May
16, 2001 | Once upon a time, some impudent rascals at DreamWorks
Pictures had a nifty idea: They would produce a tongue-in-cheeky animated
fairy tale. Their movie would spoof the conventions of beloved bedtime
stories and - perhaps more important - shrewdly satirize classic cartoon
creatures from The Magic Kingdom (a.k.a. Walt Disney Productions). Their
hero would be a monstrous ogre; their villain, a haughty (and height-challenged)
prince. The heroine of the piece? A fair damsel with a most unladylike
knack for butt-kicking. And the hero's best friend would be a real jackass.
Really: A talking donkey who doesn't know when, or maybe even how, to
shut up.
Lo
and behold, the dreamers at DreamWorks transformed their flights of
fancy into state-of-the-art computerized animation. Better still, they
also made an extremely funny movie. Shrek, the product of their
prodigious enterprise, will keep audiences of all ages laughing happily,
if not ever after, than at least throughout all of the summer, and probably
well into next fall.
The
title character is a grouchy green hulk who lives in the depths of a
dank swamp. Shrek speaks - and, occasionally, roars - with the ragged
burr of a Scotsman who'd prefer to be left alone, and practices the
kind of personal hygiene that, under normal circumstances, would repulse
most visitors. (He enjoys mud baths, and makes candles from his own
earwax.) But when the local tyrant, Lord Farquaad, launches a pogrom
against the fairy-tale creatures in his domain, Shrek suddenly finds
his swampy environs overrun by such refugees as The Three Blind Mice,
The Three Little Pigs, The Big Bad Wolf - and even Snow White, along
with all seven of her dwarfs.
There's
also a donkey, aptly named Donkey. He talks. And talks. And then talks
some more. He's nothing if not eager to please, and ingratiating to
a fault: In return for a place to sleep, he offers to fix a hearty breakfast
of waffles for Shrek and himself. It's enough to drive an ogre to distraction
- and, beyond that, to a dangerous quest.
Longing
to be rid of the unwelcome squatters, Shrek strikes a deal with Lord
Farquaad: If his lordship will allow the fairy-tale creatures to return
home, Shrek will retrieve Fiona, the beautiful maiden Farquaad desperately
desires, from the clutches of a dragon in a far-off castle. Not surprisingly,
Farquaad - who, truth to tell, is a bit too short to do much maiden-retrieving
or dragon-smacking on his own - readily agrees to the deal. Donkey,
of course, volunteers to go along for the ride, regardless of whether
Shrek actually wants his dubious assistance and chattering companionship.
Such
is the set-up for a comic odyssey that merrily riffs on a hundred or
so years' worth of fables, fairy tales and animated features. Skewering
Mother Goose with enough exuberance to make the Brothers Grimm laugh
out loud, the makers of Shrek shatter a few myths about magic
mirrors, fire a couple of jabs at ferocious dragons and reveal some
ugly truths about beautiful princesses. And when they're not shooting
at these and other sitting ducks, they elevate their sights and take
aim at more contemporary targets. Television game shows, Matrix-style
fight scenes and that wonderland known as Disney World figure into the
mix, as co-directors Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson puckishly juggle
anachronisms with an anything-goes élan that should make the
makers of A Knight's Tale turn Shreky green with envy.
In
terms of intricate detail, gracefully flowing movement and utterly persuasive
three-dimensionality, the computerized imagery in Shrek far surpasses
anything previously seen in a feature-length production. But the beauty
part is, even if the movie had been hand-drawn and animated in the pedestrian
style of a '60s TV cartoon show, it likely would be just as amusing.
The
script - credited to Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman and Roger
S.H. Schulman, and based on a children's book by William Steig -- works
wonderfully as both razor-sharp parody and old-fashioned, straight-ahead
adventure. Naturally, Shrek can't help falling in love with the lovely
Fiona. Just as naturally, Fiona slowly recognizes the sensitive soul
buried deep - very, very deep - beneath the green ogre's gruff exterior.
But when it comes time for happily-ever-aftering, Shrek takes
a slyly subversive approach to proposing morals about true natures,
false impressions and skin-deep beauty.
The
characters are perfectly cast with stellar vocal talents. Mike Myers
- who, you may recall, played an even surlier Scottish-accented fellow
in the last "Austin Powers" movie - hits all of the right
notes, light and dark, enabling Shrek to be likeable in spite of himself.
John Lithgow brings silken arrogance and iron-willed petulance to his
effective voicing of Lord Farquaad. As Fiona, Cameron Diaz winningly
conveys more than sufficient spunk and sensitivity for the movie's revisionist
take on the archetypical fairy-tale princess. And Eddie Murphy proves
here, as he did in Mulan, that his sassy and brassy motor-mouth
jive-talking qualifies as a special effect all by itself. Does Donkey
steal the movie? You bet your... well, never mind, see and hear for
yourself.