of the kids. Now, understandably, this is to keep the parents from nodding off or tearing their hair out when the kids watch this DVD over and over again. However, some of the jokes are so parent oriented that the parents might just want to watch this movie more than the kids, thereby driving their kids crazy instead!
Tons have been said about the amazing graphics on this film. Frankly, I think that they haven't yet reached the quality of Pixar's animations (Toy Story, Toy Story II, Monsters, Inc.), especially since they still haven't mastered how to sync the lips properly when a character is speaking. Shrek's mouth is all over the place and never seems to match the script.
As for the music - the songs and background music are enjoyable and don't get in the way of the action. That's a plus, in my book, since if I want to have amazing music, I'll look for a musical to watch.
But why do you buy a DVD? Because you love the movie? Probably. Because you want to see it often? Probably. Because it has more than just the movie included? Most definitely!
So what are the extras that come with this DVD? Good thing you asked.
The list is really quite long, and if you play this on your computer with a DVD-ROM drive, you get even more!
Of course, there's the usual "Making of Shrek" with all the technical information, etc. as well as the trailer for the film and the production notes. And of course, the menus are nicely animated themselves with something different happening on the screen when you move from option to option, and even when you choose an option. Very sweet.
There are also interviews with the actors but this time as the characters - a little twist from the usual interviews with just the actors. And there is also text information about the actors themselves. Well done, that.
As soon as you finish watching the film, you're taken directly into Shrek's Swamp Karaoke Dance Party. This is terribly cute, with all the characters singing all sorts of songs which, if your DVD player has the option, you can use as a Karaoke yourself. I was a bit disappointed that it was only a medley and that the full songs weren't included, but that's probably just me, I never liked medleys.
And for people like me, there's Shrek's Music Room with full versions of the music videos for both the Baha Men's "Best Years of Our Lives" and Smash Mouth's "I'm a Believer" (how many of us remember the Monkee's first version of this song?).
On top of all that are the games. Yes, games, and lots of them. There are several games that you can play from this DVD on the television and even more if you have a DVD-ROM drive on your computer. Since I don't have the latter, I can only tell you that the kids really enjoyed playing on the games on the TV, but that the trivia one was sadly too easy for my kids. Most of these games, however, are really for the younger audiences. They weren't really fun for more than a few minutes for my 9 and 12 year old kids. It seems, however that the more sophisticated games are the ones you need a computer and DVD-ROM drive for. At least, that's how it seems when you try to choose them from your television.
I understand from my research on this DVD that a two-disk version of this was sold in the USA, and that second disk has an even wider range of games and extras that we who only have the simple single disk can only dream of (like a wide screen version in addition to the regular screen version).
All in all, I'm glad we have this DVD and the kids watch it and play the games again and again. But what's best is when the kids are away or asleep and I have the house to myself... ah, to sit back, have a few laughs and just relax! That's what this film is for, yes sir!
~~~~~ Technical Stuff: Available on Amazon.co.uk for £6.49, marketplace from £5.29, two-disk special edition only available on the marketplace from £6.49 Format: Anamorphic, Animated, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen Language: English Region: Region 2 (This DVD will probably NOT be viewable in other countries. Read more about DVD formats.) Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1 Number of discs: 1 Classification: U Studio: Dreamworks Home Entertainment DVD Release Date: 12 Nov 2001 Run Time: 112 minutes ~~~~~
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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
One of my husbands best used lines came from this film, something to do with gas and being dead, |I wont elaborate, as you can probab;ly see, i can barely type. Anyway, all i wanted to say, was total agreement, think we prefer it to the kids.... Hmmm, that statement works on many levels!!
sarah xx
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...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
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...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) is searching for a wife. Because of a complicated situation ... more
he needs a mate so he can qualify as king of the land. The 3-foot-tall despot has already banished all the fairy tale characters from his land resulting in a dias...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
They're back for more! Princess Fiona's parents invite their daughter and her new husband ... more
Shrek to her homeland of Far Far Away in order to celebrate their marriage. However there's more than meets the eye in this fairytale kingdom and Shrek & Fi...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
![Shrek [DVD] [2001]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78533830.jpg "Shrek [DVD] [2001]")
Aug 18th, 2002
(Jul 25th, 2006)
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