Returning to what made Shrek fun, but did it work?

Rating: 8/10 (17 June 2010)

What was so great about the first Shrek film was the relationship between the characters and the world that was created for this film. The relationship between Shrek, Donkey, Fiona and all the other characters was ironclad in its design. The world created for Shrek – the fact that he is an Ogre, lives in the woods and is feared by most, but not by his friends, was just wonderful fun. I feel the Shrek Franchise made a mistake, when they went away from what they established in the first film, by moving the Shrek "family of characters" into a new setting, which is being King and Queen of the Kingdom of Far Far Away, with the supporting cast falling in line behind them and changing the setting from the woods to the Kingdom. In the second and third films I felt we lost some of what Shrek was all about. It seemed to take on a form that had been seen time and time again in other films. It lost its luster and became boring. So, it was nice to see this film (#4), try to recapture that magic by channeling elements found in the first film, by using a unique-device (I have been calling it the J.J. Abrams approach), by having Shrek's past changed by a devious "bad guy", thus removing the King and Queen scenario and creating a situation much like the first film. How would it do? Even though the second and third films had problems maintaining my interest, what they did have was laughs and great animation. Well the laughs have been all used up by the time we get to this film. Donkey's character almost was invisible. The bad guy, in this case was Rumpelstiltskin, seemed to be a carbon-copy of all the other antagonists from the previous films and the supporting characters, including the ridiculous Dragon, have run out of gas. We have an idea that starts out great, but is mired down by a tired formula, with not many laughs. I did enjoy the army of witches that Rumpelstiltskin had at his command. The animation does look fantastic and that is boosted by the witches appearances. They actually were scary. I was disappointed with this film because of it not being funny, but the great animation, the witches and rehashing what made Shrek great makes it the second best film of the series.