The graphics, of course, are state of the art for at least another 2 weeks. And the Fairytale Creatures.excellent, all of them. Lithgow's Farquaad is a wonderful Bad Guy, modelled on Olivier's Richard III apart from his Little Problem being different. Diaz is great as a feisty princess who reminds me of Lloyd Alexander's Eilonwy crossed with Lara Croft. As for the acting, confinement to voice-overs keeps the egos of Myers and Murphy in check, and they do a fantastic job as the big fat green smelly recluse and the obnoxiously manic donkey respectively. As a fairytale, however offbeat, "Shrek" is tighter plotted and better characterised than most Hollywood dross.The parodic twists, a love story subplot that owes more to Shakespeare's comedies than fairytale formula, and the "ugly is the new beautiful" Message more than make up for the derivativeness due to extensive quotation. You name it, it gets an affectionate pie in the face at some point in "Shrek".
I spotted (mis)quotes from films that are just being released, both Disney and non-Disney. And it's not just old classics that get the treatment. Every time a scene looks familiar, it means it is about to go pear-shaped. On the other hand, if you are cynical about theme parks and like the idea of fairytale classics getting the Monty Python treatment, you'll love it. If predictability and saccharine is your cup of tea, you may not like it. Be warned that this movie is a non-stop send-up of all things Disney. One little voice in the afternoon audience piping up "WHAT's he compensating for?" cracked me up. The dialogue and main action quips are mainly aimed at adults and sophisticated kids. This is a *very* funny movie, but it should be noted that most of the kiddy humour is on the burp/fart and yucky dining habits level - Shrek is rather closely related to Raymond Briggs' Fungus the Bogeyman without the orange mohawk. Interesting to see the different audience reactions of different age groups, too. Some of the shock value was lost, but we caught a few of the background sight gags we missed the first time, and anticipation of some of the other scenes had us in tears before they even happened. Two hours later, we dragged a friend out and went back for the evening show.
We were still giggling by the time we got home afterwards. 9 OUT OF 10!!!! We went to catch the matinee preview of "Shrek".
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