"What are ye doin in MY SWAMP?!"
A movie I seem to know mostly by heart - not through choice, but I guess it's just my date of birth. Also I had a useless English teacher one year who played it at least four times, apparently to teach us some rudimentary media studies.
It's an enjoyable romp through the swamp, headed by Mike Myers doing Shrek's terrible Scottish accent (I actually didn't realise it was meant to be be Scottish until a few years ago, but I can hear the resemblance to Fat Bastard from 'Austin Powers' now that I think about it) with Eddie Murphy as Donkey and Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona.
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| I'd give that five minutes. |
It's still a fun one to see, with jokes for older audiences as well as more basic stuff. They cut it pretty close with the "do you think he's compensating for something" one, and it almost upped the pg rating.
The story falls together well for the most part, though the ending feels kind of rushed, and several elements feel disjointed. Despite this, character development is excellent, with no huge leaps being made until the end. The twisting of the classic fairytale stories is nice to see, reminding me of things like 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Monsters, Inc.' Only Pixar could have made this movie. It's just too original to be Disney, and is a worthy addition to their run of hits (not talking about the sequels).
The animation is good, if not groundbreaking. 'Monsters, Inc.' Came out in the same year, and Sully's fur kind of stole the show on the 3D animation front. Despite this, the set and character designs are great, without pulling attention away from the story. The character's personalities and interactions feel organic, which is important in animation, though at times I do get a dangerously Jar Jar Binks feeling from Donkey - sorry Donkey, you're alright most of the time.
Also, this is the first review I've done that hasn't contained spoilers. Yay.
Shrek: 58.7