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SHREK
7/10
USA
2001
directors : Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson
script : Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, Roger S H Schulman
(based on book Shrek! by William Steig)
producers include : Jeffrey Katzenberg, Elliott, Rossio
(CGI animated) production designer : James Hegedus
music : Harry Gregson-Williams
lead actors : Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow
89 minutes
There’s
a brand new category at the Oscars next March - Best Animated Feature
- and look no further for the winner. Shrek is this year’s Toy
Story, a dazzling blast of computer-generated
magic that’s stomped all over Pearl
Harbor at the box-office. An encouraging sign: how many megablockbusters
have this much intelligence, not to mention a soundtrack that finds room
for both The Proclaimers and John Cale?
The
only people the picture will disappoint are horror fans expecting
a Shadow of the Vampire spinoff – this Shrek is a lime green ogre
who lives in a dismal swamp. He’s happy enough, until his turf is invaded
by hundreds of fairytale characters – the three blind mice, Pinocchio,
etc - exiled from the fairy kingdom of petulant Prince Farquaad (Lithgow).
If Shrek can find a suitable bride for the prince, he’ll get his peace
and quiet back, so he sets off to rescue the feisty Princess Fiona (Diaz)
from a firebreathing dragon, accompanied by a wisecracking donkey (Murphy)…
The
talking donkey isn’t the only conventional element in this supposed ‘anti-fairytale.’
There are songs, a happy ending, the usual shenanigans as Shrek’s
quest unfolds - in fact, the whole thing strongly recalls the criminally
underappreciated Emperor’s
New Groove. But Shrek has a surreal humour all its own:
each viewer will have their favourite moments (watch for the singing bluebird,
the accordion-playing Friar Tuck, the ‘giant false head’ at the castle
entrance, and the frog/snake balloons) but the scene in which Farquaad
interrogates a Gingerbread Man is an instant classic – one of the funniest
and hands-down best sequences you’ll see in a cinema this year.
13th
June, 2001
by Neil
Young
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