Now unlike Mother's Day which is quite easy for me to review a thing with a mother and child relationship, St Patrick's Day is more difficult as I need to take into account anything that has some Irish stuff in it, whether it be a 4 leaf clover, a leprechaun, something that was made in Ireland or stars an Irish person. In the end I decided that the reviewed item, could have that or seeing as the holiday mostly has green as it's colour, why not do a review of something with green in it, and behold, we have the Shrek films. Now while I find the films to be quite good with DreamWorks take on the world of fairytales, not all of them are great. With that in mind, let's begin the review (and as Puss in Boots is part of the Shrek universe, I'm going to do a review of that as well, but for any short films or TV specials, those will be left for another time):
Shrek
Now before I start, this was not the first CGI film made by DreamWorks, the first was Antz (which I'll review another time). Sherk is your typical ogre who is hated and scary to everyone he comes across and lives in a swamp in the woods somewhere. All is well until he meets a talking Donkey (who he calls Donkey, how un-imaginative) who begs him to take him in so that he won't get caught by the guards of Lord Farquaad. Sherk reluctantly takes him in, but for one night and it isn't long before various fairytale creatures are dumped near his swamp by order of Farquaad. Shrek and Donkey then head for Farquaad and come to a deal where Shrek will go to rescue a princess for Farquaad and in return, Farquaad will remove the FT creatures from his swamp and so the quest begins. For the most part, the film is enjoyable to watch with a balanced amount of adult and childish humour and a very straight forward plot to follow. It can be quite boring for most of it, but when the humour does kick in, it's executed well so in conclusion, it's a great family film that I'm sure will be enjoyed by many people. 8/10
Shrek 2
So after a successful honeymoon, Shrek and Fiona return home, only to be invited to go to a place called "Far Far Away" where Fiona's parents who rule the Hollywood looking place, live (and Donkey joins them). But upon arrival, things don't go to plan as the King wanted someone called Prince Charming to save her, instead of Shrek and with the help of the fairy god mother, he tries whatever necessary to replace Shrek with Charming (under the orders of the God Mother). Shrek and Donkey then encounter Puss in Boots, a Zorro looking, cat assassin who chooses to join them when he reveals the king's master plan and it's up to the 3 to prevent Sherk and Fiona's marriage from going out of control, thanks to the God Mother and Charming. I find this to be better than the first as it has a lot of humour throughout and the villain is very creative and original and it's overall, a great film and possibly the best in the series by far. 9/10
Sherk The Third
Shrek and Co continue to enjoy their time in Far Far Away until they find out that the King is ill and Shrek is to be the next heir to the throne. After a few jobs go haywire, Shrek realises that he isn't cut out for the job and the King then tells him to find a boy called Arthur who is Fiona's cousin and the second heir to the throne, dying soon after. Shrek, Puss and Donkey head out to find Arthur while Fiona comes to terms with her being pregnant. Meanwhile as all this is happening, Charming decides that he wants to take over Far Far Away and kill Shrek so he forms an alliance of villains to do just that, getting rid of anyone that gets in his way (with non lethal methods of course as this is a family film). From my point of view, this film is funny and does real hard to make it as good as the previous films, but in the end, it's just like the first film where its mostly boring. I also find that using recycled items (like Charming for example) doesn't always work in films (especially Ice Age) and it's the same here. Not the greatest in my opinion. 7/10
Shrek Forever After/The Final Chapter
Shrek is enjoying life with his family, but after a while, he realises that its not the way it used to be and that he wishes to be feared by many once more. After losing his temper at his children's first birthday party and after an argument with Fiona, he comes across Rumpelstiltskin, a con artist who can make anyone's wishes come true. Rumpel has been wanting his revenge to get what he wants after Shrek saved Fiona and stopped her parents from signing the kingdom away to him. So after allowing Shrek to give up one day of his life so that he can be an ogre once more and in the process, Rumpel's own wish comes true and takes over the land. Sherk later learns of this and must now find a way to fix everything before it's too late (and in this alternative reality, Fiona escapes the castle herself to form an alliance of rebelling ogres who all hate Rumpel, Donkey, Dragon and most of the reoccurring fairytale creatures have become slaves for Rumpel, Puss is a fat and lazy cat and serves as a pet for Fiona and none of Shrek and Donkey's children exist for obvious reasons). While it's not as good as the second film, this is better than the first and third film and its also a fitting end to what has been a great series of films that I'm sure will become an iconic franchise for many years to come. And the 3D works well too. 9/10
Puss in Boots
So, serving as a spin off prequel before the cat's debut in Shrek 2, Puss in Boots is a Zorro acting and looking cat who is also a fugitive on the run from the law and is looking for some way to restore his honour. one day comes across an outlaw couple by the names Jack and Jill whom of which have some magic beans. Puss in Boots has spent most of his life trying to get some magic beans so that he can travel to a giant's castle to acquire some golden eggs. Of course, he can't do it alone so he teams up with his long estranged childhood friend, Humpty Dumpty and his ally, a street savvy Tuxedo cat who goes by the name Kitty (who Puss in Boots has a romantic interest in) to steal the eggs. Now comparing this to the last few Shrek films, this was surprisingly good. It's got great humour throughout, a lot of fighting and action scenes as you would expect from a film like this and while I didn't see the 3D version, it's very obvious that the film was made to be seen in 3D. Just a shame I missed out, but nevertheless, its overall a great film. 9/10
So as you can tell, the Shrek films are great with it's cleverly constructed adult and childish humour and it definitely does a great job of making it as much of a fairytale as possible, throwing in all the elements of a fairy tale. I like the films and I'm sure any sucker for animated and fairytale based films will like them too. They aren't as good as some of DreamWorks' other works and even some of Disney's stuff too, but they are still pretty good and fun to watch regardless. 9/10
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