It's In the Background

Rating: 9/10 (13 September 2001)

I want this on video so I can watch parts of it selectively. The story is fun, the animation sensational, but seeing it only once in a theater didn't allow me time to scope out all the sight gags. I loved the background images, the schtick that Shrek does because he is an ogre and as gross as they come. But it went by so fast. Since I saw a stage version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, I have thoroughly enjoyed films and plays that have a bunch of significant action going on around the characters that are currently being focused on. The "real" plot, so to speak. The fairy tale world that is the setting of this animated joy, is what I really want to see. These characters, who are parts of lots of little stories, go about their daily business, running from big bad wolves or being left to follow bread crumbs. Meanwhile Shrek, being a kind ogre, must put up with the constant pleas of the fairy tale populace, who make nuisances of themselves.
Eddie Murphy's donkey, of course, is the most soul testing of them all with his excessive verbiage and quick wit. Nothing ever enters his brain without immediately going to his mouth. This is a fun film, and even if it does go for bathroom humor, it done with great aplomb!