An enjoyable comedy

Rating: 8/10 (9 April 2004)

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The reclusive ogre Shrek lives by himself in a swamp which is suddenly flooded with fairy tale creatures the evil Lord Farquaad banished. Intent on getting back his solitude, the ogre seeks out the Lord and beats up his best knights, which prompts Farquaad to choose him for a heroic quest: To free Princess Fiona from the clutches of a dragon...
While there could have been better animation at some points, the dialog was filled with gags (and there were a lot of visual gags to boot). The storyline is a bit simple, but this is alleviated by it deliberately turning many a clichÃ© on its head. The only thing I have a gripe with is the donkey. While this is generally a fun character who has many great lines, he has been compared to jar Jar Binks, and rightly so. He lacks Jar Jar's immense capability to annoy, but he becomes tiresome after some time. I can not really comment on the voice acting, as I have only seen the German version.