A good movie, but three words - "Fractured Fairy Tales."

Rating: Null/10 (23 July 2001)

For those of you who don't know, "Fractured Fairy Tales" was a section of the classic "Rocky and Bullwinkle" show which, much like "Shrek," turned classic folklore on its head but did so with a bit more genuine irreverence. Jay Ward and Co also didn't need 90 minutes of expensive animation to do it either.
That's not to say I hated it - I'm all for doing it as well as possible, and "Shrek" sports top-of-the-line animation and design throughout without any Disney-type modelling on real people (though a key character does look like Tara from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"). The script also sports plenty of good ideas and gags about both traditional fairy tales (witness Lord Farquhad's interrogation of the gingerbread man) and modern day culture (including the best reference to "The Matrix" ever), the voices are right, particularly Eddie Murphy's donkey (even if it is a retread of his scene-stealing dragon from "Mulan") - although after "So I Married An Axe Murderer," "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" and this, I wish Mike Myers would sort out his obsession with Scottish accents - and all the ingredients are in place, but somehow the movie falls short of its goals... not to mention DreamWorks' own "The Prince Of Egypt."
It might be because some thoughtless person wrote a letter to "Entertainment Weekly" which gave away the ending (which I will not do). It might be due to far too many tasteless jokes. It might be because the film tries to have its cake and eat it (and not only in said ending; Shrek may be bothered about his looks but that doesn't stop him making jokes about the villain's short stature). Or it could just be that, like PDI/DreamWorks's "Antz," it's only slightly less clever than it thinks it is, though it happily lacks that film's characterisation flaws.
Perhaps the jabs at Disney weren't malicious, but the makers should've copied the Mouse with regards to songs - there are far too many pop songs throughout, including one over the end credits that has "Future Oscar Night Performance" written all over it, and they cheapen the film as a whole (especially considering that it already has a wonderful score by Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell, of which only one cue is on the soundtrack album).
I'd have to say that "The Princess Bride" and "The 10th Kingdom" mine similar territory to better effect than "Shrek" - but not much better. It's a very good movie all round, but not in the same league as "Beauty and the Beast" or the Disney/Pixar movies. Mind you, what is?