Shrek - a Dreamworks video

                      Reviewed by Sue

When Lord Farquaad decides to evict all the fairytale characters
from his land, they set up a sort of refugee camp in the swamp
where Shrek the ogre lives. A typical ogre, he likes his privacy
so he heads to town to persuade Lord Farquaad to do something
about it. But he ends up in the middle of a joust where Lord
Farquaad is trying to pick a champion to rescue the woman he wants
to marry, Princess Fiona, from the isolated tower where she is
guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. This will be very much a
marriage of convenience as Lord Farquaad merely wants to marry a
princess ... any princess ... so that he will be counted as
royalty himself.

Having been attacked by all the knights, and defeated them, Shrek
is chosen as Lord Farquaad's champion and with his companion,
Donkey, a talking donkey, he sets off to rescue the princess.  In

return, Lord Farquaad promises to give him the deeds of his swamp.
It seems like a fair trade.

Shrek is one of the most enjoyable films I've seen recently. It's
a cartoon but the characters are computer generated, not hand
drawn like Toy Story. The voice of Shrek is provided by Mike 
Myers with Eddie Murphy brilliant as the loud mouthed Donkey 
and John Lithgow in fine form as Lord Farquaad. Cameron Diaz 
does the voice for Princess Fiona.

The characterisations are brilliant. Shrek, for some unknown
reason, has a Scottish accent. I knew it was Mike Myers but it
sounded very much like Robbie Coltrane. Eddie Murphy is just
excellent as the donkey who just will not shut up. When Shrek
tells him off at one stage, he looks so downcast with his
flattened ears, but then immediately brightens up as he is sure
Shrek is only kidding.  How could anyone NOT love him?

There are some nods to other films such as The Matrix when
Princess Fiona shows off her fighting skills against Robin Hood
and his Merry Men who have a splendid song-and-dance routine. It's
also fun spotting all the other cartoon characters in the
background.

The movement of the characters and their expressions are also top
class. The humour is balanced just right, and there's the
inevitable touches of pathos. It's only a hard hearted person who
wouldn't be moved by the plight of a gingerbread man being
tortured! And the dragon is terrific.










                              - o -