A nice follow up, but not as good as it's predecessor

Rating: Null/10 (3 July 2004)

SPOILERS
In 2001, arguably the greatest animated film of all time was released. "Shrek", a story of an Ogre that just desired his swamp back, was a beautiful story based in a Fairytale Kingdom with enourmous ammounts of laughs. With the success of this film, there feels little surprise that eventually more would follow ("Shrek 3" and "Shrek 4" are already in the pipeline), therefore in 2004, we were presented with a sequel.
In "Shrek 2", the story continues where the original left off. With the honeymoon of Shrek and Fiona over, the two return to encounter a messenger from Fiona's parents, the King and Queen of Far Far Away, inviting them to a Royal Ball in their honour. From this point on, Shrek is forced to fight for his love and prove to Fiona's parents how worthy of their daughter he is.
From the start, "Shrek 2" kicks into gear with a bang. With Rupert Everett's Prince Charming commentating from the start, the film follows the same formula as the original. From this moment on there are some brilliant film references including "From Here To Eternity" (1953), "Spiderman" (2002) and "The Little Mermaid" (1989). The way in which this film satires and humours particular films and cultural relevances is both it's savour and it's downfall. Whilst "Shrek" can be described as timeless in the way it gathers different fairy tales and jokes with them, "Shrek 2" is at times far too planted in the here and now. Whilst some tributes, the aforementioned "From Here To Eternity" copy for example, are going to be familiar for years. With tributes to "Spiderman" and particular establishments (Burger Prince rather than Burger King) feel like they will not age gracefully with time. For one, "Spiderman" was an overrated film, and whilst some might enjoy it, any jokes regarding the kiss between Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are not going to be funny in ten years time.
Despite it's presence in the here and now, "Shrek 2" is still more than just a short term laugh. With yet again excellent vocals by Myers, Murphy and Diaz, it has retained an awesome cast, which is now added to by John Cleese, Rupert Everett, Jennifer Saunders and Antonio Banderas. Banderas as Puss in Boots in particular deserves credit since his character has added a fresh dimension to these movies. Hopefully Puss will feature in the third outing because if he doesn't the film directors are making a serious mistake.
Ultimately, there is one other potential problem with "Shrek 2". As time progresses, computer animation continues to advance and get better and better. In "Finding Nemo" (2003), computer animation got to a point where it was beautiful, flowing and generally stunning to look at. There comes a time however, when it has to be questioned whether this animation has progressed too far. In "Shrek 2", whilst it can be stated quite correctly that when Shrek is covered in rain, it is beautiful to witness, at others times, the characters feel perhaps slightly too realistic. There was a hidden beauty to all of the characters in the original film, but in this sequel, Shrek and Fiona appear perhaps too realistic. It's hard to describe, but by adding a more realistic, human dimension to these two main characters, Dreamworks have perhaps taken away a part of who they are.
In the end of the day, the one huge problem with "Shrek 2" is that it is compared too much with the original. Whilst the original movie featuring this green ogre was fresh and hilarious, this second part of the story no longer has the originality and struggles to maintain the standards set by the first. As a movie alone, "Shrek 2" is a funny, heartwarming story with some brilliant laughs and some excellent characters. Compared with the original film though, it isn't quite upto scratch.