Funny, in more ways than one.

Rating: 8/10 (6 December 2001)

I don't laugh a lot at movies. Even if I think one is brilliantly hilarious, you're lucky if you get more than a couple of good, honest, hard laughs out of me. I saw Shrek. I almost had to be rushed to the infirmary.
The thing I love about Shrek is how much it makes you laugh and laughing makes you feel happy. A movie that can make you feel happy has something great about it.
Shrek has a wicked sense of humor. It does does contain yuck-yuck-poo-poo-fart jokes, for those of you that like it. But it's much slyer and more creative than that in its purpose and wonderfully funny situations, lines and gags jam pack the film. The things that bothers me about toilet humor are:
A) I just don't like it, ok.
B) Most American comedies contain only gross out humor and don't cater to the type of comedy I prefer.
But I can forgive Shrek it's toilet gags because it caters to my preferred comedy too. I appreciated this soooo much and thought it only fair that if there were laughs for me, there should be the gross-out stuff as well for those who like it and so that its greatness could be shared with everyone. But do you know what!? Even the people that like the common easy route humor, liked the more sophisticated stuff as well! *gasp* So maybe you should take a hint and a lesson from the makers of Shrek all you low-brow American filmakers, we're not as dumb as you think we are.
As much as the gags have already been given away in other reviews for what few of you there may be who read this and not that of someone else, I don't want to spoil them for you. They are that much more genius when you don't know what's coming.
A colourful cast of characters (featuring voices of Mike Meyers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow, a personal favorite) and some of the best animation ever give Shrek a great frame work with which to start, but it's its rollicking sense of humor and splendid gags that give it its center, and what a center! (9/10)