Review: Shrek The Third

King Harold of Far, Far Away has croaked his last. Shrek, by virtue of being son-in-law, suddenly finds himself next in line. The only way he can avert this is by finding Arthur, the King Harold’s nephew – who of course is quite far away from Far, Far Away, and a voyage is necessary to bring him back.

As in its prequels, a wonderful John Cleese cameo does the job of the Frog King Harold (a phrase played on quite delightfully in the movie when his death is pronounced). Shrek, and many of Hollywood’s animation productions, have made a certain tone of tongue-in-cheek humour laced with pop-culture familiarity – less edgy and more mainstream than what you would see in the Simpsons, to be sure – their own.

My highlight of this film is a brilliantly conceived scene at a bar that Prince Charming goes to, full of seedy-looking characters. The clientele is an assortment of villains, Captain Hook and Cyclops and a room full of others from fairy tale worlds past, each of them having brought their beefs with their own worlds to this one. Prince Charming is crusading to convince them that they have another shot at getting their own back, and enlists them in his scheme to usurp the throne. A joyous five minutes of entreaty follows, in the wonderfully sketched images of a seedy dive alive with the subverted energy of its patrons. This is followed almost inevitably by a song sung in chorus, which somehow always manages to be uplifting.

The canvas, as ever, is made colourful, witty use of. There are hearty doses of clever props and cleverer writing (like the chalk-board at the bar where Charming meets all of the villains, that has ‘Unhappy Hour 3 -7 PM’ scrawled across). But more than once when I was watching Shrek the Third, I cringed at how much was being loaded into the dialogue and the screenplay. On the one hand, characters from the fairy tales we’ve been acquainted with from our childhood, Captain Hook and Pinocchio and Rapunzel, are brought back to life here, creating that warm atmosphere that is created when you recall the stories you heard as kids. But on the other, in the rush to drench these characters and their lines in satire and nonchalance and an astounding penchant for dropping pithy pop-culture references, you’re assured that you will see it stripped of all the simplicity and the innocence that made them and their fairy-tale cousins originally appealing to us.

Shrek in his quest to find Arthur is accompanied by Puss in Boots and Donkey, played by Antonio Banderas and the inimitable Eddie Murphy. The back-slapping dynamic between the three of them flowers in this movie and makes for constant, lively watching. But a surfeit of characters makes sure that the scenes keep shifting, a little too desultorily at times – chiefly to a bunch of Charlie’s angels that include Rapunzel and Snow White. Shrek is such a lovable, poignantly sketched character that this could have been just his side of the story and The Third would have been the better off for it.


The Economic Times: Madras Plus - 31st May 2007