once upon a time a solitary ogre named shrek ( mike myers ) was really annoyed to discover that his swamp had been invaded by three blind mice , seven dwarves and all the other fairy tale characters in the land , banished from their home by lord farquaad ( john lithgow ) .
unwittingly befriended by a non - stop talking donkey ( eddie murphy ) , shrek travels to dulloc to speak with farquaad , where he stumbles into a joust and comes up the winner .
his prize ? to save princess fiona ( cameron diaz ) from a tower surrounded by molten flame and protected by a dragon so she can become farquaad 's bride .
the ogre agrees to the task in return for getting his solitary lifestyle back in " shrek .
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it took four writers ( ted elliott and terry rossio ( " the road to el dorado " ) , roger s .
h .
schulman ( " balto " ) and joe stillman (
" beavis and butthead do america " ) ) to adapt william steig 's children 's book .
the bad news ?
they 've genericized an already simple plotline while heavily under the influence of william goldman 's " the princess bride .
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the good news ?
there 's so much wacky humor culled from both fairy tales and popular culture that this movie should keep you in stitches .
we get our first inkling that we 're in for a real treat as one of farquaad 's men ,
intent on rounding up magical creatures offers ' five schillings for the possessed boy ! '
after observing dreamworks ' rendition of disney 's animated pinocchio .
meanwhile within the castle walls , a gingerbread man being tortured by farquaad spits icing and yells ' eat me ! ' before breaking down and solemnly asking ' do you know the muffin man ? '
shrek , a green giant with bobbly antennae - like ears , is a grumpy recluse who really yearns to fit in ( although who could put up with his habit of making candles from his own ear wax ? ) .
donkey is a hyperactive , endearingly stunted creature who can talk and , therefore , believes will make a great misfit pairing with the uncooperative shrek .
donkey proves his worth sweet talking the princess - guarding dragon .
the princess proves to be more than a shade offbeat after learning she 's not getting the fairy tale issue rescue she 's been expecting .
when fiona 's true colors are exposed ( including opportunies for some tomboyish gross out humor ) , a spark develops between her and shrek .
the script 's details are gleefully impish , constantly poking fun at disney from the theme park world of farquaad 's dulloc with its turnstyle entrance and ' it 's a small world ' parody of an information booth to the blue bird which meets a most un - disneyish fate after duetting with fiona ' snow white ' style .
popular culture is represented with film references to " babe " and " charlies ' angels " via " the matrix .
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myers chooses his ' so i married an axe murderer ' scottish brogue for shrek in order to give his voice some heft .
while this may prove distracting for anyone familiar with that film ,
overall it works more than not .
eddie murphy steals the show as the fast - talking , motown - singing donkey , proving once again his talent as a vocal performer ( is it another wink at disney that donkey is paired with a dragon , a creature murphy portrayed in disney 's ' mulan ? ' ) .
lithgow 's a good choice for the supercilious , height - challenged villain lord farquaad .
diaz is energetic but ultimately nondescript voicing princess fiona .
( a better choice would have been minnie driver , who 's proven herself a terrific vocal talent in such diverse animations as disney 's " tarzan , " " princess mononoke " and the " south park " movie . )
the computer animation looks terrific ( particularly donkey ) , although it wo n't elicit the types of oohs and aahs of pixar 's work ( " toy story , " " a bug 's life , " " toy story 2 " ) .
in keeping with its hip style , pop music is used , which like myer 's voice may be initially jarring , but ultimately satisfies ( while surveying bridal candidates via a ' dating game ' parody broadcast by snow white 's evil queen 's mirror , farquaad is told ' fiona likes pina coladas ' - cue jimmy buffet ! ) .
" shrek " has good lessons for kids and humor targetted at every age group in the family .
while it may be derivative of the 1987 's " the princess bride , " " shrek " addresses a new generation with similar sensibilities and does n't suffer in the comparison .
Output: P