Disappointing, but not bad by itself

Rating: 6/10 (16 June 2007)

When the first movie in a trilogy wins the first-ever Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and the second movie becomes the 3rd highest-grossing motion picture in American History, there is bound to be some very high expectations for the third film. Unfortunately, Shrek the Third will join a long line of threequels that has disappointed fans of the trilogy (see Godfather Part III, Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones 3, etc.). The first two movies thrived on a perfectly blended combination of smart verbal and visual humor and random, "what the hell is that?" humor. For instance, the Disneyland and Hollywood references in the first two, along with the Girl Dragon and giant gingerbread man, make for a hysterical combination in both movies. Shrek the Third really contains none of either type of humor. It's as if one of the filmmakers felt that they had wasted all of their silliness on the first two and had to present a serious and coherent moral in the third film. Shrek, however, is not a franchise built on presenting serious morals in serious manners. It presents these kinds of morals in ways that kids will comprehend without knowing that they are comprehending them.
Now, if you can get past the expectations built up from, and the comparisons to, the first two films, Shrek the Third is not all that bad. It has some funny moments, notably poking fun at high school, and some more serious moments. True, it's not as funny as the first two, but it's still funny. It's not as smart as the first two, but it's still smart.
Simply put, Shrek the Third is a classic example of a movie studio going one movie too far, hoping to cash in on the previous installment's monumental success. What resulted was a desperate attempt to stretch a plot line built for one movie, maybe (and more logically) two, over a third movie. What it lacks is novelty; Puss N Boots is no longer funny because he's new, Donkey is just starting to get annoying, and recycled jokes over three movies never work (see Pirates of the Caribbean: AWE). What it has going for it is some new characters, decent animation, and... well, decent animation.
It's an OK movie by itself, but it is very hard to overcome the comparisons to the first two. 6/10