Shrek beats Disney's dreck

Rating: 8/10 (30 May 2001)

Shrek was fun. Shrek was witty. Shrek created characters you cared about. Shrek had wonderful animation. Shrek was not made by Disney.
Only two things disappointed me about Shrek:
1. It's humor wasn't sharp enough. There were jokes, sure, and a good number of them were there for the adults in the audience. But Shrek never seemed to go far enough. For example, just seeing the Disney characters homeless was OK. It would have been better if the Disney characters would have been repetitive and shallow each time they popped up. THEN there would have been a joke.
2. MINOR SPOILER FOLLOWS ... I was very disappointed that the princess became the, uh, creature she became at night. The movie's message was about looking beyond looks and beauty to see how wonderful the person was inside. And the plot started off very promisingly, with the characters doing just that. But the fact that the princess became an, uh, you know, at night was such a cop out. Why couldn't she have become a troll or a unicorn or something that was DIFFERENT. Once she became something that was the SAME, then the issue of looking at inner beauty was removed. I didn't agree with that twist at all.
Still, loved Shrek, and hope to see more of him in a real, feature movie (not the cheap VHS knock-offs). We gave the movie an 8.