Shrek

Review by James Anthony

Here we are at an animated children's movie and, to our horror, what do we discover - that Fat Bastard (of Austin Powers fame) seems to have eaten the title character Shrek.

Why do we suspect this? Well, Shrek is very big. His accent is Scottish. And he has a very suspect diet of bugs, gassed fish and other assorted yukkies. (Although, thankfully, not children.)

Then again, Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) is a pretty nice guy - for an ogre - and he certainly doesn't wander around like a cellulite-ridden airship saying "I'm dead sexy, you were crap!" like FB.

In fact, Shrek is so nice that you immediately bond with him and want him to achieve his desire to be left alone in his swamp and not be bothered by annoying creatures.

Unfortunately, for him, the ruler of the land is a horrid wee man called Prince Farquaad, who hates fairy-tale characters and wants to expel them from his realm and put them all in Shrek's swamp.

There are squillions of the best known fairy-tale creatures in the movie from The Three Bears, Pinocchio, Snow White … et al … and it is fair to say that Disney cops a fair amount of stick.

The scene where the pint-sized Farquaad tortures a Gingerbread Man is just fantastic and will have you crying with laughter as the little swine tries to interrogate the biscuit about the mysterious Muffin Man.

However, worse is in store for Shrek in the shape a talking donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy), who has the worst case of verbal diarrhroea yet to hit the big screen.

Murphy is a scene stealer without equal and, like his performance in Mulan, will have you in fits.

To cut a long tale short, Farquaad agrees to empty out Shrek's swamp if the green ogre will rescue a fair princess for him so he can marry and become king.

This is not an easy task, even for a hugely strong ogre, because the castle she is kept in is guarded by a big, nasty dragon who has fried more knights than a fast-food store.

The feisty princess (Cameron Diaz) is happy to be saved and looks forward to giving her prince a kiss of perfect love. On the journey back to Farquaad's lands, however, things get a bit confused and let's just say romance is in the air.

A terrific script, excellent animations and a host of marvelous characters put Shrek right up with some of the best ways to spend an hour-an-a-half.

Shrek is a hugely enjoyable movie to see and will appeal - at different levels - to adults and children (particularly the bodily-function jokes) alike.

Shrek
Dreamworks
Rated: PG.
Australian release date: July, 2001.
Director: Andrew Adamson, Victoria Jenson.
Cast: Voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, John Lithgow and Cameron Diaz.
Running time: 89 minutes.
Website: www.shrek.com