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August 1, 2004 INTRODUCTION Shrek 2 continues where the first Shrek left off – swamp ogre Shrek (Mike Myers) and his wife Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) have just finished honeymooning and return home when they receive an invitation from Fiona’s parents (John Cleese and Julie Andrews) to go back to her homeland: the kingdom known as ‘Far, Far Away’. Shrek reluctantly goes with Fiona to the place with his bothering friend Donkey (Eddie Murphy). Unfortunately, when the Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders), whose son Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) had been betrothed with Fiona, finds out that she has married Shrek, she threatens the King to get rid of the ogre. The King then hires professional ogre-slayer Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) to kill Shrek, but unexpectedly, Puss befriends him and Donkey. The rest of the film deals with how the Fairy Godmother continues her plan on getting rid of Shrek and making Fiona marry her son. REVIEW With an extraordinary US box office records, Shrek 2 seems destined to be the highest-grossing summer movie of 2004. But is it really that good? After two traditionally-animated flops (2002’s Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron and 2003’s Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas), Dreamworks finds out that it has to make a sequel for its successful Shrek to make more money. But with last year’s Disney/Pixar effort Finding Nemo breaking records to be the highest-grossing animated film, it seemed difficult for Dreamworks to beat Nemo again. But ultimately, Shrek 2 defeated Nemo and went on going up and up and up.... But frankly, I think it doesn’t pare up with other animated films such as Finding Nemo, The Lion King, or even its predecessor. The plot is a bit simple and there are hardly any twists. There aren’t too much surprises and the ending is very predictable. The original was far more interesting and had a very unexpected ending. Nevertheless, the film has its good points. The introduction to Puss in Boots was fantastic. The scriptwriters were obviously making fun of Puss' voice actor Antonio Banderas' role in The Mask of Zorro. Banderas also did an equally fantastic job as the voice of the cat. Eddie Murphy as the chatterbox Donkey was brilliant too. But personally, I think most of the laughs from the film were made by the fairy-tale characters, such as Pinocchio; the Three Blind Mice; the Gingerbread Man; and Larry King as the masculine Ugly Stepsister was simply hilarious. Also, Shrek 2 aims at a more mature audience rather than little kids. Would little kids notice the film’s spoofs to The Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man, Raiders of the Lost Ark, or even The Little Mermaid? In conclusion, Shrek 2 is by no means better than the first film. But it is also by no means a bad film. It is very entertaining and hilarious, and as a sequel, it’s pretty good. If only the people at Dreamworks could add some more interesting new ideas to the plot, or it would gain a higher mark from me.
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