When Dreamworks delivered their first animated feature, Shrek, most people were very excited and a lot of critics were praising this film as one of the best animated films for a long time. Its not hard to see why that is the case. I, myself, found it very enjoyable and the graphics were very innovative back in those days. Also, it was also interesting to watch this unorthodox fairy tale unfold. After Shrek, I came to the realization that there had to be a second one. Although I hoped it would be better than the first, it would probably be not as good as the original one. That is what Shrek 2 proved to be.
Shrek 2 starts off where Shrek left off. Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) has just returned from his honeymoon with his newlywed wife Fiona (voiced by Cameron Diaz). However, almost as soon as they return, the couple have to go off to Far Far Away to visit Fiona's parents, the King (voiced by John Cleese) and Queen (voiced by Julie Andrews). However, the King is particularly shocked by the fact that Fiona has married an ogre rather than Prince Charming (voiced by Rupert Everett), whom she was supposed to marry. This leaves Prince Charming's mother, the Fairy Godmother (voiced by Jennifer Saunders), infuriated and she plots a scheme to get rid of Shrek in order to get Prince Charming together with Fiona. With this imminent plot against Shrek, it is up to him and his friends, Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy) and Puss-in-Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas) to save Shrek's marriage.
In most animated features, the first thing people notice about them is how smooth the animation is. In terms of animation, Shrek 2 is amongst the best. Not only is the animation very, very smooth like the original one, the graphics have actually improved. The animation looks so real that it almost looks as if the characters on Shrek could look like something out of the real world. This can also be said about the general locations throughout this film, which also are intricately and brilliantly animated.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the script. Shrek 2 tries a little too hard to be funny. The scriptwriters incorporate a lot of humour that is aimed at older audiences such as the parody of the show "COPS" (or "KNIGHTS" as they call it in Shrek) and the "thong" joke with Pinocchio. However, the original film is aimed at children so one would believe that the sequel would also be aimed at children. But with these type of jokes, you wonder whether this film is directed at children or not.
With Shrek 2, the film becomes less original. When the original film came out 5 years ago, people were enthralled by the originality of the film. Its not everyday where you have an ogre as the protagonist of a fairy tale story. After watching this film, Shrek begins to lose its originality tag. Talking animals are not new. Having an ogre as the protagonist is not new. Being against the majority is not new. Basically, Shrek 2 is unable to come up with anything different, but then again sequels are almost never more original than its prequel (even with the Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter). I also felt that the plot was very predictable with this film. From the very beginning, it is very easy to see what plot twists the film was going to come up with. The ending was very easy to predict after about an hour into the film.
Despite its faults, Shrek 2 is able to include new characters such as the arrogant, good-looking Prince Charming and the conniving, far from lovely Fairy Godmother. As stereotypical as the new characters are, these are the characters that children love to hate and it follows the concept that the real antagonists are the people that are most unlikely to be enemies. Also, using characters mentioned in the first film such as the Muffin Man in Drury Lane further shows how the scriptwriters tried their best to incorporate what was in the first film into the second film.
The film's soundtrack still consists of very upbeat, rocking songs such as Holding Out For a Hero, Living La Vida Loca and Funkytown. These are the kind of songs that both the adults and children can enjoy and the song choices in this soundtrack are very similar to the soundtrack of the original Shrek film.
As for the vocal performances in the film, there are mixed reactions here. Mike Myers is still decent as Shrek, Cameron Diaz just did what she had to do here, while Eddie Murphy started to become annoying as Donkey. At times, I was left with the feeling that Murphy was being Eddie Murphy not a character in an animated feature. I thought Antonio Banderas' turn as Puss-in-Boots was hilarious, although he depends a lot on the animators for us to sympathize with him, particularly when Puss goes all "cutesy" with those eyes. Nevertheless, it was a decent animated performance. I was also impressed by John Cleese's turn as the King and Rupert Everett was perfectly suited for the role of Prince Charming, as was Jennifer Saunders as Fairy Godmother.
Shrek 2, as you can see, is still an enjoyable film and I must commend the directing team of Andrew Ashbury, Kelly Ashbury and Conrad Vernon for allowing the film to move at a quick pace. But this film has a lot of flaws. The flaws bring the film down considerably and this results in the film in becoming a fairly ordinary film, which is kind of sad because I really did enjoy this film. But I will still recommend it anyway. It is the kind of film that the family should enjoy, even though there are jokes that some kids will not understand.
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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