SHREK THE THIRD (2007)

Add Review To List
Add Film To List
Write Your Own Review

"All the glitz and glamour is back in Shrek³, but the cleverness and razor-sharp wit made the franchise appeal to adults as well as children is absent. What was once innovative has turned formulaic, and parents everywhere will be rolling their eyes."

Next in the long line of trilogy-cappers this summer season is the return of everybody's favorite Ogre, Donkey, Puss, Gingerbread man, and...Justin Timberlake? Shrek the Third is in many ways a dumbed-down, more juvenile version of the first two. Now I know what you're thinking, the movie is rated PG, isn't it supposed to be Juvenile? But if the past two installments of the franchise have taught us anything, its that when done right, animated films can bounce children in their seats and resonate with parents at the same time. And that's exactly where this movie falls short of the first two.

There is certainly plenty to laugh at here, from the Gingerbread man's back-story to Antonio Banderas trapped inside of a cat and a donkey. Eddie Murphy is a delight as usual, (let's just hope nobody tries to give him an award for this) and some great Monty-Python cameos like Eric Idle as Merlin and the return of John Cleese as the Frog King almost bring the roof down. But all goofiness aside, there really isn't one tidbit of humor here for anybody over the age of 15. What's missing is that remarkably effervescent tone of sarcasm and wry wit that comes from having characters that just plain don't like each other. What's missing are the punch lines that soar just over the children's heads and into the adult's hearts with precision not normal for a kid's movie. Because of this, to me Shrek the Third seems eerily incomplete...like the writers went on vacation halfway through and nobody noticed.

The story is formulaic at best, and unlike the fist films, they jump immediately into the action without much introduction or buildup. To sum it up without spoiling anything, Shrek has to either become the King of Far, Far Away or convince the only other living heir to take the job. And so the super team of Donkey, Puss-In-Boots, and Shrek must travel abroad to find Arthur, a punky pre-teen voiced by Justin Timberlake who for whatever reason is afraid of taking up a position previously held by a talking frog. In a cruel twist of fate and role-reversal, Prince Charming is now the villain in the story and he decides to raise an army of all the fairy-tale losers to take back the Kingdom while Shrek is out on business. Eventually, the film delivers on its PG morals, but in the end feels just a bit too much like all the Disney movies that Shrek 1 & 2 mocked so well.

So like I said, there is a lot to laugh at here especially for children. But unlike the first two films, parents may be rolling their eyes at parts and certainly won't be laughing right along with their kids throughout. The animation is crisp and clean as usual, and the regular characters all deliver serious laughter. Still, as a fan of the first two movies you can't help but feel like something is missing here. There are no wonderfully placed jabs at pop-culture idols or political figures. In many ways, what you see is what you get with Shrek the Third, and what you get is a very predictable, very juvenile, albeit very funny capper to a franchise that is just about out of steam.

-Aaron Steven