Shrek
Review
Cast:-
Bobby Block as Baby Bear (voice)
Calvin Remsberg as Merry Man (voice)
Cameron Diaz as The Princess
Chris Miller as Geppetto/Magic Mirror (voice)
Christopher Knights as Blind Mouse/Thelonious (voice)
Clive Pearse as Ogre Hunter (voice)
Cody Cameron as Pinnochio/Three Pigs (voice)
Conrad Vernon as Gingerbread Man (voice)
Eddie Murphy as The Donkey
Guillaume Aretos as Merry Man (voice)
Jacquie Barnbrook as Wrestling Fan (voice)
Jean-Paul Vignon as Merry Man (voice)
Jim Cummings as Captain of Guards (voice)
John Bisom as Merry Man (voice)
John Lithgow as Lord Farquar
Kathleen Freeman as Old Woman (voice)
Linda Hunt as The Witch
Matthew Gonder as Merry Man (voice)
Michael Galasso as Peter Pan (voice)
Mike Myers as Shrek the Ogre
Peter Dennis as Ogre Hunter (voice)
Simon J. Smith as Blind Mouse (voice)
Val Bettin as Bishop (voice)
Vincent Cassel as Monsieur Hood (voice)
Synopsis:-
Shrek (Mike Myers) is a cynical,
no-nonsense ogre whose swamp has been over-run by annoying
fairy tale creatures. He sets out to save his home.
Along the way, he is befriended by a wise-cracking donkey
(Eddie Murphy), sent to slay a fire-breathing dragon
and to save a beautiful princess (Cameron Diaz) with
a deep, dark secret.
Plot:-
Once upon a time in a far
away swamp, there lived an ornery ogre named Shrek (Mike
Myers) whose precious solitude is suddenly shattered
by an invasion of annoying fairy-tale characters. There
are blind mice in his food, a big, bad wolf in his bed,
three little homeless pigs and more, all banished from
their kingdom by the evil Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow).
Determined to save their home-not to mention his own-Shrek
cuts a deal with Farquaad and sets out to rescue the
beautiful Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) to be Farquaad's
bride. Accompanying him on his mission is a wisecracking
Donkey (Eddie Murphy) who will do anything for Shrek-
except shut up. Rescuing the Princess from a fire-breathing
dragon may prove the least of their problems when the
deep, dark secret she has been keeping is revealed.
What the critics
say:-
With all the hype surrounding
the DreamWorks animation Shrek, I was expecting the
funniest film I have seen in ages; I wasn't disappointed
but neither did I leave the cinema completely satisfied.
Shrek is original but at the same time a very predictable
movie.
The animation is Excellent,
the humour intelligent, but the film lacks any real
imagination and follows too much convention, It could
have been so much more.
Shrek is big, ugly, smelly,
green ogre who lives in a swamp, he lives happily there
in his own company.
Lord Farquaad is the man in
charge of the town of Duloc, he longs to be a king,
so sets about to find the legendary fairly tale magic
mirror (Mirror Mirror on the wall) to make his dreams
come true.In order to find the mirroe he rounds up all
the fairy tale characters and banishes them to Shrek's
swamp.
Shrek doesn't like this invasion
and makes his way to the palace. To confront Lord Farquaad
When the Mirror on the wall
tells Farqaad that to have the finest kingdom in all
the land he must first become a king and marry a princess,
he is given the choice of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White
or Princess Fiona, He chooses Fiona.
There is a slight hitch, Princess
Fiona lives in castle guarded by a very fierce dragon,
he must rescue the damsel in distress and make her his
wife.
Too short, too idle and too
self absorbed to rescue her himself, Farquaad orders
a WWF style fight to take place, the winner will claim
the honour of being the Princess's rescuer.
When Shrek enters the courtyard
mid battle followed by his new pal an exiled Donkey,
, they 'Clothes Line' and 'Pile Drive' some soldiers
and claim the dubious pleasure of rescuing Fiona, in
return, Shrek will get his swamp back!
Shrek works on many levels
and is equally pleasurable to both an adult and child
audience, there are lots of toilet humour jokes for
the children and more political jokes for the adults.
The movie contains many parodies
of other films and acknowledges every fairly tale character
I can remember. The removal of the Disney character
is very tongue in cheek made by the main Disney rival,
DreamWorks. Disney execs are rumoured not to be too
pleased to witness well established and well loved characters
being dumped in a swamp in favour of a CGI animated
Ogre!!
The Gingerbread man and the
three blind mice are the best of the ensemble cast,
very funny scenes featuring both. The dragon and the
donkey scenes are also wicked.
Eddie Murphy is excellent
as Donkey. Certainly having the funniest lives of the
film. Mike Myers has a slightly shakey Scottish accent
and Cameron Diaz is super as the cocky not quite right
princess. The whole of the Shrek story has the narrative,
including the happy ending, of the much loved fairy
tale, but the characters are all slightly off beat and
not quite what you expect- I like that twist
All in all Shrek is a very
clever, funny and aesthetically pleasing movie, but
I cant helping feeling it could have been better
Movie Review:- Carmen
Cheetham
