You Can Dress Up an Ogre All You Want, But....

Rating: 5/10 (28 May 2007)

Interesting, this. With this series, Dreamworks has somehow built a seemingly unstoppable franchise on a foundation of unoriginality. In fact nearly every element of these is a reference to some other film. Instead of writing a joke, these guys simply refer us to another joke we remember from some other movie. We don't laugh, we re-laugh.
The mainstream movie business seems to be leaning this way. Entire films are being shot as I type this based on nothing more than fond remembrances. Thin nostalgia. It's actually shrewd business tactic at its best. The idea is to double your demographic: Target kids AND their parents. Whatever was a fad for you when you were 7 years old is sure to re-emerge when your kids are that age. It's also the opposite of what say, Pixar does, which is to actually engage the viewer on a deep level. To take our imaginations somewhere instead of just our memories.
Until this. Well, sort of. This is the first offering by Dreamworks Animation Studios that I know of that at least tries. That it fails is beside the point. They should be applauded for effort.
It's their first attempt at clever construction, and here's the idea: The story here is told on 3 levels simultaneously. The first (and most annoying) is our collective experience in movie-land. Second is the movie proper, the irrelevant tale of an ogre and a future king. Third is the staging of a play, which is actually based on the other two levels.
If the first two levels are mild celebrations on movies themselves, the important third is a lavish ticker-tape parade, and was the missing element in the first two Shreks. Ultimately though, I'm not sure it's possible to pull this off when you're constantly dragging your audience's intelligence down with all those toilet jokes. Maybe next time they'll lower their poop-joke quota.
Wonder if Dreamworks has a future king in their midst.