Ok, but nothing special (**1/2)

Rating: 6/10 (8 June 2004)

I was one of the five people who didn't completely fawn over the original "Shrek". I thought there were parts that were hugely clever and funny and it was beautifully animated and had a good soundtrack, but as a whole I found it uninvolving and despite its engaging, carefree spirit, a bit dull.

"Shrek 2" is pretty much exactly the same. Beautiful animation, quirky rock and pop songs on the soundtrack including a cover of an old Buzzcocks song (!), and there are some very clever jokes. But Mike Myers' faux-Scottish accent is still annoying, Eddie Murphy's voice is still PROFOUNDLY annoying, and once again, the story itself is uninvolving for the most part.

"Shrek 2" picks up just after the honeymoon as Shrek and Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) are getting home. They receive an invitation from her parents (the King and Queen of Far, Far Away) to come home so they can meet her husband. So it's basically like "Meet The Parents" with fairy tale characters. I think they could have been a little more creative.

There's also a complicated subplot about a scheming Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders) and her dim son, Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) that isn't interesting enough to go into.
One good new character is Puss-In-Boots (Antonio Banderas), a witty little cat who can disarm anyone by turning on his big, weepy kitten eyes. Hopefully for "Shrek 3" they could get rid of Donkey (Murphy's irritating character) and keep Puss-In-Boots around.
There are some good jokes scattered around, such as a TV show that's like "Cops" called "Knights" and a scene where a giant gingerbread man is attacking a Starbucks, and the people inside run out and take cover in...another Starbucks right across the street.
And once again there's some good songs (by artists like Tom Waits, eels, Counting Crows, Frou Frou). But they blow that in the end, because of all the songs in the world, they actually choose "Livin' La Vida Loca" as the closing number (did ANYONE EVER want to hear that song again?)

So it's smart and pretty funny in places, but like the original "Shrek" there's just something not quite satisfying about it.