passionless pastiche of pop-culture

Rating: 3/10 (24 May 2001)

I did laugh several times during the movie. Yet some of the times I did, I could at the same time not suppress a feeling of uneasiness on account of the children sitting (and laughing) behind me. The jokes I am talking about were bordering on tastelessness and morbidity. Wiping one's behind seems to be a major motif in the movie, but that should perhaps be expected from Myers (whom I do enjoy in films designed for a mature audience). Yet exploding birds and inflated frogs are something I do not want my eventual children to see. Certainly the tips-of-the-hat, as for example to every fairy-tale I have ever heard, are funny, but that is all that the film consists of. There is no originality, all is a spin-off or spoof. The dialogues between the donkey and Shrek are funny if you are five years old and haven't seen Mulan (there Eddie Murphy lends his voice to the same side-kick character, the little dragon, where his now cliche joke slang had far more intelligence and originality), Aladdin or Hercules. Same old jokes, and even triter for the repetition. The only times I laughed were the above mentioned instances of risque tastelessness a la There's Something About Mary; I am not contradicting myself here, all I said was that they are absolutely unfit for an audience of children. Shrek is certainly a mirror unto our American Culture. Pro-wrestling, hip-hop slang and Myers' fake British accent a la mode, theme park parking lots and pop songs. All that assembled in a better-than-life digital pastiche, voila. More money for DreamWorks. They have the technology but lack the creativity. They have the precision but lack all passion. I felt curiously empty after the movie. And since when are the voices behind the animations so important that their names are all you see on the movie posters?