Excellent, But Inferior to the Original

Rating: 9/10 (10 June 2004)

There are two things missing from Shrek 2 that the original had. The first is John Lithgow - what a great villain. Lord Farquaad made the movie with his arrogant, smarmy attitude, and the way he went about seemingly unaware of his height. The second is the sense of wonderment that the original gave us with its cutting edge animation. Shrek 2 has a little bit of "been-there-done-that" attached to it.
The open scene is outstanding. Shrek and Fiona are newlyweds and enjoying there new life together. In a matter of minutes, the pop-culture references fly by. Lord of the Rings, Spiderman, The Little Mermaid, Jaws and even From Here to Eternity are parodied. Its quite wonderful.
Shrek and Fiona receive notice that they are to travel to the land of Far Far Away to meet Fiona's parents, voiced by Julie Andrews and the immensely underused John Cleese. Donkey comes along for the ride and in the first act of the movie, provides nearly all the laughs. The villain this time around is the fairy godmother, who had hopes of her own son, the spoiled and whiny Prince Charming, marrying Fiona, and now wants things set straight.
Of the new characters, the best is clearly Antonio Banderas' Puss-n-Boots, a swashbuckling Kitty that is a beautiful send up of his own turn as Zorro. The Fairy Godmother is given lots of cute quirks like an eating disorder, but I found her to be annoying.
I attended Shrek 2 with my two youngest children, age 4 and 8, and they were thoroughly entertained. The movie was not as frightening as the original, and even though it brims with nudge-nudge jokes for the adults, there are plenty of gags for the kids. It will be a movie to see several times to catch all the little gags. For example, when King Harold is given the Love Potion to give to Fiona, there is a little "IX" (#9) on the bottle. Or the Land of Far Far Away's coffee shop, Farbucks, and the fact that there are two across the road from eachother.
I would have to heartily disagree with anyone who feels that Shrek 2 is a better film than Shrek. It is not as funny, drags a bit and has a couple of complete klunker scenes (the giant gingerbread man). It is still better than most movies in the multi-plex circuit and most worthy of your $12. ***1/2 out of ****.