Great fun...

Rating: 8/10 (12 November 2001)

I really get tired of the movies my kids want to watch. It was only because I was bored when my kids started watching this the fourth time that I saw it and I was very pleasantly surprised. Shrek is fun to watch with never a boring moment, and that's what really counts in a film like this. The story is strong, the actors deliver believable performances, and the flow is excellent. It even has the occasional adult-oriented joke or comment. (I loved "Dead broad off the table")
The only two negatives of this film are that the actual story is a bit short and the animation is not up to the usual Pixar standards. The story came in too short, so they stuck on the "Shrek in the swamp Karaoke party". This, of course, is a massive hit with my kids who played it about 100 times, but it's not at all part of the story, it's padding. I would have preferred if they had left it as a fun addition after a full-length film.

The animation was a bit surprising. The textures were often very 2 dimensional and shadows were generally wrong. I wonder if part of this is due to having to reanimate and rerender Shrek due to Mike Myers decision to redo his voice with a (not very good) Scottish accent.
But, aside from this minor nitpicks, this is great and fun film. It's not Gone with the Wind, but it beats the heck out of so much of the garbage Hollywood has been spewing in recent years.