Shrek

2001 animated feature

Rating: 12/20 (Emma: 15/20; Abbey 10/20)

Plot: Once upon a time, an ogre fighting gastrointestinal disorder finds friendship and true love. And they all lived happily ever after.

There's a fart joke one minute into this movie. Then, thirty seconds later, there's another fart joke. If the first two aren't enough, there's luckily a few more right around the corner. Whenever I think of Shrek, I think of fart jokes. I used to think of crap, but that's unfair. The movie isn't crap, but, despite a intriguing premise and a few good ideas, it really isn't much more clever than an 80 minute series of fart jokes. Oh, and pop songs. Fart joke, montage with a very loud pop song, fark joke, montage with a very loud pop song, fart joke. And so on. I don't really like the animation in Shrek. There's a plastic sort of ugliness that recalls the really cheap Barbie computer-animated things that those producers seemingly are able to crap out weekly that my daughter likes. Shrek has about four different facial expressions. I do like some of the settings that are created, but I think computer-animated settings were done much better in Ice Age. A lot of people like the characters in Shrek, but I don't think they're all that well rounded, definitely more types than actual flesh 'n' blood characters. I do think some of the voice talent is really good, especially Eddie Murphy. I realize that's part of the type since it's parodying fairy tales and the stock characters of fairy tales, but it still hurts the overall story and makes it feel a bit cold. There's a novelty in the first fifteen or so minutes, but the fairy tale allusions and pop culture references eventually wear thin. I really don't care much for the humor in Shrek either. I believe I laughed once while watching this the first time (the first scene with the Gingerbread Man), and I like the scene with Robin Hood until it begins parodying kung-fu movies and then just gets stupid. You also get some all-too-typical adult humor "hidden" throughout, but it's neither funny or appropriate. One of my gripes with Dreamworks animated movies is that they use that sort of humor (and maybe the loud pop music) to make these things enjoyable with adults. Pixar does it with heart, but heart is too difficult to pull off, I guess.