WARNING! THIS REVIEW IS FULL OF SPOILERS! If you haven’t seen the movie yet, and don’t want to be tipped off, DO NOT read this article!
(No point on spoiler-tagging it all, is there?) YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
No need to explain who and what SHREK is all about, either, right? Let’s go to the story, then!
Summary: Shrek and Fiona get back from their honeymoon, and run into Donkey, who is on the “outs” with the Dragon, so he hangs out with them. Then, Fiona gets summoned back to the Kingdom of Far, Far Away (which her parents rule). They hope that she has been freed from the curse, and that she married a handsome prince. That was why they had her imprisoned in the tower originally.
Shrek doesn’t want to go, but Fiona convinces him. The three of them go to Far, Far Away (which looks like Hollywood). Both Shrek, Fiona and her parents try to pretend they’re happy, but soon the King and Shrek snap at each other. This leads to Shrek and Fiona having an argument about making sacrifices for each other, and puts them at odds.
Meanwhile, we find out that the whole Fairy Princess deal was the idea of the Fairy Godmother, who acts more like a Mob Godmother. She wants Fiona to marry her son, Prince Charming. She warns the King that he’d better fix things, or she’ll transform him back to what he originally was- a FROG! (Which apparently nobody knew.)
The king has no choice but to go hire a assassin to kill Shrek. He hires Puss in Boots, who has a reputation for killing ogres.
However, he gets easily beaten by Shrek (bah) and, in gratitude for his having spared his life, decides to help Shrek! (Something Donkey didn’t like- he was jealous of PiB replacing him as Shrek’s best buddy.)
The three of them try to find a way for Shrek and Fiona to become human (he thinks its the only way to solve their problems) and go to the Fairy Godmother, who, of course, refuses to help them. So they steal a magic potion from her that does indeed turn Shrek and Fiona into beautiful People. Problem: they have to kiss before midnight for the spell to be permanent. (Donkey gets some of it, too, and turns into a White Stallion!)
However, the Fairy Godmother kidnaps Shrek and tricks Fiona into thinking that Prince charming is Shrek in human form. She also gives the King a potion that will make Fiona fall in love with the first man she kisses, which she’ll arrange to be Prince Charming.
Shrek escapes, but she has the three heroes arrested by the local authorities. With help from Pinocchio, Gingerbread Man, the Big Bad Wolf (who’s STILL wearing grandma’s clothes-??) and the three Blind Mice, they escape, but are unable to enter the castle, where a great party is being held in the newlyweds’ honor.
They get the Muffin Man to make a GIANT Gingerbread Man (named Mungo) and with his help break into the castle- before he melts into the castle’s moat.
Fiona realizes her “Shrek” is an impostor but he kisses her against her will. However, this fails because the King did NOT give her the potion- he finally decided her happiness is what’s really important. Incensed, the Godmother tries to use her magic wand on Shrek, but the King intercepts the blast with his body, which turns him back into a frog but reflects part of the magic on the Godmother, who goes poof.
Reunited, Shrek tells Fiona that if they kiss now -they have seconds left before midnight- they’ll be human forever. But, she decides that it will be better if they stay as ogres- she knows Shrek will never be happy as a human. So, the magic fades and they go back to normal- including Donkey, who wasn’t too happy to change back. The King stayed a frog, though the Queen didn’t seem to mind, in fact she was proud he’d finally come around to seeing things her way.
And then they had a big musical final number. Hey, what did you expect? ^_~
Comments: Not to toot my own horn, but… a what the hell: TOOT!! :hahaha; You see, I GUESSED, back when I saw the first Shrek, that the second movie would involve the Happy Couple having to deal with choosing between happiness and their true forms. I’m cunning that way. 8P However, it surprised me that it was Shrek, rather than Fiona, who had to make the choice to change (although it was Fiona that made the decision in the end, for most of the movie, it was Shrek who had to deal with the decision.) In any case, the movie has a lot of good, original material, like the Fairy Godmother being the villain for once!
I understand that SOMETHING happened between the two movies- something to do with Lord Farquaad’s ghost? I think it’s in the extra CD in the SHREK DVD. Haven’t seen it yet. Anybody can confirm that?
I’m glad they didn’t use the Dragon. I never liked her much. Besides, she would’ve been in the way for much of the story. (Too Big.) I’m surprised, however, that they brought back so many of the other, minor Fairy characters from the first movie. Thought Pinnochio has some REALLY funny moments here!
There were also plenty of new characters, and even minor ones like the Ugly Stepsister (wich I’m told was patterned after LARRY KING!?) are memorable. The most famous, of course, is Puss in Boots, althought I was disappointed at how easily he was beaten. He was all talk. And if it had been me, I would’ve given him a better reason for joining Shrek- perhaps having Shrek rescue him from jail or something. I liked him a lot, anyway.
One thing that bothers me is: why didn’t Shrek and Fiona come up with a better plan than just walk up to her parents and expect to be accepted? Yeah, I know THAT was the whole point of the story, but the main characters (except Donkey) are smart enough to know that wouldn’t work. At the very least, they could’ve sent them a message to tell them what happened, and THEN wait for their reaction (from a distance.) Oh well, I guess Fiona was TOO desperate to believe that her parents would accept her new form, AND her lover, just out of love for her. And Shrek, too eager to please her.
This movie is CHOCK-FULL of fairy-tale and cultural references. So many, indeed, that I had to check a website that listed them to learn them all! I enjoyed the idea; on other movies that might be tacky, but this one was perfect for that. I’ve heard that one reason many people see the movie a second time is precisely to try and spot them all. My favorite ones are: the Hawaii-5-0 music theme, the COPS parody, and the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE parody. I also happen to have always liked the “I Need a Hero!” song, which the Godmother -of all people!- sings while Mungo attacks the castle.
We never did find out HOW Fiona was cursed in the first place, did we? I suspect THAT was the Fairy Godmother’s plan, too (to get her son married to a Princess.) Maybe it was part of the deal of making the Frog Prince human in the first place. Speaking of Mr. Not-So-Charming, I would’ve liked to see him and Shrek fight- ah well, Shrek would probably have kicked his ass too quickly anyway.
The movie works, on several levels: not only as a comedy -it REALLY is funny- but, as with all great animated movies, the characters are so well written and voice acted that they sound totally believable, and we get to care for them. GREAT voice acting from all parties. (I’m VERY happy I got to see the movie in English, not in Spanish as my family wanted to (we got both versions showing here) Can you imagine Donkey with a mexican accent? Arrgh!)
There are some plot holes, thought. The whole Happily-Ever-After Potion’s effects were a bit TOO perfect. The Giant Gingerbread Man also felt kinda gimmicky- they couldn’t come up with a better plan to enter the castle? And how convenient for the castle to have tons of milk ready to pour down on it! And how about the PARTIAL reflection of the magic spell? But, I guess we have to make concessions to the Fairy Tale (and parody) aspects of the movie.
I also wouldn’t have left the king a frog. Poor Queen! She’s in for some cold nights. :mwahaha: Oh well, I’m sure there’s a potion for that somewhere in the Kingdom too, and now that Godmother has been dispatched, maybe it can be obtained.
The animation, of course, was even better than before. The only sad thing about that is, with CGI movies making the BIG money these days, the old, hand-animated movies will probably stop being made. Too bad, those have their own, unique appeal.
Will there be third movie? You bet your ogre ears! Not only because of all the money the two movies have made, but because all the voice actors have said they would love to return, and I’m sure there’s plenty of more celebrities that would love at least a cameo. And no, THIS time I have no idea what the third movie could be about… yet.
What do you guys think?
