One Trick Donkey. Review on Shrek 2 Movie

The original Shrek was a real breath of fresh air in the Disneyfication of animated films?smart, very funny, and with a postmodern sensibility that lampooned the excesses of Western society, media (especially Disney), and ultimately, itself. The CGI animation was a giant leap in the genre, the most successful example to date of creating a virtual reality comprised of fictional/mythical creatures (surpassed only by the rendering of Gollum in the 2nd and 3rd LOTR films.

Shrek 2, the sequel, takes the CGI even further?notice the individual strands of hair on Princess Fiona and the even sleeker, better-defined pelt on Donkey. And the plot? Shrek and Princess Fiona, now happily married, are summoned to a wedding feast in their honor at Fiona?s parents? castle in the land of Far Far Away. Far Far Away turns out to be a riff on Beverly Hills, with McMansions for Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and a horde of other fairy tale beings.

Fiona?s parents (played by John Cleese and Julie Andrews), the King and Queen of Far Far Away, not knowing that Fiona has given in to the spell that turns her into an ogre and (yikes!) actually married one, are taken aback at the transformation and yield to the suggestion by Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders) that she trick Fiona into believing that Prince Charming (Rupert Everett, in one of his charmingly smarmy turns) is actually Shrek after our good ogres are changed back into humans under the influence of one of the Fairy Godmother?s potions.

Sounds convoluted, but isn?t really. The plot thickens from there, but I won?t give away the ending. Shrek 2 lacks the wry surprises that made the first Shrek so entertaining. The big addition this time around is the addition of the character of Puss In Boots (Antonio Banderas), who nearly steals the movie. However, other than that, the film is business-as-usual, with a plot that doesn?t really take off the way we are hoping it will, and perhaps too many film clichés thrown in (while the clichés were funny and surprising the first time around, here they begin to feel strained).

It would have been an astonishing feat to have been able to top the first Shrek, and the filmmakers have given it a good try, but ultimately, Shrek 2 suffers from the ?been there, done that? syndrome. There is a sense of inevitability about the story, and when the denouement comes, no one is really surprised at the choices that are made. Still, it is one of the more entertaining films around this season, the CGI is terrific, and though it doesn?t quite measure up to the first film, it is still well-worth seeing. Just don?t expect to experience the same amazement you felt first time around.