Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Mike Meyers, animation, Shrek, Amy Poehler
Likes: Shrek, Justin Timberlake
Dislikes: Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy
Hates:

The Story So Far
Dreamworks hit a home run in adapting the story of Shrek, a gruff ogre with a lack of social skills. With Mike Meyers bringing his Scottish accent to play Shrek, an all-star supporting cast featuring Cameron Diaz (as Princess Fiona) and Eddie Murphy (as the sidekick Donkey), fantastic computer animation and a brilliantly funny script that plays with the conventions of fairy tales to great effect, the first film was a creative success in all ways. The sequel took the story to Fiona's family in the Kingdom of Far, Far Away and introduced the adorable assassin Puss-in-Boots (Antonio Banderas), in a film that's a great deal of fun, but which is a touch more standard than the original. DVDTalk has reviews of both films: Shrek | Shrek 2

The Movie
A second sequel is rarely a good thing, unless it's part of a planned trilogy with a story big enough to need three films to tell it. If it doesn't fit that criteria, more than likely, it exists mainly because the two previous films made enough money to justify its production. Is that the case with Shrek the Third? I'd have to say yes.

After getting married and dealing with his in-laws in Shrek 2, the big, green ogre's life takes the natural next step in the third film, as Shrek grows up to become a man. Part of that is facing his potential role as the next king of Far Far Away, as Fiona's father is gravely ill, and the other part is facing his potential role as a father, as Fiona wants kids. But Shrek wants no part of that, and instead ships off with his pals Puss and Donkey, to kill two birds with one stone, going on a long trip to find another heir to the throne, in the form of Arthur Pendragon (Justin Timberlake), a geeky teen who also wants no part of being king.

Unfortunately for the people of Far Far Away, there is someone who wants to be king, and it's Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), whose been reduced to performing in dinner theater following his mother's plot to take over in Shrek 2. Bringing together all of the fairy-tale villains who have been wronged by the fine folk of Far Far Away, he puts in motion a plan to take over the defenseless kingdom. After writing the last 100 or so words, I realize there's not a whole lot to the plot of this film. The Arthur trip doesn't really result in much of anything, and the Charming storyline only delivers at the end. Part of the problem is an inherently unfunny plot, centered around death and responsibility, two topics that don't lend themselves to belly laughs.

In the end, Shrek the Third is like an all-star game. The best in the business get together to have some fun, the fans get to see the big names they love, and the whole event is familiar, safe for the kids and a nice diversion for a night. The phrase all-star is perfect, as the voice cast for this film is incredible. Meyers and Murphy are a great pair once again (though they are paired up much less here), while Diaz and Banderas are fun in limited roles. Everett's return to the line-up makes Charming more enjoyable than he should be, as does Julie Andrews as Fiona's mom (present mainly to allow for one subtle, fantastic gag.) And of course, everyone's favorite gingerbread man comes back for more, to get in a couple of pastry-based sight gags.

The addition of Timberlake as the boy who would be king is neither important or negative, as he doesn't get a lot to do besides whine, (and provide a reason to introduce Merlin (voiced with senile gusto by Eric Idle.)) Ultimately, with few key scenes, Mr. SexyBack, whose considerable comedic chops are wasted, is well overshadowed by the hilarious princesses, voiced by four very funny ladies: Amy Poehler (Snow White), Cheri Oteri (Sleeping Beauty), Amy Sedaris (Cinderella) and Maya Rudolph (Rapunzel). Poehler deserves a spin-off of her own, as her bitchy princess is a fun alternate take on the legend, and she gets one of the film's most memorable moments. But then, even Larry King got more prime material than Timberlake in this movie, getting a couple of funny lines of his own. The only new big name with less reason to be in the film than Timberlake is John Krasinski, whose Lancelot even I missed, and I'm a huge fan of "The Office." But then, I also missed Regis Philban, Ian McShane and Seth Rogan. With so much star power and so little good material and story to go around, it's easy for an actor to fade into the background and for a film to fade as well.

What saves Shrek the Third though, is the fantastic computer animation. Pixar gets a great deal of credit as a leader in this field,but Dreamworks has pretty much cornered the market on animating real humans, delivering characters that look and move almost as real as any Hollywood actor. Looking at the detail in this film makes you wonder what they could possibly do next, and hope that it'll be "come up with a story as creative and entertaining as the first film."

The DVD
A one-disc release, Shrek the Third is packaged in a standard keepcase, wrapped in a foil-embossed slipcover. The DVD features an animated set of anamorphic widescreen menus based on the film's finale, with options to watch the film, select scenes, adjust languages, and check out the special features. Audio options include English Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 track, a French Dolby Digital 5.1 track and a Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 mix, while subtitles are available in English, French and Spanish, along with closed captioning.

The Quality
Shrek the Third is simply a beautiful film, and presented in an outstanding anamorphic widescreen transfer. The advances made in computer animation are presented in gorgeous clarity, with vivid color and a stunning level of detail. The excellent textures in the image are delivered as perfectly as standard-definition DVD could possibly manage, without a speck of dirt or damage (obviously) and no noticeable digital artifacts.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is nicely aggressive, taking advantage of your surround-sound system when it makes sense, while keeping the dialogue crisp and clear. The action and sound effects in the film are well distributed to the surround speakers, along with enhancement on the music, resulting in some quality "off-screen" sound, to go with a strong bass sensation at the right points. The only negative is found in the music at the beginning of the castle invasion, which has an awkward transition following Snow White's big scene, but that's an issue with the design, not the DVD presentation.

The Extras
The special features kick off with "Worcestershire Academy Yearbook," which is way more complicated than it needed to be, with 30 entries, featuring a "photo," description, inscription and audio clips filling in for the usual high-school yearbook content, like bequeaths and clubs. Considering you barely met more than one of these characters in the film, why would you really need to learn more about them? Take your own yearbook, add a bunch of jokes abut being medieval, and you can save yourself the time of checking this out. You're better off watching the two-minute "Big Green Goofs," a collection of rendering errors and tests, which are always worth a look.

"The Lost Scenes" aren't what you'd expect, as the 18-minute set of three cut moments is not deleted animation, but pitch sessions by the crew, presented as split-screen footage, with two cameras in the room, alongside the storyboards used in the pitch. When you watch these, it's incredible to see what an effort goes into developing the animation. Thrown in also is a short clip of Donkey performing "Donkey Dance," a take-off of "Safety Dance." Why? Because.

Yet another edition of "Meet the Cast," a very peppy EPK-style featurette, spends almost 11 minutes chatting with the voices behind the film, and some of the crew. It's awfully "come on out and see out movie!" in its tone, which certainly rubs the wrong way, but it's cool to see some of the recording sessions. Following the apparent trend of good-extra-then-bad-extra is "Shrek's Guide to Parenthood" is a set of four clips with characters from the film providing parenting advice for Shrek and Fiona (via what certainly seems like celebrity impersonators in at least two, and possibly four cases. These are basically four sets of bad puns, based on the characters. It's followed by another shorter installment of "Tech of Shrek" which is, honestly, a 10-minute commercial for the film's technology partners (count how many times the logos of the two companies appear.) Considering how important the computers are to a computer-animated film, as shown by the leaps in design illustrated here, it can be somewhat excused. There's more promotion in the Dreamworks Video Jukebox, featuring six musical clips from other Dreamworks DVDs (two of which are repeated under another icon on the main menu, for some reason), along with a Previews section.

As is now tradition, we have the Dreamworks Kids section, which holds toys and games for younger viewers. "Merlin's Magic Crystal Ball" is a DVD version of the Magic 8 Ball, while "How to Be Green" gives a four-minute lesson on saving the environment (using clips from the Shrek films for illustration.) A dance-along version of "Donkey Dance" will delight the tiny Paula Abduls out there, while a selection of DVD-Rom material provides more play time in the form of five pretty-entertaining flash games, print-outs of games, science-based magic tricks, yoga positions (?) and activities, as well as a junior-level film editor that lets you mash-up clips, sounds and graphics. If I was 11, it would possibly be the greatest thing ever, and it works quite smoothly.

Overall, if you aren't a pre-teen, these extras are a disappointment, and too formula, carrying the same bonus concepts over again and again. After we got two commentaries on the previous film, we get none this time out? What gives?

The Bottom Line
Though there are a few impressive moments, including the climactic castle invasion, and the film's technological quality is without question, this film just didn't grab me the way the previous entries in the franchise did. Maybe it's just familiarity with the characters or a storyline that didn't allow for as much funny business, but Shrek the Third isn't as enjoyable, original or exciting as its predecessors. The quality of the disc is another story, as it looks and sounds fantastic, though the extras are a step down from last time out, unless you're a kid. But then, maybe that's the audience for the whole kit and caboodle, and I'm just not getting the joke.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.