Pure Comic Genius - One of the funniest films of all time.

Rating: 10/10 (29 July 2002)

Has to be one of the greatest comedies ever. The fairly simple story of a fairy tale gone disasterously wrong is filled to the brim with humorous touches, rib-splitting dialogue and wacky slap-stick.
Each actor is amazing in their voice roles, clearly all enjoying themselves. Mike Myers is a revelation as the scottish sounding Shrek, John Lithglow plays it up gloriously as the selfishly evil Farquad, Cameron Diaz is the not so princess-in-distress Fiona. And Eddie Murphy? He gives the performance of his career. As the animated Donkey, I have literally never seen (should say heard) him funnier. He literally makes the movie. He definitely brings all the characters together!
The animation is beautiful to behold. The environments are realistic and always stay in the background, never too distracting, letting the characters stay at the front of the picture (unlike other computer animated attempts like Final Fantasy). The characters themselves are on just the right side of cartoon and realism, another balance thats rare these days.
But its not the amazing animation that makes this film, it really is just the script. For lack of better words, its as funny as hell. From the opening credits that sees Shrek going about his normal routine, to the rib-splitting hilarious closing scene of the swamp kareoke (which is worth admission price alone), this is one constant laugh. Live action films would love to be this funny. What really makes this film enjoyable isn't that it is extremely funny, but that it is CONSTANTLY funny. It doesn't just have its great moments. All the moments come together so well that the whole movie is one great moment. And thats what makes it stand out. Take any scene, any one scene from this film, and it will have 5 laugh out loud moments, hundereds of background jokes and this never lets up, throughout the whole film.
It does have more, the adventure and action is well timed and shot, the music is excellently placed, but thats not what this film is about. Its there to make you laugh. And it succeeds. More gloriously than it has any right to.