aver Age (get it?)

Rating: 5/10 (20 March 2008)

The first half an hour of this was so yawn-inducing, with cut-rate characters, and B grade ideas, that when the low-stakes conflict was introduced (returning a lost baby!?) I could not have been less interested. I turned it off with no interest in watching the rest. But then I needed something to fall asleep to later, so I put it back in.
Yes, the movie had no hope of being better than a mediocre animated 'Three Men and a Baby.' But the quality improves a little. I laughed a few times ("Iceberg ahead, captain!"). And the sequence where Manny relives the demise of his family is touching, and subtly done in a style of animation based on cave paintings.
The humans here are creepy, but then they're intended to be so. No one has ever provided an explanation on why the humans in Shrek are so damned stiff and disturbing.
The DVD is designed so poorly that if you put it in your laptop it will insist that you view the games menu and not let you access the movie, even if you just want to watch it.