Shrek
Originally posted a long time ago on Paul’s Reviews Page
I’ll be rating movies on a three zone, 5-star scale. Each movie will be rated
on “Visual Appeal”, “Audio Appeal” and “Story Appeal”. Each of these three
zones can be rated up to 5 stars (or asterisks…. they load faster than
.GIFs)
Shrek
V: ******
A: ******
S: ******
Synopsis: By ciruitous cicumstances, an ogre and a princess meet and discover they have a great deal more in common than their outward appearances lead them to believe
Thoughts: Yes, you read right. There’s SIX ASTERISKS up there. This movie was that good. It’s not really a children’s movie, though. Kids are not going to see anything “bad” that
they don’t already see on TV… such as barechested men (Well, an ogre, actually), and bit of plumbers’ crack, some sports-style violence. There is some “Fill-in-the-blank” adult humor… such as in the “Merry Men” song and the
“Welcome To DuLoc” song. But the story is fresh and a bit more complex than you might expect from an animated film. The dialog lacks the sing-songy fairytale quality one might expect from “A Bug’s Life”. There are some rather direct descriptions of brutal and horrifying acts, but for the most part they’re contained in hypothetical discussions. Most parents I know would not be enthused about having to explain to little Johnny what it means to “..decapitate
an entire village and put their heads on a pike…”. That aside, aproaching this as a film for mature adults, it’s a gem! The score is stirring, the songs (and editing thereof) are perfectly chosen and because this movie is completely
CGI, it can be made to fit the rhythms and cues of the songs perfectly. The scenery is lush and alive, the movement is smooth and organic. The facial expressions on the principal characters are very very keen. Watch the fur on
Donkey’s cheeks when Shrek roars at him. Shrek could get by just as an audio play (with a little narration for scene setup), or even as a silent movie (with some placards for dialogue, although you can lip-read a lot of it)… but
the confluenece of the sound (voice acting, music and sound effects) and the imagery (character animation, visual effects, “camera” work, scenery) is over the top…. and yet credible, natural and transparent. So there.