Thumbs up if you've got kids and it is a rainy day

Rating: 6/10 (30 June 2007)

You have to love the animation - seemingly more real than real - and parents at least will enjoy the digs at cartoon and movie characters. This is even more a family film than 1 & 2, and is engineered to be that way. After the gentle if protracted passing on of the frog king, Shrek must find, bring back and somehow convince the second-in-line 'loser' Artie to be the new King, otherwise he ends up with the job. Meanwhile Prince Charming has his eye on the prize. Babies and incipient parenthood are liberally layered over the plot. All very wholesome at heart (nursery stories will be undermined of course), everyone's got a place in the world, the plot turns twice on speeches rather than violence, plus a LOT about babies. The donkey-dragon offspring made me smile, cavorting around as baby donkeys with wings and fire breath. Downside is that Shrek 3 is a bit "fuzzy" in the humour compared with 1 or 2, not as sharp. Verdict: take the kids, for the adults you know what to expect. Hope that helps.