DreamWorks' Shrek-The Third

***Shrek the Third*** also known as ***Shrek 3*** is a 2007 DreamWorks animated film, and the third and penultimate film in the Shrek franchise, following Shrek and Shrek 2. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation, and distributed by Paramount Pictures, and was released in U.S. theaters on May 18, 2007 (exactly 6 years after the first Shrek).

It was produced with the working title of Shrek 3, the name being changed to avoid potential confusion with Shrek 3-D. Like the first two Shrek films, the movie is significantly based on fairy tale themes. The film was rated PG by the MPAA for some crude humor, suggestive content and swashbuckling action. It was nominated for "Favorite Animated Movie" at the 2008 Kids' Choice Awards, but lost to Disney-Pixar's Ratatouille.

## Plot

King Harold (John Cleese) falls fatally ill as a frog and his ogre son-in-law, Shrek (Mike Myers), and daughter, Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) are next in line to be King and Queen of Far Far Away. Shrek declines, insisting that an ogre as king is a bad idea and that there has to be someone else for the job. With his final few breaths, the king tells Shrek that there is one other heir who can become the new King of Far Far Away: his nephew, Arthur Pendragon (Justin Timberlake). After a mournful funeral, Shrek sets out on a quest to bring back the new king, along with Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas). As they're sailing off, Fiona runs to the dock and announces to Shrek that she is pregnant and he is going to be a father. Shocked, Shrek begins to have nightmares about his future children while on the journey to find Arthur.

The trio's journey soon leads them to Worcestershire Academy, an elite boarding school, where they discover that Arthur ("Artie", as he prefers to be called) is a scrawny 16-year old underachiever picked on by virtually everyone, from the cool kids down to the retainer-wearing Dungeons and Dragons geeks. Far removed from the courageous legend his name evokes, Artie stands literally at the bottom of the high school food chain. He is constantly used as a punching bag by the school Jousting Team, led by the obnoxious Sir Lancelot (John Krasinski), and cruelly scorned by Guinevere (Latifa Ouaou), the Valley Girl-like school "Queen Bee."

At the school pep rally, Shrek finds Artie and tells him that he's the new king of Far Far Away. Encouraged by his new title, Artie then delivers a heartfelt speech, berating all the high school students (particularly Lancelot and the jousting team), and professing his undying love to Guinevere, but Shrek stops him, stating, "You just overdid it." Later, on board Shrek's ship, Artie is only too excited to be on his way to the throne, until Donkey and Puss inadvertently scare him by talking about responsibilities of being king. Panicked, Artie tries to take control of the ship and ends up crashing it on an island where they meet Artie's retired wizard teacher, Mr. Merlin (Eric Idle).

Meanwhile, a revenge-lusted Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) has gone to the Poison Apple, where he encounters a slew of fairy tale villains including Captain Hook (Ian McShane), The Evil Queen (Susanne Blakeslee), A Cyclops (Mark Valley), Rumpelstiltskin (Conrad Vernon), Mabel (Regis Philbin), The Headless Horseman (Conrad Vernon), The Puppet Master (Chris Miller), The Talking Trees' Steve and Ed, and an assortment of outlaws, black knights, pirates, gnomes, and witches. Although they initially despise Charming, he persuades them to join him in a fight for their "happily ever after" and avenge the Fairy Godmother's death. The villains feel their side of the story has never been told and now is the time to do it.

Charming and the other villains invade Far Far Away and attack the palace, disrupting Fiona's celebrating of becoming a mother. They capture all of Shrek's fairy tale friends: Gingy (Conrad Vernon), Pinocchio (Cody Cameron), The Big Bad Wolf (Aron Warner), The Three Little Pigs (Cody Cameron), Dragon, and the Dronkeys'. Fiona and Queen Lillian (Julie Andrews) try to escape through an underground passage, along with Doris (Larry King), Cinderella (Amy Sedaris), Snow White (Amy Poehler), Sleeping Beauty (Cheri Oteri) and Rapunzel (Maya Rudolph); the ladies are captured, however, when Rapunzel betrays them and leads them into a trap. They learn that she is in love with Charming, who plans to make her his queen once he claims the throne.

Captain Hook and some of his pirates track Shrek and company to Merlin's island, where they attempt to capture Shrek and kill the others. Shrek and Artie tag-team them effectively, however, and send the villains running, but not before Hook mentions Charming and the takeover of Far Far Away. Concerned for his wife and his future children, Shrek urges Artie to return to the safety of Worcestershire; Artie, however, has other ideas. He cons Merlin into coming out of retirement long enough to use his magic and send them all back to Far Far Away; the spell works, but accidentally causes Puss and Donkey to switch bodies because they were touching each other. They find that Charming is bent on revenge against Shrek for "stealing" his "happily ever after," and plans to kill Shrek in a play later that night. Charming's men arrive shortly, but another clever ruse by Artie tricks the knights into not taking them into custody. They then break into the castle, where play rehearsal and set design are in full swing, and where Charming is bad at rehearsing and mock battles, "killing" two faux Shreks in a row. In Charming's dressing room, Shrek menaces Charming, but Charming is able to summon his men, who burst in and take the four captive.

Charming prepares to kill Artie, believing he's the next king. To save Artie's life, Shrek tells Charming that Artie was just a fool to take his place as King of Far Far Away. Charming believes Shrek and decides not to kill him. Artie, who had just been growing to trust Shrek, is crushed by his words and runs away, not realizing that Shrek only said what he said as a ruse to save Artie's life. Donkey and Puss are thrown into the tower with Fiona and the other ladies, where Fiona is growing frustrated with the other princesses and their lack of initiative. Queen Lilian soon grows fed up, and successfully smashes the stone wall of the prison by head-butting the walls. While the women launch a rescue mission for Shrek, who is being held captive elsewhere, Donkey and Puss work to free Gingy, Pinocchio, the wolf and pigs, Dragon, and the Dronkeys. As they prepare to enter the castle and join the ladies, they encounter Artie, and Puss and Donkey explain to him that Shrek lied to protect him, reminding him that Charming was about to kill him and Shrek saved him at the last minute. Artie seems hesitant to believe them.

As the kingdom watches, Charming stages a theatrical performance in which he heroically rides to the rescue of Rapunzel in a (fake) tower and sings, somewhat badly. To Charming's profound annoyance, the chained Shrek wins the audience's support by ridiculing his singing and acting. Just as Charming is about to kill Shrek, Fiona and her friends, along with Puss, Donkey and the Fairy Tale characters, leap onto the stage to confront the villains. It goes awry, however, as the villains largely outnumber the heroes and take them prisoner again. In the nick of time, Artie arrives and convinces the villains to stop and turn over a new leaf, proving himself to possess effective leadership skills. He says something that Shrek told him when they were sitting around a fire at Merlin's island- "Just because some people treat you like a villain, an ogre, or just some loser, it doesn't mean you are one. The thing that matters most is what you think of yourself. If there's something you really want or someone you really want to be, then the only one standing in your way is you." The villains drop their weapons and release their captives.

Charming, furious at having been thwarted, lunges for Artie with his sword. Shrek manages to break out of the chains, blocks the blow and appears to take it in his own chest, leading Charming to believe he's won; but fortunately Charming missed, and the sword is lodged harmlessly under Shrek's arm. Charming says that he was supposed to live happily ever after, but Shrek informs Charming that he needs to keep looking, because he's not giving up his own. As Shrek pushes Charming aside, Dragon slyly knocks over Rapunzel's model tower, Charming is presumably killed when the tower lands on him as he fearfully utters his last words ("Mommy..."). Charming's crown is sent rolling across the stage by the impact and is caught by Artie. Shrek tells him that the throne is his if he wants it, but it is his decision to make. Artie lifts the crown toward the audience, who cheer him loudly, then sets it on his own head. While the kingdom celebrates their new monarch, Merlin appears and restores Puss and Donkey to their proper bodies, though their tails were temporarily mismatched.

A few months later, Shrek and Fiona returns to their swamp, where they become the parents of ogre triplets (later named Farkle, Fergus, and Felicia, as revealed in Shrek the Third's sequel, Shrek Forever After), coping with parenthood with the help of Donkey, Puss, Dragon and Lillian.

## Cast

Mike Myers as Shrek
Eddie Murphy as Donkey
Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona
Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots
Justin Timberlake as Arthur Pendragon
John Cleese as King Harold
Julie Andrews as Queen Lillian
Rupert Everett as Prince Charming
Eric Idle as Merlin
Conrad Vernon as Gingy / Rumpelstiltskin
Cody Cameron as Pinocchio / Three Little Pigs
Aron Warner as Wolf
Amy Poehler as Snow White
Maya Rudolph as Rapunzel
Larry King as Doris
Amy Sedaris as Cinderella
Cheri Oteri as Sleeping Beauty
Ian McShane as Captain Hook
John Lithgow as Lord Farquaad (uncredited)

## Sequels

Peter Zaslav said in an interview that the Christmas special Shrek the Halls will pick up from where Shrek the Third left off. The film will also be followed by another sequel, Shrek Forever After which will be released in theatres on May 21, 2010. In an interview with Antonio Banderas, a spin-off film entitled Puss in Boots (which released in 2011), was confirmed. The spin-off will take place between Shrek and Shrek 2.

## Songs

Royal PainNote.svg - (Eels) - 2:28
Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?Note.svg - (The Ramones) - 3:50
Immigrant SongNote.svg - (Led Zeppelin) - 2:25

* BarracudaNote.svg - (Heart) - 4:39

Live and Let DieNote.svg - (Paul McCartney and Wings) - 3:13
Best DaysNote.svg - (Matt White) - 3:01
Joker & the ThiefNote.svg - (Wolfmother) - 4:41
Other WaysNote.svg - (Trevor Hall) - 3:25
Cat's in the CradleNote.svg - (Harry Chapin) - 3:46
Losing StreakNote.svg - (Eels) - 2:50
What I Gotta DoNote.svg - (Macy Gray) - 3:09
Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)Note.svg - (Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas) - 4:39
Final ShowdownNote.svg - (Maya Rudolph, Rupert Everett) - 1:55
Charming's PlanNote.svg - (Harry Gregson-Williams) - 2:49
Touched by LoveNote.svg - (Eran James) (Australian Bonus Track) - 3:55
Reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics, in contrast to the critical acclaim of Shrek and Shrek 2. Criticism was directed towards the less inspired plot, humor, underdeveloped new characters and characterization. It is considered the worst film in the series. Despite this, the film was a box office success, grossing over $813.4 million on a budget of $160 million. It is the second highest-grossing film of the series, under Shrek 2.

Controversy
Eric Idle (the voice of Merlin) threatened to sue Dreamworks because he considered the scene featuring the famous Monty Python coconut sound effect gag to be copyright infringement, while the producers rebutted his claim, saying it was fair use.

The Illinois Conservative Blog complained about the inclusion of Doris and Mabel, claiming that Dreamworks was trying to "desensitize" people to transgender representation.

Trivia
Shrek the Third is the only Shrek film that doesn't start off with a storybook sequence.
This is the only movie where Fiona is not shown as a human in any capacity.
This film and Shrek Forever after are the only films where the main villain is alive at the end, although is it debated if Charming survived at the end but he is seen in the Thriller audience.
This is the only film where we hear about Shrek's family, where Shrek mentions his father had tried to eat him. His father's fate is unknown.
This is the only film where Shrek doesn't roar.
Despite being directed by Chris Miller, his character the Magic Mirror does not appear in the film, making this the only Shrek movie to do so.
The scene where Prince Charming and the Fairy Tale villains invade Far Far Away is somewhat similar to real-life invasions such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor as well as Germany invading Poland, along with the German Blitzkrieg.

* + The film version of Pearl Harbor was released the same year as the first Shrek film.

Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) made a cameo in Gingy's flashback (which was a scene taken from the first film).
Justin Timberlake (Artie) and Cameron Diaz (Fiona) were both in Bad Teacher together.
Released the same year as St Trinian’s, also starring Rupert Everett and both films were released in 2007.
Released the same year as Norbit, also featuring Eddie Murphy (Donkey).
Released the same year as Bordertown, also featuring Antonio Banderas.
Mike Myers (Shrek) and Justin Timberlake (Artie) were both in The Love Guru, also distributed by Paramount Pictures.

* This was the final Shrek film to be made by Pacific Data Images before their closure in 2015.
	+ The final Shrek production from PDI was Shrek the Halls, released six months later.
* The film served as an on-screen reunion between John Cleese and Eric Idle as they are members of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
	+ Neither of their characters share screen-time however.