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Classification: Good Originally Published: Independent Thought Alarm, 6/28/04 |
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Shrek 2 ends with a party version of “Livin’ La Vida Loca” but the song that ended the first installment more accurately expressed my viewing experience of the sequel: now I’m a believer. The first Shrek didn’t warm me the way it did everyone else. I liked it enough, but couldn’t jump on the bandwagon with the rest of the country; it just didn’t do much for me. For my money the movie coasted on good vibes rather than talent; the gags were lukewarm and Mike Myers was just doing that same Scottish voice he’d done as his own father in So I Married an Axe Murderer and then as Fat Bastard in two Austin Powers sequels. I would have given the Best Animated Feature Oscar to Monsters Inc. in a heartbeat. But something in Shrek 2 clicked with me in a way the first never did. By the zany action-filled finale, I was hooked.
This time around, newlyweds Shrek (Myers) and Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) return from their honeymoon to find an invitation to join Fiona’s parents in their kingdom of Far Far Away, a Beverly Hillish land of cutely named stores (“Versarchery”). The King and Queen (John Cleese and Julie Andrews) are none to thrilled to find that their daughter wound up with an ogre instead of her intended, the well-groomed fuddy duddy Prince Charming (Rupert Everett). Shrek and the King don’t exactly see eye to eye and that gives the Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders) a chance to come in and muck things up. While all these plot threads were thrown in motion I was dismayed: this stuff still wasn’t working for me any better than it did the first time, though the audience all around me was eating it up (one woman was laughing with a zeal that bordered in hysteria; she even chuckled at the DreamWorks Animation logo). Myers’ brogue still felt recycled (and I still don’t buy it coming out of that big green guy) and Eddie Murphy’s Donkey was quickly growing less amusingly annoying and more annoyingly annoying by the second. Then the entire production gets a fire lit under its behind by the feline dynamo that is Puss in Boots, an assassin hired to kill Shrek in an attempt to replace him in Fiona’s affections with Prince Charming. Voiced with relish by Antonio Banderas, who better be back in Shrek 3, Puss can transform himself from the cutest animal on earth (with huge, glistening eyes that literally compel you to go “Awwwwwww!”) to a fierce sword-wielding murderer in a heartbeat. The minute Puss appears, Shrek 2’s energy seems to change, and the plodding narrative starts picking up speed, and continues to gather steam until the very last scene, building on itself on extremely creative, humorous ways. The screening of Shrek 2 I attended was also my first experience viewing a digital projection of a movie (can’t really call it a “film” in this situation”). Perhaps because the entire production is a product of digital animation the visuals sparkled and flew off the screen, and the color palette, particularly in scenes with the Fairy Godmother’s glowing potions, was astounding. I’m no expert on film versus digital comparison. Is transferring a digitally animated feature to film a loss of a generation? I suspect it is, and if so, a digital projection may be the preferential viewing method. Kudos to screenwriters J. David Stern, Joe Stillman, and David N. Weiss for hatching a plot with more pop and pizzazz than the original. The finale at a wedding ball features music, dancing, grand heroics, and even a little perverse humor that would be highly disturbing for a children’s film if I wasn’t absolutely certain it would go over the little ones’ heads anyway. If I was as lukewarm on the setup as I was on the first Shrek I was utterly won over by the bombastic climax. Given my almost confrontational attitude, it’s an even greater accomplishment. I give in: I finally like Shrek. |