Movie Review

SHREK THE THIRD

For all the beauty and color, for all the work, time and effort in its creation, for all the magic that makes us believe that animated characters have real personalities, for all the hilarious sight gags and throw-away lines that are buried in the telling of Shrek The Third, I came away from the theater with just one thought:

All the characters were mean.

It is one thing for villains such as Captain Hook, Cyclops and even the banished and vain Prince Charming to have a mean streak, but all the supporting characters in this edition of the Shrek tales seemed self centered, petty or jealous, bullying and down right cruel. Even the three little pigs were boorish right down the hairs on their chinny chin chins.

The fairy tale princesses that had gathered for Fiona’s baby shower were portrayed as a gaggle of bickering and jealous, middle aged naysayers, intent on nothing more then insulting each other.

I get the whole idea that after the fairy tale wedding the “happily ever after” can be a troublesome and non-romantic let down in some peoples’ lives, but if I wanted to see boorish, rude behavior, I would watch the animated television shows on Fox.

Maybe it is an attempt by the writers of Shrek The Third to make an ogre and his ogress wife look more human by showing the dark side of the other beloved fairy tale characters. For me the shtick became boring.There were some memorable moments to Shrek The Third including an elongated death scene of the Frog King and when the Gingerbread Man’s life flashed before his eyes, but I kept waiting for the movie to get funnier.

I have a standard rule when picking what movies to take my time to see in the theater: if there is flatulence in the movie trailer, then you can bet that the movie will not be that entertaining. To me, when a writing team resorts to bathroom humor, they have run out of truly funny things to say. Shrek The Third is chalk full of gross out humor. Burping, gas, vomiting on cue were all crutches for the writers.

I remember liking the first Shrek movie despite some of the gross out gags and fairy tale characters acting against type, but in Shrek The Third that joke was played out. At the climax of the movie, Artie, the future king, gives a persuasive speech to the villains in an attempt to get them to change their evil ways. I was kind of hoping Artie would give the same speech to the good guys, and maybe, just maybe the producers at DreamWorks would hear his message too.

By: William Ackerley