Shrek the Third

The summer of ‘threequels’ rumbles on with the release of Shrek the Third, the imaginatively titled second sequel to the 2002 box office smash. Picking up soon after the events of the second film we find Fiona and Shrek standing in for the king of Far Far Away due to illness. When he dies leaving Shrek as his only heir, much to his dismay. However when Shrek finds out about the existence of another relative he sets off with Donkey and Puss in tow to relieve himself of his responsibility so he can retire peacefully to his beloved swamp.

As you would expect from the films this is a fun and fast paced adventure that manages to squeeze in familiar faces along side a couple of new ones. However while it still looks fantastic and does have some good jokes and one-liners, the cracks are definitely starting to show over what is now the serious expansion of a short story. The trouble is, and other have pointed this out as well, that Shrek was never meant to be quite as successful as it was. Sure it looked good and was funny and clever, but it was a self contained story that didn’t need any more telling. Shrek 2 did a good job of expanding the world, but to me it’s a shame that this film follows more in those shoes, than going back to what made the first film so entertaining which was seeing Shrek in his natural environment, and how he reacted to those around him.

However here we spend most of our time once again in Far Far Away at the castle and it feels like a lot of a re-tread, obviously the prospects of Shrek possibly becoming a father do add to the character, but the formula of Shrek et al. going on a quest while he deals with whatever issue he is dealing with, only to be re-united and save the day at the end is getting pretty tired. Not to say that this isn’t done well, just that it seems more derivative than before and with less emphasis and story points on Donkey and Puss, who are literally there simply on side kick duty, this feels like a rather churned out sequel which is a shame as the Shrek films have always stood out from the animated crowd with that extra layer of quality and attention. Having said that this is not a bad film by any means, there are a few funny scenes and the action is well executed, it just suffers from some rather uninteresting new characters, Justin Timberlake’s Artie springs to mine, and a conclusion that stretches believability a bit too far, not in terms of fantasy but peoples reactions.

However the main characters still amuse and being re-united with them for an hour and a half is hardly a bad thing, it just feels like the fresh spark has gone from the franchise and with a fourth and fifth films on the cards some major re-thinking may need to be done if the series isn’t going to fall into cookie cutter territory. One other problems the series has now is that it is stuck with characters and situations that have been introduced before, case in point Donkey and Dragon’s relationship, now this may have sort of worked in the first film as a slightly disturbing joke slash plot device, but now the sight of weird Dragon/Donkey babies is beyond creepy when you actually think about it, and you feel decisions like this that play as a joke, have just created baggage for the series that you feel weighs it down. With an entire fairy tale world to work with and the mischievous mixing of pop culture references to disrupt expectations the Shrek series has a world of possibilities at it’s feet, and maybe that’s why this very safe offering seems like a disappointment, as does the fact that it’s $300 million plus gross so far in the US pretty much guarantees more of the same in the years to come.

Familiar and rather tame this is still an enjoyable and, at times, clever extension of the series, but it also displays worrying signs of stretching an idea too far and the inclusion of bland characters and familiar situations does nothing to assuage this fear. This time Shrek may scrape by on sheer charm, but a franchise like this should not be caught coasting for long.