Director: Mike Mitchell Starring: voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas Running Time: 1 hour, 33 minutes Theatrical Release: May 21, 2010 Shop for Shrek Merchandise

Plot Summary

After challenging an evil dragon, rescuing a beautiful princess and saving your in-laws’ kingdom, what’s an ogre to do? Well, if you’re Shrek, you suddenly wind up a domesticated family man. Instead of scaring villagers away like he used to, a reluctant Shrek now agrees to autograph pitch forks. What’s happened to this ogre’s roar? Longing for the days when he felt like a “real ogre,” Shrek is duped into signing a pact with the smooth-talking dealmaker, Rumpelstiltskin. Shrek suddenly finds himself in a twisted, alternate version of Far Far Away, where ogres are hunted, Rumpelstiltskin is king and Shrek and Fiona have never met. Now, it’s up to Shrek to undo all he’s done in the hopes of saving his friends, restoring his world and reclaiming his one True Love. (from MovieWeb.com)

Film Review

It’s no secret that since the success of Shrek 2 in 2004, the series has gone down hill. Because of the first sequel’s smash hit status, the studio had talked about the possibility of eight – count ‘em – eight more Shrek films. While that sounded excessive, it was understood that if each film could deliver like the first two did, the series would be a welcomed franchise. However, when Shrek The Third was served in 2007, the film not only seemed to fall unwanted upon Shrek-ed out moviegoers, but the film itself was widely viewed as a disappointment, and the series came to a screeching halt. The talk of multiple sequels quieted, while plans for the fourth had already been underway. By the time buzz began to build for the fourth installment, promotion for the film began to center on the idea that this movie would indeed be Shrek’s final chapter. What had begun as a beloved series has somehow become sort of an exhausted trend.

To properly prepare for watching Shrek Forever After, I rewatched the previous films in one evening. The story has a good progression and maturation of the character of Shrek, but the best of the bunch is still easily the first sequel, Shrek 2. That film took what people loved about the first film, shook it up and made it even more fantastical. It introduced Antonio Banderas’ beloved Puss In Boots as well as Fiona’s parents – voiced by Julie Andrews and John Cleese (how awesome is that?!). Shrek The Third was the beginning of the end. It didn’t feel very much like the previous films, and it sort of approached the story from the misguided mind set that “bigger is better.” And sadly, that is not the case. Yet, while they tried to throw the kitchen sink into the third film, the Shrek series had begun to lose its gusto. Shrek himself was becoming domesticated, losing the elements of his character that made people fall in love with him in the first place. Plus, part of what made the Shrek films so much fun was the dynamic between Shrek and Donkey (wonderfully voiced by Eddie Murphy). With Shrek The Third and Shrek Forever After, that dynamic is horribly missing or diminished and the films suffer because of it. The other major problem is the change in directors in the later two sequels. The first two films were co-directed by Andrew Adamson, while the latest two were handed over to completely different teams. The end result certainly shows it.

Shrek Forever After picks up less than a year after where Shrek The Third left off. Shrek is starting to feel suffocated by his domesticated lifestyle and is tired of the monotony of parenthood and his star status in the kingdom. He merely wishes to live life as an ogre again. This is where Rumpelstiltskin comes in. The series throws out the reality that Rumpelstiltskin appeared as a scrawny, entirely different character in Shrek The Third, and expects no one to notice this and accept the fact that this little weasel has been lurking in the background of the story since the events of the first Shrek. It’s not a major continuity error, but it’s really one of the only significant continuity errors in the four-film series. Upon making a deal with the devil (so to speak), Shrek follows in the footsteps of George Bailey for a sort of It’s A Wonderful Life meets Back To The Future 2 – experiencing what life would have been like if the events of the first film never even happened, and he experiences an alternate reality. Of course, in this tale, it’s no angel trying to make him realize how much worth is in his life, instead we have a villain that threaten’s Shrek’s very existence.

The movie has a completely different feel out of the gate. For one, it’s much, much darker – even darker than the third film. Also, as we watch Shrek struggle a domesticated life as a husband and father, it no longer feels like a Shrek film. And when his world is turned upside down, not even the alternate Far Far Away feels like a Shrek film. In an attempt to be fresh and new, somehow Fiona became some sort of barbarian ogre outlaw while a large race of more-hideous-than-the-next-guy horde of ogres that for some reason exist just because Shrek didn’t save the princess and don’t exist if he did? While the idea of Donkey never knowing Shrek or Puss somehow becoming Fiona’s pet and therefore being fat and lazy (a fat, orange, lazy cat… Garfield, anyone?) sounds rather humorous on paper, in the context of the Shrek series, I would think fans would want to see their favorite characters in action one more time as themselves and not as almost entirely different characters. The premise has its moments, but ultimately, it’s pretty humorless and all-around disappointing. I found myself waiting for the story to become more fun or exciting, but I felt like I had seen most of this movie already in the trailer. The trailer offered almost all of the film’s funniest moments, and I didn’t find the trailer all that funny to begin with. In the first movie, Shrek is a grumpy ogre who has to deal with circumstances beyond his control. He has an unlikely partnership with a talkative Donkey and entertainment ensues. In Shrek Forever After, Shrek is a ultimately a sad, lovable big guy going through some sort of mid-life crisis, forced to try to find a way to get his life back to the way it was before he met Rumple. These just don’t feel like the same characters.

The content of Shrek Forever After is the most mild of all the Shrek films. Because Shrek is now a big green warm fuzzy teddy bear, most of his attitude and sass is gone. The only language in the film – a “h*ll” and a use of the “a” word – are both uttered by Donkey, with both either coming out very quick or a bit obscured by Donkey’s delivery. There is a little bit of crude humor, but most of it is especially mild compared to the previous films. We see what looks like a feminine male witch who makes eyes towards Fiona’s father (who is repulsed by this), while a male ogre named Cookie acts pretty flamboyant. A few minor comments are also made – like, for example, Donkey starts picking up a scent and saying it smells “delicious” and Shrek, thinking Donkey is talking about Fiona, scolds him for talking about his wife that way (really, Donkey is smelling and describing food). The film has some violence – mostly nonlethal action violence and the throwing of knives and axes, but nothing outrageously violent.

All in all, Shrek Forever After successfully wraps up the series in a neat little bow, but does it in a pretty bizarre and lackluster way. This hardly feels like the same Shrek we fell in love with nearly a decade ago. While some can say Shrek matured over the course of the series, the fact remains that the ingredients that made the franchise start out so strongly died with the conclusion of the second film. Switching directors halfway through the four films certainly took its toll on the third and fourth chapters (and an inexperienced writer for this one doesn’t help either). Shrek Forever After was helmed, curiously, by Mike Mitchell, whose credits include the atrocious Surviving Christmas and the adult-themed Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. Whatever made the studio pick Mitchell to finish off a beloved family series is beyond me. Diehard Shrek fans may just be content enough getting one more outing with some of their favorite characters, but considering how many changes have taken place and how much little time we get with the actual characters we love here, even they are likely to be disappointed. Shrek Forever After is entertaining enough, but for anyone wishing for the enchantment from the first two films will be sorely disappointed. The series probably should have ended six years ago. If a fifth film somehow finds its way into production, let’s all hope DreamWorks goes back to the drawing board and returns the series to what worked in the first place.