Starring the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow. Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jensen. Animated Shrek (Myers) is an ogre who lives alone by a swamp deep in the forest. He bathes in mud, gargles slime and makes candles for his nightly meal out of his own earwax. He's seemingly happy with no one to answer too. But one day, as he is working in the forest, a donkey (Murphy) bumps into Shrek as he is trying to escape the kings army. The donkey is glad to see Shrek and tags along home with him. But that night, Shrek walks outside to find hundreds of fairy-tale characters camping in his swamp. It seems Lord Farquaard (Lithgow), the diminutive ruler of the kingdom with an ego, and castle, inversely proportional to his size, has decided to rid his land of all these creatures. He had his men round them up and dump them there. Shrek decides he will go to Lord Farquaard and fix this problem. Lord Farquaard needs to take a princess to actually become king and inherit the kingdom. Shrek and donkey trundle up to the massive castle compound to demand the Lord remove the trespassers from his land. After some thought and persuasion, Lord Farquaard promises to move the swamp dwellers and deed Shrek his land back if Shrek agrees to bring back Princess Fiona (Diaz) for him. There is one small problem. Princess Fiona is locked away in an isolated castle tower, guarded by a fire-breathing dragon and surrounded by a moat filled with molten lava. Shrek and the chatterbox donkey leave to bring back the princess and overcome obstacles and opportunities along the way. Animated by the same group who brought us Antz, the mix of drawings and photography create a spectacularly realistic cartoon, where the characters move in a amazingly life-like way. The character's facial features are so finely animated as to accurately convey not only the dialogue but the inner feelings of the characters. The theme of the story is that one shouldn't judge a person by their appearance - look for what's inside. Not a particulary new or revolutionary thought, but it is done with a light touch and lots of laughs along the way. One of the most fun aspects of the film is the incorporation of characters from fairy-tales past, from the Gingerbread Man playing a key role, to appearances by Cinderella, Pinocchio, Mirror Mirror On The Wall, the three bears, three blind mice and even Robin Hood. Numerous modern day "cultural references" are incorporated, from the Gingerbread Man yelling "Bite Me" at Lord Farquaard to the three blind mice breakdancing. One of the best sequence involves the Princess emulating one of Charlie's Angels in a Matrix-like martial arts display. The ending musical number is a whole lot of fun, and thematically appropriate to the film. One of the strengths of the film is in the casting of the voices. Eddie Murphy's donkey, in one of his best performances, is given most of the best lines in the film and is consistently energetic and funny. Myers' Shrek, adopting a crotchety Scottish accent, is charming and even intelligent as the straight man to Murphy's donkey. Lithgow's Farquaard adopts Dick Solomon's pompous self-absorption and Diaz is alternatingly sweet and demanding as the Princess who expects everything to happen as she read them in books, and is not exactly what she seems. Shrek is clever, entertaining and a whole lot of fun, for both younger and older viewers. An Ogre-at time will be had by all. If you would like to respond, please click the E-Mail Press Here To Go To The Review List Page