The Fourth, and supposedly final, Shrek film. I enjoyed my time watching this, and rewatching it, and I plan on enjoying it when I watch it again in the future. BUT. I have to deliberately not think for that to work.
It is Shrek’s kids 1st birthday and Shrek is feeling overwhelmed at being a responsible adult and has a fight with his wife Fiona and gets tricked by Rumplestiltskin and has to convince Fiona (because the world changed) to fall in love with him all over again, only now she’s in ogre form and leading a band of freedom fighter ogres against Emperor Stiltskin. And of course it happens and the world is back on course and we get our happily ever after.
There’s a lot of grrrrl power lingo jazz thrown around and at one point Fiona states that she had to save herself. It was not subtle or woven in, but just hammered. Then you have Shrek not being able to cope with being a dad and not an ogre any more. I feel like the writers didn’t know how to deal with family life and so just put Shrek in a situation that they remembered from some sit-com way back when.
At the same time, I thought the basic idea was very good. Shrek gets to be a complete ogre for one day in exchange for giving one other day to Rumplestiltskin. So Rumple chooses the day of his birth, so Shrek never gets born, never rescues Fiona and thus they never fall in love and have a family. Shrek comes back to this world, he remembers how it is supposed to be and has until midnight to convince Fiona that they are indeed true love’s vessels. It was silly but at the same time it was heart breaking. The relationship between Shrek and Fiona has always been the backbone of the franchise, no matter how shallow or trivial, and to see that ripped away from only one of them really amped up the pathos for me.
IMDB states: “Reluctantly designated as the heir to the land of Far, Far Away, Shrek hatches a plan to install the rebellious Artie as the new king while Princess Fiona tries to fend off a coup d’état by the jilted Prince Charming.”
What they forget to mention is that Artie is Arthur Pendragon, Fiona is pregnant and Shrek is having a real problem coming to grips with his approaching fatherhood. The coup by Prince Charming is rolled back as easily as it happened and the movie ends with Fiona and Shrek having triplets.
Prince Charming as the villain is more of a joke, which is ok for a kids movie, but once again, there are lines here and there and references that I wouldn’t want a kid of mine hearing or seeing. The crassness levels are toned down. There is one scene though where Shrek and Fiona are all dressed up like French Royalty and Shrek has an itch on his bum. So he gets a flute player to scratch his bum and of course that is when the curtain rises and the entire assembly sees it. I laughed so hard.
The whole King Arthur storyline pushed the interactions between Donkey, Shrek and Puss n Boots to the side and the writers really didn’t come out shining. His story arc was predictably shallow and “emotional” and then wham, done. On the plus side, there is a scene where Shrek is trying to “relate” to Artie and talks like some sort of 60’s hippy teen on weed. Once again, that was gold! But one scene isn’t enough to carry a whole movie for character interaction.
This is step down from Shrek 2 and while I still enjoyed it, I think it definitely entered into stupid territory instead of clever territory. I could feel the steam running out of the franchise.
This was a direct sequel to Shrek and was released in 2004. All the excruciating details are under the details code at the end.
I enjoyed this movie a lot. While it is a bit shallower in terms of storyline, it is vastly more amusing (in my opinion) as the parody of other movies really ramps up.
My favorite scene is when a group of the fairytale creatures are rescuing Shrek, Donkey and Puss-n-Boots and Pinocchio goes wire diving to the Mission Impossible music just like Tom Cruise did in the original MI movie. Of course, this being a Shrek movie, he gets all tangled up and tied at the end. So he has to lie so Gingie the gingerbread man can run along his nose to unlock Shrek. The whole scene just keeps me in stitches even after having watched it uncounted times. Ahhh, good times.
The whole thrust of the movie about accepting your family and yourself was laid on with a thick stick, but really, I didn’t mind it as I didn’t feel like it was thrust down my throat at every turn, unlike some movies today.
The introduction of Prince Charming as the vain and self-centered jerk was perfect. He was good enough that he’ll be in the next film as the main villain in fact.
Newlyweds Shrek and Princess Fiona return from their honeymoon to find they have been invited by Fiona’s parents to a royal ball to celebrate their marriage. Shrek initially refuses to attend, but Fiona convinces him, and along with Donkey, they travel to the kingdom of Far Far Away. They meet Fiona’s parents, King Harold and Queen Lillian, who are shocked to see the ogres, with Harold particularly repulsed. At dinner, Shrek and Harold get into a heated argument, and Fiona, disgusted at their behavior, locks herself away in her room. Shrek worries that he is losing Fiona, particularly after finding her childhood diary and reading that she was once infatuated with Prince Charming.
Harold is secretly reprimanded by the Fairy Godmother, as her son, Prince Charming, was to marry Fiona in exchange for Harold’s own happy ending. She orders him to get rid of Shrek, so Harold arranges for Puss in Boots to assassinate him under the guise of a hunting trip. Unable to defeat Shrek, Puss reveals that he was paid by Harold and offers to be an ally. Shrek, Donkey, and Puss sneak into the Fairy Godmother’s factory and steal a “Happily Ever After” potion that Shrek thinks will make him good enough for Fiona. Shrek and Donkey both drink the potion but nothing happens. Shrek laments before he and Donkey both suddenly fall asleep. Meanwhile, in Far Far Away, Fiona prepares to find Shrek so they can return home, but she too falls asleep.
The following morning, the potion transforms Shrek and Fiona into humans, and Donkey into a white stallion. In order to make the change permanent, Shrek must kiss Fiona by midnight. Shrek, Donkey, and Puss return to the castle. However, the Fairy Godmother, having discovered the theft, has sent Charming to pose as Shrek and win Fiona’s love. At the Fairy Godmother’s urging, Shrek leaves the castle, believing that the best way to make Fiona happy is to let her go.
Fiona does not reciprocate Charming’s advances, so to ensure she falls in love with Charming, the Fairy Godmother gives Harold a love potion to put into Fiona’s tea. This exchange is overheard by Shrek, Donkey, and Puss, who are arrested by the royal knights after Donkey inadvertently exposes them. While the royal ball begins, friendly fairy-tale creatures rescue the trio from jail, and they storm the castle with the help of a monstrous living gingerbread man created by the Muffin Man.
Shrek fails to prevent Charming from kissing Fiona, but instead of falling in love, Fiona knocks him out; Harold reveals that he swapped Fiona’s tea that has the love potion with another tea. The now-enraged Fairy Godmother tries to kill Shrek with her magic wand, but Harold jumps in front of it; the spell ricochets off his armor and disintegrates her. With the Fairy Godmother gone, Harold reverts into the Frog Prince. Harold apologizes, admitting to using the “Happily Ever After” potion years earlier to gain Lillian’s love, and approves Shrek and Fiona’s marriage. Lillian assures Harold that she still loves him. As the clock strikes midnight, Fiona rejects Shrek’s offer to remain human, and they revert into ogres, while Donkey also returns to normal. In the mid-credits scene, Dragon, who had previously married Donkey, reveals that they now have several dragon-donkey hybrid babies.
Shrek was released in 2001 by Dreamworks Studios. Featuring the voice talents of such big names as Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and John Lithgow, it follows the adventures of the ogre Shrek as he ends up rescuing Princess Fiona and in the process falls in love with her and breaks the curse that kept her in the dragon guarded castle. It’s not as easy as it sounds, as Ogres just don’t marry Princesses and Prince Farquad has some rather short thoughts on the matter.
The entire thrust of this movie is turning Fairytale Tropes on their heads. And mixing in a lot of anachronistic ideas, words and music. And it works beautifully. I laughed my head off.
But for many years I avoided this movie assiduously. Shrek is an ogre and as such, is just plain gross when it comes to bodily humor. He farts in his mud baths, pulls enough wax out of his ears to create a candle, belches at the drop of a hat and just generally is disgusting. I didn’t want that. But one day I watched it and I was sold, lock, stock and barrel.
Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy, as Shrek and Donkey, are the perfect comedy duo. Donkey is a talking donkey that just won’t shut up and boy, the writers did a great job in giving him his dialogue. Myers on the other hand, is a great one for one liners, quips and references to other movies at the time. The Matrix is referenced, as is Babe: Pig in the City. I’m sure there are a LOT more that cineastes would catch.
While this is an animated film, there are too many crass parts, too many innuendos and too many adult humor bits for me to say this is fine for kids. I know it is rated G but no way is it suited for General Audiences.
They don’t write movies like this any more. They weren’t just trying to tell a trope breaking comedy, but an actual story with a beginning, middle and end. While there was a message about not judging people on their appearances or without getting to know them, it never overwhelmed the story and was actually incorporated into things so it didn’t come across as ham handed virtue signaling that makes you want to puke your guts up like in a lot of recent movies.
This was probably my 7th or 8th time watching this and I still laughed my head off, enjoyed every second and thought it was still great. I don’t know that it will strike everyone the same way, or be as re-watchable, but for me, this movie has entered into Classic territory and I plan on watching this many more times over the coming years.
