What a treat!

Rating: 10/10 (20 May 2001)

I don't know what movie these last half-dozen or so people saw, but it sure wasn't the same delightful "Shrek" we saw today! Only an ironbound Disney loyalist could consider its humor mean-spirited in the least. (And besides, really, it's high time the high and mighty Disney empire took a few shots of this nature.) The alleged flatulence obsession amounts to *one* fart joke and *one* belch joke - come on now, guys. Even the moments of gross bug and food humor (and I think kids will love those) are limited to the opening scene in Shrek's house. But why dwell on this stuff when the movie is so charming? It takes two of the most classic fairy tale stories - the heroic quest/rescue and the "beauty and beast" romance (which, need I remind anyone, was NOT invented by the Mouse House?) - and updates them with a terrific combination of mildly edgy modern humor and the most dazzling computer animation yet. I could go on for paragraphs about the deliciousness of the fabric textures, the grasses and leaves stirring in the wind, the shine of hair...wow! Better yet, this technical quantum leap forward is never allowed to become the reason for the movie (as it so tiresomely is with live-action effects) but is kept firmly in the service of the story, providing emotional responses and facial expressions of such subtlety that even green ogres become humanly believable. This is used especially well in the delicate development of the unspoken romance between Princess Fiona (who has already shown herself to be something other that what she appears!) and her rescuer, Shrek. Fiona - who begins by believing that only a guy with the correct princely trappings can be her true love and comes to see things quite differently - is a completely convincing creation, but so is proud, lonely Shrek and even his yakky sidekick Donkey. It is mind-boggling to contemplate what this technology will be used to do in the future. Here it has given us an adventure and a romance (yes it is!) crammed with visual humor, (And can I just take one moment to revel in all these Disney jokes? She-dragons with long eyelashes and lipstick! The Three Pigs with their eviction notice! Snow White in her glass coffin--and later brawling with Cinderella over the wedding bouquet! The individually named parking lots at Farquaad's castle! L-O-bloody-L!) --I have seen a lot of 6 and 8 movies in the past few months; this is my first 10 since "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and if it's my only 10 all summer I won't feel shortchanged. Don't listen to these complainers. See it.