Shrek Forever After (**½)

Directed by: Mike Mitchell

Starring (voices): Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Hamm, Walt Dohrn, Lake Bell

Seen: June 25th 2010

**½ Out of ****

While Shrek Forever After is undoubtedly better than Shrek the Third, it doesn’t reach the high levels of entertainment value offered in the first two movies in this beloved series. That is not to say that it never reaches it, as there are occasional moments of brilliance in the small details that really cracks you up, but the movie has almost no emotional impact where the story actually lends itself towards just that, and the animation is, sad to say, not as good as it could be (a prime example being a chariot pulled by horses right at the start of the movie – the horses look decidedly wooden and not fully rendered, which is a shame, as Shrek 2 did a great (and far better) job with the horse Donkey turned into).

Shrek (Myers) and Fiona (Diaz) are back, joined by Donkey (Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Banderas) in seeming domestic bliss. Shrek and Fiona are the proud parents of triplets, Donkey and Dragon the proud parents of a few Dronkeys, and Puss in Boots never far away in telling Shrek and Fiona’s romantic story. But Shrek’s swamp has been turned into a tourist destination, tour busses coming by every day packed with spectators wanting to see the mighty but now tame ogre of the swamp. Shrek is getting increasingly annoyed by the routine of everyday living and the complete removal from his previous life as a feared loner and after a fight with Fiona over just that, overheard by Rumpelstiltskin (Dohrn), he runs off on his own.

He finds Rumpelstiltskin on the side of the road, faking a chariot breakdown, and is lured into nostalgic tales of his earlier days. Rumpelstiltskin offers Shrek a contract, he can exchange any day from his past for one day as a feared ogre, one day back to his old ways. Only problem: this contract has some fine print, and Shrek can only come out of it if he figures out the exit clause and gets Fiona to fall in love with him all over again, before sunrise… But the world Shrek is dumped in for his ogre-day is not what he remembered, it is still Far Far Away, but it is, apart from the despotic Rumpelstiltskin’s massive castle, in ruins. Rumpelstiltskin and his witches are at war with war heroin Fiona and her ogres, and Shrek is dumped right in the middle, forced to re-establish all relationships from scratch. Donkey does not know Shrek and works for the witches, Puss in Boots is now a very fat and very domesticated housecat in Fiona’s tent, and Dragon is still regretting the escape of Fiona from her tower. Shrek has to find a way to resolve things if he is to get his life back, and he learns a valuable lesson in the process: You never know what you have until you lose it.

While the movie is much more effectively funny than the zero-imagination Shrek the Third, it doesn’t soar to the heights of the first two Shreks, with the jokes being less than in Shrek the Third, but their execution far better. It also pales in comparison to the thought of the shadow of Toy Story 3 regarding emotional heft, personal impact and story involvement. There are some inventive moments again, but very little of this has not been explored or hinted at in previous Shrek films. The funniest things in the movie are very funny though, with a somewhat creepy kid bugging Shrek to do his famous roar at the very top of my list. Shrek Forever After is light fun, and while it won’t turn your world around like the first two Shrek movies did, you will definitely not regret seeing it.