2007-12-19

Shrek 3

Score: 5/10 The Shrek franchise is losing its freshness. The move from singleness (1) to marriage (2) to parents (3) appears to be too sentimental. What's next? Divorce? Death?

Character Analysis
  • Shrek. The guy LIED to Arthur. More than that, he didn't apologise for it. Usually this sort of thing leads to a moral in the story but it didn't.
  • Fiona. How many women leave the good news of pregnancy to the extreme last minute of their husband's departure?
  • King Harold. We sort of liked this guy in 2. When he "croaks" in 3 there is this painful joke filled scene. It was very difficult to feel anything for him after that. When people ask when the Shrek franchise jumped the shark, it was when King Harold croaked.
  • Merlin. Probably one of the better new characters. Played by Eric Idle who seemed to be above such a part.
  • Prince Charming. In 2 he was good, in 3 he was just plain annoying.
  • Donkey and Puss. Reduced to wise-cracking sidekicks.
  • Any ditzy, valley-girl like female, including the girls at the school and Fiona's princess friends. We all hate Paris, Britney and others. Why ruin a good film with them?
  • Arthur. Why not actually hire a real teenage boy to be the voice actor rather than getting Justin Timberlake to do it? He wasn't likeable. Being named Arthur Pendragon was a good move - but where's the sword in the stone? You might as well name him Superman and not have him leap tall buildings.
  • Rapunzel. For a while there I thought she would end up being a Mirage type character but she just ended up wearing a wig.
Best moment: Snow White doing her singing routine with the cute woodland creatures which is then suddenly changed by the onset of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song, while the cute woodland creatures are sent forth to attack from a very evil looking Snow White (Actually every time I hear snippets of the Immigrant Song in films it always does well. Obviously Page / Plant / Jones / Estate of John Bonham didn't allow the producers to use more than a small snippet. Perhaps they needed Jack Black to help).

Worst moment: The believe in yourself moral at the end of the story.

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