| Long ago, in a land far away, I used to
be an animation purist. My resolve to hate computer animation
and Pixar was slightly broken down by Toy Story and Dinosaur,
but I still preferred classic hand-drawn characters and backgrounds
in my animated films. So I expected not to like Shrek
simply based on the animation techniques. By the end of the
film, I had so completely fallen for the original story and
lovable characters that the computer animation was but an afterthought.
Shrek tells the story of an ogre named Shrek (Myers),
whose peaceful swamp is disturbed by an influx of fairy tale
creatures, ranging from Pinocchio to the three blind mice.
As it turns out, the devious, power-hungry, and diminutive
Lord Farquaad (Lithgow) uproots this large group of mystical
creatures from their homes to perfect his kingdom and ends
up with a very angry ogre on his hands. You see, ogres do
not like people or fairy creatures. They are mean, crude,
and just plain disgusting. So when Shrek’s peace is disturbed,
he decides to take his complaint to Lord Farquaad and ends
up being sent on a quest to find the perfect bride for Farquaad,
Princess Fiona (Diaz). Along the way, Shrek attains a slightly
annoying shadow named Donkey (Murphy), who if not the most
necessary plot device, certainly makes the film worth watching
more than once.
Eddie Murphy is basically the reason Shrek is as
good as it is. While the entire movie is well written, Murphy’s
lines are sidesplitting, though the target demographic will
not understand many of them. Murphy is perfectly cast as the
wise and wisecracking Donkey, as are Lithgow as Lord Farquaad,
and Myers (in a return to his Fat Bastard accent from Austin
Powers II) as Shrek. Diaz seems to have been cast simply
because she is a hot property in Hollywood at the moment and
not because her voice matched the animation.
SHREK is definitely not shy about borrowing from other movies.
Blatant thievery (legal or not) from The Matrix, Beauty
And The Beast, and others can be seen throughout the movie
and while occasionally funny, led me to wonder about the creativity
of the animators. Though several of the scenes are rip-offs,
the storyline overall is original and well intentioned, with
a classic cartoon moral that beauty comes from within the
soul.
Now to the big question, the animation. Throughout the film,
the characters look rather like animatronics on film—robotic
and unnatural. I noticed this several times and would have
been extremely bothered by it if the story hadn’t been so
endearing and amusing. Until computer animation is improved
by leaps and bounds, I will prefer hand-created drawings any
day.
But I still loved Shrek. As a kid’s movie, Shrek
is good. Not up to par with recent animated films like The
Emperor's New Groove, but good enough that kids and their
parents will enjoy it. Take a kid, eat some popcorn and try
to ignore the animation—you’ll be glad you did.
—Renae Bolen
|
out of 5
While we would never encourage anyone to destroy a video... 
