Fall-down funny

Rating: Null/10 (28 May 2001)

DreamWorks Animation finally has an unalloyed success in the gut-bustingly funny "Shrek".
After the mixed successes of "The Prince of Egypt", "AntZ", and the misbegotten "Road to El Dorado", "Shrek" gave me hope that maybe DreamWorks has hit its animated film stride.
First-time directors Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jensen ensure that "Shrek" is stuffed full of jokes, puns and sight gags for both kids and adults, while maintaining a breezy pace. If you liked the off-kilter humor of "The Princess Bride", then this is the movie for you.
"Shrek" takes place in the mythical kingdom of Duloc, ruled over by the evil, vertically-challenged Prince Farquaad (John Lithgow). Farquaad wants to build "the perfect kingdom", but to do that he thinks he has to root out all of the fairy-tale creatures who inhabit his land. Where do they go? Into the swamp, which just happens to be the home of a curmudgeonly ogre named Shrek (Mike Myers). Joined by Donkey (Eddie Murphy), the poster boy--er, equine--for logorrhea, Shrek makes the journey to Farquaad's castle. (This scene alone--Farquaad's castle bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain "Happiest Place On Earth", complete with turnstiles and "You Are Parked Here" signs--had me reduced to helpless guffaws.) Shrek is sent on a quest to rescue damsel in distress Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and return with her so that she can marry Farquaad. But Shrek doesn't count on falling in love himself. Fiona, in turn, has her own secrets.
"Shrek" has a few things to say about inner versus outer beauty, and unlike the Disney fables "Beauty and the Beast" and "Hunchback of Notre Dame", actually has the courage to see it through to its logical conclusion. But that's just one of the things I liked about it. It also has a strong message of self-determination, as Fiona goes from behaving the way she thought women should behave (pliant, weak-willed and subservient) to learning that her life should be lived on her own terms. I also loved an hysterically funny torture(!) scene involving Farquaad and the Gingerbread Man, as well as Shrek's reaction to the fairy-tale creatures invading his home (upon seeing Snow White in her glass-covered bier, he shouts, "No, no! Dead girl off the table!"). And a forest duet between Fiona and a bluebird cracked me up. Even the de rigueur toilet humor elicited a chuckle or two.

Now, I do have some minor quibbles with the animation: objects sometimes seemed to "float" above the background, especially objects moving away from the camera. There also seemed to be a little disconnect between a person handling an object and the object itself. However, these are minor complaints compared to the lush detail crammed into every frame, the beautiful colors that pop out at you, and the overall supple and fluid movement of every leaf on every tree.
And so, to sum up this too-long review: "Shrek" marks DreamWorks' coming of age as an animation studio, as well as being flat-out funny. My grade: A
-terry-