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by John Anderson
Staff Writer (4 STARS) SHREK. (PG) Eddie Murphy's Donkey is just the most hilarious aspect of one funny animated fairy tale, about a misanthropic ogre, a kung-fu-fighting princess, a miserable pint-size ruler and a certain magic kingdom that is very, very clean. With the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow, Vincent Cassell. Screenplay by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman and Roger S.H. Schulman, from the book by William Steig. Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson. 1:38 (crude humor, adult situations). Opens in Manhattan today; Friday at area theaters. IS "SHREK" TOO HARD? Too soft? Too hot? Too cold? No, "Shrek" is juuuuuuust right-even though, with its refugee elves, displaced pixies, POW gingerbread man and three visually challenged mice (see how they run) it's tempting to think of DreamWorks' state-of-the-art fantasy/comedy as the anti-fairy tale. And we haven't even mentioned the title ogre with the heart of gold/spleen of napalm. But fabulous animation aside, "Shrek" is actually part of a great tradition, one in which the fairy tale has always been satirical, political and just a little bit adult. The original Rapunzel, after all, was in the family way; an early Cinderella's stepsister had her eyes plucked out by birds. "Shrek" (Mike Myers, affecting an appropriately dignified Scot's burr) bathes in mud, passes high-octane gas and doesn't play well with others. Which makes "Shrek," if nothing else, an anti-Disney tale, which is precisely what DreamWorks had in mind (along with the "Toy Story" market share). The antisocial Shrek has humanity-or something close-thrust upon him when the short and ruthless Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) kicks all the storybook characters out of Duloc, an enchanted kingdom whose obsessive neatness seems modeled after certain tourist attractions in Orlando and Anaheim. The resulting diaspora brings a migrating horde of imps and brownies, a trio of pigs, at least seven dwarfs and one Big Bad Wolf down to Shrek's swamp. At the same time, our bilious green hero also has this braying donkey (Eddie Murphy) who wants to be his friend. Shrek is not happy. You can't imagine Disney will be either. Along with a very smart, sometimes crude, but consistently funny script (the bathroom-ish humor earned the PG rating), the PDI-DreamWorks animation team have taken the "Toy Story" style a few steps further. "Shrek's" characters all have the similar three-dimensional look, but where the "TS" films fell short was in their representation of humans (the toys were great, the people not). "Shrek" has it both ways. Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) is, in her dual manifestations of beauty and demi-beast, a thoroughly convincing, attractive and no-nonsense heroine (there's a hilarious "Crouching Tiger" reference when she kicks some Enchanted Forest butt). Likewise, the large-headed, essentially repulsive Farquaad, who seems inspired by equal parts Grimm and "Dilbert." Shrek's mission, in order to rid his swamp of all those squatters, is to bring Fiona back to Farquaad, but Fiona's perfectly capable of taking care of herself. She's just been waiting for some classic romance. And while Shrek wouldn't seem to fit the bill, this is a fairy tale, anti- or otherwise. Meanwhile, Murphy as Shrek's persistent sidekick, seems to have all the good lines, but it may just be Murphy's delivery-after a while, you laugh before he even opens his mouth. The entire script is intelligent and funny, making for the kind of movie that will entertain everyone of every age and probably for ages to come. Fairy tales were always written for and of their time, and "Shrek" is no different. Check out our hero's WWF-style thumping of Farquaad's men at the beginning of the film, or the "Dating Game" sequence in which Farquaad chooses Fiona as his bride-to-be, or any of the myriad anachronisms pouring out of the Donkey during his motor- mouthed tour of "Shrek's" Middle-Earth- meets-the-Middle Ages-meets-MTV world, and you realize that some things are timeless, whether they try to be or not. "Shrek" is a classic. And while we can't promise it will be forever after, it will certainly make you happy. |
