Disappointed After Raves

Rating: Null/10 (18 February 2002)

First of all, I find DreamWorks' animation to be ugly. The characters' motions are utterly amazing, but the rendering of faces is awful. I didn't see Antz because the ads made my eyes hurt. Pixar has the sense to stick to characters that fit the available technology.
Second, after all the raves I expected a well-written, clever film. What a let down! Can anyone tell me what the point was of having all the fairly tale characters? They played absolutely no role. And what was Farquar's motive for banishing them to the swamp? Not even the shallowest of reasons is given. Not even, "He's evil and doesn't like fairly tales." In more able hands, a brilliant parody of fairy tales could have been crafted. Instead we get a fairy tale with farts and a slight twist at the end. Brilliant.
There are a few good gags that hint at what Shrek could have been -- a few Disney references ("He can fly!", the Beauty & the Beast ending, the "It's a Small World" information booth), the bluebird scene. It could have been a smart skewering of Disney movies, and it had a world of possibilities with the fairy tale characters. Sadly, it passed on all this potential and went instead for butts, burps, and just a bit of language -- you know, for kids. Some uninspired fairly tale jokes to make adults think it's being clever, and there you go, success.
Oh, and deduct 4 stars for using the painfully tired "Matrix" joke.