Starring (the voices of): Mike
Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy
Cert: U
We left Shrek and Princess Fiona
driving off into the sunset to live happily ever after. Or did we? After all,
this is real life fairy tales and now Shrek is married it’s time to meet the
in-laws and Fiona’s parents are King and Queen of Far Far Away.
Needless to say they aren’t too
pleased that Fiona has permanently changed into an ogre and that she married an
ogre. It turns out that there had been a plan in place that a real Prince
Charming was due to rescue her but he turned up too late. So the King wants rid
of Shrek, Prince Charming wants rid of Shrek and so does Fiona’s Fairy
Godmother.
The moral is
all about image again and how we perceive ourselves through other people’s eyes.
But that’s for the adults to get. As for the kiddies, they’ll see Shrek’s life
threatened, potions taken, a new ‘Shrek’ and ‘Donkey’ and everyone trying to
sort themselves out before the stroke ofmidnight.
The fun in these films is trying
to point out all the extraneous stuff going on; the fair folk who Dreamworks
systematically abuse and identifying the other celebrity voices being employed
(quite a British ensemble). Had you read an earlier article about two of the
characters’ voices being changed for the British public then, like me, you may
spot those characters sticking out like sore thumbs – one more than the other –
and the funny thing being that the particular British talent weren’t even
credited. The US
originals were in the cast list; and the character Joan Rivers had originally
voiced looked like Joan Rivers and
was even called Joan Rivers.
One addition to the Shrek troupe
is Puss in Boots voiced by Antonio Banderas. A swashbuckling ginger cat (listen
for the
Garfield
reference) who is
as vicious as he is wide-eyed adorable. One wonders whether the characters arise
from story development or their merchandising potential. Also check-out the
platform game scene that’s coming to a console near you.
The norm is that sequels are a
pale imitation of their originals. Shrek lacks the novelty of originality simply
because of the first film so that can’t be helped. Where it makes up for it is
in the support characters, a fairly convoluted plot that may slip past the
younger viewers and brilliant animation.
NB: Await the roll of credits for
an extra scene and to see that it really is Jennifer Saunders doing her
singing.
