Movie Review: Shrek Forever After

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Dreamworks has given us the fourth and hopefully final Shrek in Shrek Forever After. You know that a series has run its course when they have to revert to the It's a Wonderful Life storyline. I stayed through the end of the credits and while there was no easter egg at the end, there were images recapping some of the escapades of Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona through the entire series. So unless someone can come up with a really good script, I think that all the air has been let out of this balloon or in the the world of Far Far Away, all the air has been let out of this frog.

The original Shrek was fresh and original. The pop culture references, the pop songs, the lampooning of Disney. Who can forget, "Please keep off of the grass, shine your shoes, wipe your....face, Duloc is.... Duloc is.... Duloc is a perrrr-fffffect place" with the dolls that look like they were imported out of "It's a Small World". The world of the fractured fairytale. We loved it.

With the fourth in the series, the shine has gone off this penny. The penny is still the penny, it has value, but it's just not as exciting anymore. Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas return giving their voices to Shrek, Donkey, Princess Fiona and Puss in Boots respectively. Julie Andrews and John Cleese reprise their roles as the Queen and King of Far Far Away. The new comers this time are Jane Lynch, John Hamm and Craig Robinson voicing Gretched, Brogan and Cookie, leaders in the Orge Rebellion. They are rebelling against Rumpelstiltskin voiced by Walt Dohrn who had some writing responsibilities for this and Dexter's Laboratory and Sponge Bob Square Pants on Nickelodeon.

The animation was solid. I saw the 2D version, not the 3D or IMAX 3D but it was pretty apparent where the 3D would be used mostly for the depth rather than coming out at you. I imagine that the chase scene with Shrek and the witches might look pretty good in 3D. Since the original there is more detailing in the textures. Skin and items like clothing had a bit more nuanced appearance. There were a couple of shots where it became really apparent that the computer is able to put in those details that most of the audience won't catch.

The movie opens with a brief retelling of the original Shrek with a Rest of the Story. Afraid that their daughter might not be rescued, the King and Queen go to Rumpelstiltskin to arrange for someone to rescue their daughter from the Dragon's Keep in exchange for them giving up the kingdom. As evidenced by the first movie, that didn't happen. Shrek ruined Rumpels' plan by saving Princess Fiona.

Jump to current times. Shrek has settled into the rut. Wake up, feed the three children, take out the garbage, fix broken things, you know....life! He wishes he could go back to the old days when he was a feared ogre. In steps Rumpel who is down on his luck and offers Shrek the ability to get a day of the old ways by trading a day of his life. Shrek agrees and signs the contract. Things go back to the way Shrek would have liked it but he discovers that things aren't quite right. Witches are over running the place, Far Far Away looks like a dump, Donkey doesn't recognize him and there are wanted posters with Fiona's picture on them. Turns out the day that Shrek gave up was the day he was born. Insert hand hitting forehead sound here followed by a "Doh"!

To break the contract Shrek must obtain what the other fairy tales talk about. But how can he do this when no one knows about him and his past. The remaining 45 or so minutes of the one hour and 37 minute movie shows us how he intends to get his life back, if he can. Unlike It's a Wonderful Life where George Bailey gets his life back by wishing and wanting his old life back, Shrek must accomplish the task or disappear forever. You can't get more dramatic than that can you?

Fiona and Donkey
at Universal Studios Florida

There are some new characters, but most of the movie involves the old jokes that have been used before. I mean really, Pinocchio's running gag in all the movies of trying to get something by telling a lie and having his nose grow is a yawner at this point. Heck, they even put it into audioanimatronic form at Universal's Shrek 4D preshows in both Hollywood and Orlando. No sense in beating us over the head or poking us in the eye with that dead branch. As I write this, I have on my Angry Wig!

Kids will enjoy the action of the movie and the jokes. Adults will laugh but not as much as in the original or number two. If you see the movie in the theaters, I'd say matinee or you could wait for the Blu-ray. Like all other Shrek movies, this one has a PG rating for crude humor, brief language and mild action.

While there is no easter egg at the very end of the movie as I mentioned earlier, stay through the credits to watch those recap scenes; if they are as I hope, the end of the Shrek series, it's a nice way to recap Shrek's adventures. The idea that the credits are on a scroll of paper is cool too!

The Movie Monkey

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Movie Review: How to Train Your Dragon

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The guys who brought us a fuzzy blue genetic experiment designed to bring havoc bring us a sleek black fast, dangerous and endearing dragon in DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon.

Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders were brought in about a year ago to get this story back on track. They bring us a story about understanding our own strengths and weaknesses, finding our place and challenging the accepted norm through a viking village and its residents that gets attacked by different dragon species. Because Dean and Chris were the creators of Disney's Lilo and Stitch, you'll see a number of resemblances between Stitch and the Night Fury dragon in both form and action.

Tickets for this show were available in 2D, Real 3D and IMAX at my local theater. I thought about the 3D for this film as there was some pre-buzz about how the 3D really added to this film which I hadn't heard anyone say for Alice in Wonderland and to a degree Avatar. Upon looking up information on Fandango there had been a change in 3D pricing that made me very unhappy and will write about later in another blog posting. The price for the 2D film had gone up too, only $0.25, so not too bad, with the bright side being now the loyalty points that I get for the film will be rounded up from 8 to 9 rewarding me with soda, popcorn and free movies faster!

Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) is the son of the viking village leader, Stoick (Gerard Butler). While most of the male vikings look like offensive line football players, Hiccup is not that. Instead of getting any brawn, he's got the brains. To keep him safe Stoick has Hiccup work for Gobber (Craig Ferguson) as an apprentice in the metal shop. The other teens of the village Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and twins Tuffnut and Ruffnut (America Ferrera, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jonah Hill, TJ Miller, and Kristen Wiig respectively) are allowed to help battle the dragons with water as we know they can breathe fire and water puts out fire. Being this was back in the day they didn't have sodium bicarbonate foams to use. Being viking, they all aspire to be dragon slayers but are too young to tackle the killing part.

What adds to the depth and fun of the story is the details presented as to the different packages that dragons come in. Each has their own physical characteristics and methods for destruction. It is sort of like in a role playing game where some have strength, some speed, others very powerful fire breath and their weaknesses like only having so many shots of fire before they have to reload. I loved the different back stories of the distinctive types of dragons. If they don't have it out already with the release of the film, I'm sure that there is a card game like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh based on the array dragons presented in the film.

While wanting to fit into the role of a dragon slaying viking, Hiccup realizes he needs to do things differently. One of his inventions actually works and he lands a dragon but he doesn't have the heart to kill it to prove himself. By observation he learns about dragons and the way they act and behave which is nothing like the young vikings are now being taught in their dragon slaying classes by Gobber or by what's in the books. After becoming friendly Hiccup names him Toothless and helps him with a prosthetic tail wing.

Hiccups ends up enlightening the villagers on many levels. He has to work through the preconceived notions of what a viking is supposed to be with his Dad and Goober. On a different level he and Astrid work out what is bravery. When two forces oppose each other can they put down their differences to work for a common good? The story line emotionally works well. Toothless didn't "speak" except for some occasional growls but the animation of the face, especially the eyes, let you know what was happening within his mind and emotions. In the theater there were a number of laughs, a couple of gasps, some uh ohs and at one point someone yelled NOOOO!

Not seeing the movie in 3D affects my ability to say if they maximized the animation to it's fullest affect. The set designs with the landscapes and building designs were very good. The carvings and totems in the buildings were highly detailed as were the skin textures of the different dragons. There were even a couple of shots from the perspective looking up through the surface of water as compared to looking down into the water that were unique. The hair modeling, especially for the facial portion of the vikings was impressive. Stoik has a big red beard with knots and Goober had his blond mustache tied by material bands which were detailed where you could see individual hair strands and how they were twist or run through a bunch of gathered hair. Again, impressive. Hate to be the person who had to sit around and wait for the rendering to finish on those frames! They probably grew a beard themselves just waiting for the work to complete.

There were a few areas where I did have a problem. On a couple of occasions the movement of the characters and the lip sync weren't quite right. Within the plot there did seem to be some holes. Ancient vikings having no fear or apprehension of flying was one. The biggest being how Toothless ended up having lost part of his tail wings. It was glossed over probably because it would have lead to a much more complicated plot conflict they would have had to work out but didn't want to get bogged down in detail.

One other thing I did notice about this film was three of the main character voices have other movies currently in theaters this weekend. America Ferrera has Our family Wedding, Gerard Butler has The Bounty Hunter and Jay Baruchel is the main character in She's Out of My League. The beauty of doing voice acting!

The film runs 98 minutes and is rated PG for sequences of intense action and some scary images, and brief mild language. Despite some flaws, there is something for everyone in the family to enjoy.

The Movie Monkey

To subscribe to the audio podcast of the reviews via iTunes click here. Audio versions are released the following Wednesday.