one of Dreamworks' finest and one of the best animated family films ever made

Rating: 9/10 (21 July 2007)

This is a magnificent achievement for an animated film because if you examine the basic plot and setting, it seems like a mere film made only for young children. It's a fairy tale, it's a love story, it has all of the kids' favorite fairy tale characters in it. But what it also has is the traits of a great movie that you usually don't see in an animated film like this. "Shrek" is full of colorful animation, the actors providing the voices are perfect in their roles, and the movie is developed and made into a way where it becomes entirely suitable for audience members of all ages. It's not too childish, but too intense and inappropriate for the children. Yet it's not too simple and immature for the older generation as well. In fact, it's not immature at all. It's just an effective film for the entire family that really works out well.
"Shrek" is also one of the few movies that fall under the comedy genre that I would really consider to be a compelling motion picture feature. Part of this is owed to its magnificent and original design of both the plot and characters. Both of them are very much like what you'd expect to see in a fairy tale, again. And they are not developed to be just heroes for the kids. And the animation fits along with the voice acting so perfectly that you don't pay any attention and think about the names of the famous actors or actresses who were simply acting everything out, only not being presented on the screen in their physical self. Some parts of the film might sound like they're just dumb or disturbing, yet when its presented before you on screen, it works out just fine.
This is one of Dreamworks' finest achievements and it is truly wonderful as a film. Not just an animated film, but a film overall. Most animated films are made just for children, for it seems to have an atmosphere for them. But this is one of those occasions where it will not only suit them but also the adults, teenagers, and everybody else who sits in the theater seats, on the couch in the living room, or wherever a television is available.