Shrek Forever After

After a somewhat lacklustre Shrek 2 & 3, the makers finally figured out what worked for Shrek. It was the story of Part 1 – where the ogre grudgingly tolerates an idiotic non-stop-blabbering donkey and falls in love with Fiona without meaning to. They decide to give us the same story – with a slight twist. In an animated take on mid-life crisis, a now-married and father-of-three Shrek makes a deal with wicked Rumpelstiltskin to get a single day of his carefree bachelor days back – when ogres are still scary and people run pell-mell when they see one.

However the villain, as in countless fairy tales, tricks Shrek and he has only one day to break the spell. And so begins his journey where he comes across Donkey as well as Puss-in-boots – Donkey talkative as ever and Puss-in-boots slightly different – in a hilarious way

The jokes however, dont fly so thick and fast. There are some heavy senti scenes in it – but then Donkey or Puss come up with a howler and all is well in the world.

Shrek Forever After adds the attraction of 3D to the movie and I think it made the movie a little better. Maybe it was the 3D glasses at PVR which made the difference – they are bigger and sturdier – like they were powered by a battery of some kind. Whatever they were, they sure made the characters ‘pop’ out – and made the 3D impact appreciable. But on the downside, they were quite heavy – and I suspect, caused a slight headache by the end of the day.
(I am sure these glasses would have made How to Train Your Dragon more enjoyable)

So Shrek 4 is like a remix of the original Shrek – if you are a fan of the franchise, you will probably watch it. For others, I am not sure it’s a must watch. It’s a teeny bit more senti than your average animated movie, but Donkey and Puss’ jokes are funnier too. But then, there is nothing new in the movie – every character (except Rumpelstiltskin), you have seen before. So it also gets a middling rating.