THE film world is full of good ‘franchises’ and bad ones. Fortunately Shrek falls very much into the good camp. The lovable ogre, brought to life by Mike Myers, is to be honest pretty difficult to dislike.
Shrek Forever After has been dubbed ‘The Final Chapter’ - which means we can assume there’ll be no more. But then who thought they’d manage to make a Weekend At Bernie’s 2. In the film world, never presume.
Shrek Forever After sees the eponymous hero facing what can only be described as a mid life crisis. With a wife, young children, and a life in which he’s a tourist attraction, life is everything but rosy in the swamp.
So he ends up falling in with the nasty low-life Rumpelstiltskin.
What ensues can only be described as It’s a Wonderful Life meets Lords of the Rings with some Northern Lights thrown in for good measure.
Rumpelstiltskin offers Shrek a deal he cannot turn down. He gets one day of his old life back, a day when an ogre is an ogre, chased by villagers with pitchforks. In return Rumpelstiltskin takes a day of Shrek’s life - the day he was born.
There’s a lesson somewhere in always reading the small print, but needless to say Shrek ends up fighting for his very existence, along with the future of Far Far Away. He ends up in a parallel existence where he has to win over Fiona again.
All the favourites are back - Donkey (Eddie Murphy), Fiona (Cameron Diaz), Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) - but perhaps one main surprises is Rumpelstiltskin - a major character voiced by a relatively unknown actor.
If Shrek and Shrek 2 were five-star animations, Shrek 3 for me saw the franchise starting to lose its appeal. It just wasn’t particularly funny. Shrek Forever After is better - although not quite back to the standards of the first two films.
I suppose there’s a limit to just how far you can push anything.
The plot is better, the characters are once again brilliant, but perhaps it’s just not quite as funny any more. There are moments of brilliance, but they come along every now and then - not once a minute like in the first film.
And a gentle warning for parents of younger children. This film is full of ogres (obviously), witches, and the nasty Rumpelstiltskin. The characters are not all nice, and I would imagine for very small children could be quite scary.
My daughter watched most of the film curled up on my lap - and she’s five. And although I say the plot is better, I can also imagine for a small child it could be quite difficult to follow. A parallel dimension's not an easy concept.
But all in all, very watchable, great fun, and Dreamworks taking the franchise back to something approaching its best.
RATING: 4/5
* Tickets courtesy of Cineworld, Shrewsbury