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I really liked Shrek when it was released in 2001. I didn’t even mind at the time that it won the first Best Animated Feature Oscar over Monsters Inc.. To this day it remains a really funny and imaginatively told story, packed with great jokes, characters, and creative pop culture references. It was a different breed of fairy tale and, at that time, a glorious example of the computer-generated features that were just becoming popular. And though it’s a dubious distinction, Shrek was also the last VHS I owned. The “Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party” extra that was included on the tape was perhaps my favorite part of the entire movie. It was a slick few minutes, but they ended the movie with an enthusiasm that is rarely featured in a Pixar film.
And then there were sequels.
Yay?
I have not watched Shrek 2 since I saw it in 2004, and it was only this summer that I took the time to watch Shrek the Third. It is fair to say that neither film is bad; they actually succeed on many levels in entertaining an audience. But both films lack something that is hard to identify, and it has to do with importance: these sequels do not feel needed. DreamWorks Animation has succeeded in producing financially successful movies that rely on old ideas, producing sequels to Shrek, Madagascar, and Kung Fu Panda (in 2011) that feel more like straight-to-DVD quality. The production values remain stellar, yet the stories and characters (and jokes) get thinner with each iteration. Nothing truly original has grown out of the franchise since Shrek, with the exception of Puss in Boots, voiced with charm by Antonio Banderas. Puss is a marvelous supporting character, and works best in small, brilliant moments. Yet he is getting his own movie (Puss in Boots: The Story of an Ogre Killer) in 2011, and the true test will be whether the film attracts the same audience as Shrek, in hopes that more sequels can be made from that franchise.
Some information was released over Thanksgiving about the fourth film in the Shrek series in USA Today. Surprisingly, it states that this film, Shrek Forever After, will be the last. Will it go out with a bang? I don’t know, ask the guy who forced Deuce Bigelow unto the world:
The premise is the Brothers Grimm meets It’s a Wonderful Life: After rescuing a princess, getting hitched and fathering triplets, Shrek is feeling over-domesticated. “He has lost his roar,” says director Mike Mitchell (Sky High, Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo). “It used to send villagers running away in terror. Now they run to him and ask him to sign their pitchforks and torches.”
To regain his ogre mojo, he strikes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin, the wee troublemaker who popped up briefly in Shrek 2 and 3. Of course, the pact goes awry and Shrek must confront what life would be like in Far Far Away if he had never existed. That translates into Donkey being forced into cart-pulling duty, fat and lazy Puss in Boots trading his sword for a pink bow and the underhanded Rumpelstiltskin ruling the kingdom.
No Shrek outing would be complete without new characters, and there are a bunch. Comedians Kathy Griffin and Kristin Schaal (Flight of the Conchords) are witches who hunt ogres. On the side of good is an underground resistance group led by Jon Hamm of Mad Men. “He is the best-looking ogre you’ve ever seen,” Mitchell says.
So does Shrek Forever After wrap up with everyone living happily ever after? “I hate to give away the ending,” Mitchell says, “but yes.”
Sounds like the plot of every Shrek film, with even more celebrity voices than before. Perhaps there will be an opening rock number in which they creatively display the opening credits … and then 2/3 of the way through there can be a sad montage set to the beat of of a mellow singer/songwriter. And maybe Donkey will say something sassy, and then Puss could do something cute! And maybe, just maybe, Pinocchio will do something weirdly and wildly inappropriate, like wear a thong. Who knows? This is a whole new movie.
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