My Favourite Movies: Shrek 2

It’s not often that I prefer a sequel to the original film. About the only example that immediately jumps to mind is Aliens which was, actually, a very different film than its predecessor. Not so with Shrek 2 which has many things in common with its original. Inevitably this means that much of the originality that made Shrek so much fun was no longer there to make the movie interesting. Fortunately the writers and CGI experts had all upped their collective games to produce a movie that was, in many ways, superior to the original outing.

For one thing the power of the CGI creations had moved on in leaps and bounds in the 3 years between movies. As always with these things I am awe struck at just how much better they can get between movies – consider Toy Story and Toy Story 2 for instance. At every level the CGI knocks spots of the original from facial expressions, water effects, fire and general fluidity of motion. It’s just amazing to look at before anything else is taken into account. The storyline, as you can imagine, is rather thin. Shrek and Fiona, now married, are summoned back to the palace, in Far Far Away (looking suspiciously like Hollywood), for a blessing by Fiona’s parents who are aghast that she is a full-time ogre and he is, well, an ogre. Apparently the plan was for the evil Prince Charming to woo the Princess and thereby force his way into the royal dynasty with the help/manipulation of the present King. Behind everything is the money grubbing and forever scheming Fairy Godmother. Of course, being Shrek, all of the usual conventions are turned on their heads to elicit the humour but such subversion can only go so far before it become the new norm – and therefore not funny anymore. Generally the team tread on just about the right side of this line (but should’ve really stopped at the second movie!).

But new movies need new characters to spice things up a bit and here we have the adventurer and would-be assassin Puss in Boots voiced by Antonio Banderas. Puss was considered so successful that he got his own movie – a mistake I thought – but equipped himself well enough to prove some very funny and very cat-like moments. He even managed a pretty good end song with Donkey to sign things off, indeed the music throughout the film was even better than the first which was an impressive feat in itself.

As with the first film, and yet again taking it to the next level, Shrek 2 was chocked full of pop-cultural references and repeated digs at conventions both in movie making and in the wider cultural world. Watching the film 5 times would still reward you with spotting a brief glimpse of a recognisable figure, logo or item twisted to exist in the Shrek universe. I particularly liked when a bunch of citizens ran across the street from a just about to be destroyed Starbucks into an identical Starbucks a few hundred feet away. I’ve probably seen this film 6-7 times now and although it’s lost quite a bit of its original punch it’s still enjoyable enough and still managed to make me laugh out loud a few times over the weekend. Fun, rather than amazing, but fun nevertheless.