Pros: All your favorite characters are back; Antonio Banderas!
Cons: The movie plays like it's a mere marketing tool.
The Bottom Line: If it looks like a sequel and acts like a sequel, it must be a sequel. This movie was inspired by the Shrek franchise rather than a children's novel, obviously.
First off, I can's say I was disappointed by Shrek 2. This movie is, pretty much, what I expected. It's entertaining and my kids loved it, but it's not nearly as enjoyable as the original. I suppose the difference is this -- Shrek was inspired by the children's novel by William Steig while Shrek 2 was inspired by the enterprise spawned by the first movie. That translates into a sequel which is calculated to continue the franchise and wring a few more bucks out of it. In short, the producers of Shrek did their best to take the best elements from the movie and toss more of them at the viewer in Shrek 2.
We've seen this kind of thing before, of course. It was done with the Lilo and Stitch franchise as well as Alladin and Beuty and the Beast. In all of those instances -- Shrek included -- you started with a truly fantastic film and tried to follow the success of it with sequels of considerably less quality. Fortunately, Shrek 2 is darn entertaining, and it wasn't a bad choice for my three-year-old daughters first, honest-to-goodness, in-the-theater movie. She liked it just fine, as did my seven-year-old son. In the end, that's all that really counts, isn't it?
Shrek 2 starts out where the previous movie left off. We have Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and Shrek (Mike Myers) returning from their honeymoon. As soon as they walk through the door of their home in the swamp, their greeted by Donkey (Eddie Murphy) who is on the outs with his beloved Dragon. So, he's looking for a place to escape the "little woman" when Fiona is summoned to her parents' castle so they can meet their new son-in-law. Donkey, wanting to escape his domestic life, decides to tag along.
As it turns out, Fiona is the daughter of the King (John Cleese) and Queen (Julie Andrews) of Far Far Away -- a kingdom which is obviously a parody of Hollywood, complete with the rampant materialism and snotty attitudes generally portrayed in, well, parodies of Hollywood. It seems the King and Queen are under the impression that Fiona has married Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) and has, therefore, broken the spell which turned her into an ogre at night. Naturally, they're a bit surprised to see Fiona has married Shrek and has chosen to remain an ogre. The rotten person here is Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders), Prince Charming's mother. She is determined to set things right and have her son married to Fiona, regardless.
So, she leans on King a bit and he hires an ogre-slayer, the feared Puss-in-Boots (Antonio Banderas). And, so the die is cast. Will Fiona learn to love herself, once again, for who she is? Will Shrek remain happy? Will Donkey be as annoying as ever? What does Puss-in-Boots add to the mix? I won't answer those questions for you as it will spoil the movie, and you may want to run out and see it.
I will, however, talk about Puss-in-Boots a bit. Yes, we have another annoying character competing for time with Donkey. Fortunately, Banderas' oily, suave charm adds a nice little dimension, and who can't help but chuckle at the way Puss-in-Boots uses the "big eye" to cause enemies to "ooh" and "ah" rather than attack him? Puss-in-Boots provides some calculated fun to the film, just like everything else.
The humor, while still enjoyable, seems forced this time around. There's the usual "potty humor" as well as enough jokes thrown in that only adults will get. Still, it appears the characters do what is expected of them. They take shots at all the right things, break into song when expected and, essentially, replicate a lot of the elements of the first movie. I can't help but think at least a couple of marketing majors had something to do with this little film. That's not a good feeling to have when sitting in the theater, folks.
The animation is pretty good, too. The characters are well-lit and convey emotions well, but minor characters are still stiff and cheap-looking (sounds like Shrek all over again, doesn't it)? Still, we live in the age of computer animation, and this movie was done pretty well in that regard.
All in all, I enjoyed this movie and I'm glad I went. Still, this may be one you might want to wait for on DVD if you have kids. You'll save a lot of money that way, and it's nice to be able to escape the home theater setup from time to time and take a break.
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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