somewhere ogre the rainbow...

Rating: 10/10 (10 July 2005)

In my opinion, "Shrek" benefits more than anything from not being a Disney movie. Never too "cute" to the point where you feel like there's a drill in your head, and never too gross to the point where you feel nauseous, it's what a family movie should be.
Mike Myers voices the title character, a foul-tempered ogre whose lifestyle is interrupted when the lascivious Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) throws all fairy tale characters onto his property. Among these is motormouth Donkey (Eddie Murphy). So, Shrek and Donkey go to Lord Farquaad's castle, where they get the assignment of finding Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) for Farquaad to marry. But things don't turn out quite like anyone would just assume.
What's particularly great about this movie is the way almost every scene is a popular culture reference, such as Princess Fiona fighting a la "The Matrix". But overall, "Shrek"'s moral is that we shouldn't judge people by how they look. I know that it sounds pithy, but they did a good job with it. If absolutely nothing else, you'll die laughing at how Donkey talks.
Oh, just one more thing. Something else that makes "Shrek" especially good is how it ended up clobbering "Pearl Harbor" at the box office in summer, 2001. That's just a side note, but I still consider it neat.