Pros: The animation and character of Puss in Boots; some minor characters; the Donkey; overall animation
Cons: Loud and somewhat jaded, with satire that misses its mark.
The Bottom Line: The film will pass the time amiably; it won’t insult your intelligence often. But there are worthier substitutes: a bubblebath, walk in the park, drawing a picture, daydreaming, Shrek 1...
Shrek 2 is a louder, busier, and ultimately more crass and heartless revisiting of Shrek, itself a louder, busier and ultimately more crass and heartless rendering of William Steig’s original charming and slight children’s book of 1990. While the first film took often brilliant aim at Disney’s commodification, homogenization and commercialization of ultra-slick entertainment, all the while exploring a gently subversive tale that endorses difference, unabashed ugliness, and blithe originality, the sequel strives mightily to revisit the satire as well as “inner beauty” theme material, but errs in overkill and bombast. The score and hit parade alone is a kinetic and relentless “please buy this soundtrack instantly!” pot-pourri of oldies but goodies and new-but-awful songs that rarely give the gorgeous animation (or the spectator) space to breathe.
The story retreads familiar territory, sometimes successfully, as in the winking introduction that has great fun with the incongruity of joyous ogres on a honeymoon. Gross-out jokes and a campy joie de vivre characterize the mood, and I felt in the same smart company as the makers of the first film; after all, anyone who can cleverly send up the puffed up solemnity and sanctity of the Disney franchise, and in an animated form, no less, is probably on the right track. (Then again, the far more subversive and yet curiously sentimental South Park does it all better and with disarmingly simplistic animation and dialogue.)
But it is hard to take the satire against chain stores and Hollywood that are a major undercurrent to Shrek 2 without observing that the movie itself (on the basis of its precursor) is already a giant franchise itself. Also, the first movie wedded the non-conformist attack on homogeneity in an integral way to its plot: the evil Lord Farquaad lives in a theme park castle and demands his subjects to behave like white-bread sycophants. In this instance, the joke is supposed to be on Hollywood, reconfigured as a land called “Far Far Away” replete with stores whose names are Medieval/Renaissancized twists on Starbucks, Tower Records, Gap and so on. But most moviegoers will be watching this film in a multiplex nested in a row of similar shops; the satire will have been made completely useless when they take their dinner in The Olive Garden before buying the movie’s coloring book in the neighboring Barnes and Nobles.
But I digress.
The plot is a slight variation on the original movie, which may or may not be a good thing depending on how much you liked Shrek and how much you want your sequels to differ from their predecessors. The ogre Shrek (Mike Myers, still funny Scottish accent and timing) and Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) are on their honeymoon when hardly have they settled down back home in the swamp than they are summoned to Fiona’s home (“Far Far Away”) to receive her parents’ blessing on her marriage. As it turns out, an evil Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders) is vying for her dimwitted but gorgeous son Charming (Rupert Everett) who has been beaten to the chase for Fiona’s hand by Shrek. Once again, Donkey (Eddie Murphy) is along for the journey, but this time, he (and indeed, the entire rest of the film’s characters, plots, and animation) is outshone by a new sidekick, Puss in Boots (voiced with admirable relish, humor and variety by Antonio Banderas). The extraordinary animation of Puss in Boots alone is almost worth the price of admission, though by comparison, the directors (Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon) failed to infuse the remainder of the film’s cast and plots with the same level of whimsy, artfulness and joy.
Once again, the theme of good-heartedness embedded in outward “ugliness” versus heinousness and villainy housed in eye-pleasing forms is a dominant one. In this case, Shrek’s otherness, especially in the eyes of Fiona’s father, is painted in broad terms with racial overtones that ultimately fall a bit flat. Oddly, for all its seemingly inclusive and free-thinking views on difference, the film lacks the same innocence of Steig’s book, and even the sham of caring more deeply about these matters that the first film pulls off more adroitly. Perhaps the lack of innocence results from the constant stream of topical jokes and nudges to the audience (presumably of all ages), such as the poster of Justin Timberlake in the childhood home of Princess Fiona— all things which I believe detract from the impact or honesty of the more heartfelt aspects of the film, and contribute to its “coolness.” Of course, the noisy rock soundtrack does its job of raising the coolness level, obliterating subtlety and childhood’s more expansive imaginative space.
Shrek 2 has its fair share of funny bits and lines, but its soul or heart, or whatever that thing is that can enliven moving images (animated or otherwise), is slick and jaded— perhaps without knowing so— and I feel a bit sad for all the children who will believe they’ve seen a worthy movie because it tickled them with lots of fart and burp jokes, and even stimulated them with some clever puns and ideas, but which hardly took any risks with plot or character, and which doesn’t believe too convincingly in the beauty of its monsters.
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To be fair, for family entertainment, Shrek 2 is leaps and bounds better than your average summer fare: a glance at the noxious Garfield shown in trailers curdled my milk and made me realize in retrospect how artful and smart (smartful?) the feature is in the company of its current crop of peers. Maybe comparison is unjust— comparison to the first Shrek, to the book, to other films. But I can’t help it; I long for a hint of the humanity and truly childlike imagination of a Hayao Miyazaki (in films like Totoro and Spirited Away), even while acknowledging that big Hollywood studios rarely see beyond the big bank in the sky. Now give me my giant decaf mocha latte.
In this meet-the-parents sequel to the romantic fairy tale in which two ogres fall in love SHREK 2 brings the loveable green menace voiced by Mike Mey...More at Family Video
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