DreamWorks' Shrek offers guilty pleasure
Julien R. Fielding
Shrek is a green ogre who brushes his teeth with worm guts, bathes in mud, has a surly demeanor and is in desperate need of a Tic Tac.
He's also DreamWorks SKG's latest weapon in its war against Disney.
Based on William Steig's children's novel of the same name, "Shrek" opens like many Disney films, with an off-camera narrator reciting to us from a book of fairy tales.
Only in "Shrek," our narrator is seated on his chrome stool and uses a page from the book as toilet paper.
After we watch Shrek perform his ablutions, choreographed to Smash Mouth's "All Star," the directors and writers use him and his comrades to smack their Disney foe with a stick of satire and mockery. (Katzenberg, the K in SKG, used to work at Disney.)
For years, Disney has mined fairy tales for material. Now, DreamWorks undermines them, creating a sassy post-modern tale with an anti-hero (Mike Myers) at its center.
The plot gets rolling when the ogre wakes up to find squatters in his swamp. Pinocchio's there, and so are the Three Bears, Little Red Ridinghood's wolf, the three fairies from "Sleeping Beauty," Tinkerbell and Snow White and all the seven dwarves. (When Snow White is placed on his dining room table, Shrek tells them to get the dead broad off.)
Angry and disgusted with his situation, the ogre soon learns from a chatterbox mule (Eddie Murphy) that Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) is the originator of the relocation program. So, with the donkey's assistance, Shrek sets off to have words and set things right.
When the two arrive at the colossal castle - "Farquaad's compensating for something" - they find that the diminutive ruler has other plans. He's looking for a champion who can rescue and return a princess to him.
After all, he can't be ruler of Duloc without royalty.
After he sees Shrek dispense with all the competing knights - worldwide wrestling style - Farquaad decides to strike a deal. If this Scots-tongued monster can deliver Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) to him post-haste, Farquaad will return his swamp, sans refugees. Shrek agrees and sets off on his quest, donkey at his side.
Although "Shrek" is animated, this isn't a warm, fuzzy family film. It isn't meant to be.
In fact, it's everything Disney isn't. It's crude humor, gross-outs galore and mild language. The MPAA gave it a PG rating for a reason.
But it's funny, clever and welcome by those of us who still appreciate a happy ending, but one we can stand.
Audiences now are a little more jaded and less forgiving than they were 60 years ago, and these filmmakers understand that.
With a barrage of witticisms and deft visual gags, such as an interrogation scene with the Gingerbread Man and balloons made from reptiles, it isn't surprising that a fleet of comedy writers were involved on this screenplay.
They include Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, collaborators on "Road to El Dorado;" Joe Stillman of "Beavis & Butthead;" '80s sitcom writer Roger S.H. Schulman; and Chris Miller of "Animal House" fame.
And, like most animation, this one doesn't sidestep the moral - that you shouldn't judge someone before you walk a mile in his or her shoes. It's a point well taken.
Pacific Data Images - DreamWorks computer-animation division and counterpart to Disney's Pixar - provides the three-dimensional beings for the film.
CGI is improving, but because of the sheer challenge of recreating human faces, these animators still do better with the animals and creatures.
Andrew Adamson (visual effects on "Batman & Robin," "Batman Forever") and Vicky Jenson direct.
Esthetics aside, the vocal talents are superb. Lithgow once again plays the egomaniacal tyrant, but then, he does it so brilliantly. It's only too bad for his fans that NBC couldn't recognize the genius of this performer and canceled "3rd Rock From the Sun."
Diaz's character contains a hint of her "Charlie's Angels" character, Natalie, with her likable demeanor paired with high-kicking self defense techniques. (Believe it or not, "The Matrix" reference still gets a laugh. But this is the last time. Please STOP!)
Myers fans will recognize this Scottish brogue from so many of his skits and films, but here he tones it down just a wee bit. Perhaps it's so audiences can understand him.
And, he gets to play the restrained one for a change, but that's only to let Murphy charge ahead. And he does so, full throttle the whole way. It's sort of like Robin Williams in "Aladdin," but this time the gags are in context.
Murphy absolutely steals the show.
The only down side to this film is that keen adults will have to watch it amid a sea of crying children, who really can't appreciate it in the first place. (It's like "Antz" all over again.)
But try to toughen up and brave the crowds. "Shrek" truly is a guilty pleasure. The film runs 89 minutes.
DreamWorks' Shrek offers guilty pleasure was originally published in The Daily Nonpareil on 24 May, 2001. © Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil LLC
