Shrek: a must-see film

For those thinking about having a rest from the droning film and honesty of every day life, go and watch Shrek. This is a film you can literally sit back and not have to worry about complicated storylines or twists. You may say, this is just another cheesy kid’s movie, essentially it is a kid’s movie, but it is quite the contrary, much like its predecessors, Toy Story, Chicken Run and Bugs Life, it is a film where age really doesn’t matter. It contains several comical moments, with lots of material that people of all ages will take pleasure in viewing.

The story of Shrek is set in your typical medieval, fairy-tale type land, ruled by the diminutive, tight-fisted Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) To get rid of the unwanted residents, as well as fairy-tale favourites such as Pinocchio, Snow White and the 3 blind mice, he banishes them to the swamps, where the giant, grumpy ogre Shrek (Mike Myers) lives. Shrek however is a lover of his privacy and with the onset of his new tenants residing in his swamp; he promptly went to see Lord Farquaad to request for his solitude to be restored.

Farquaad notifies Shrek the only way he will be alone is for him to complete an almost unattainable challenge, which requires him and his donkey sidekick to rescue the beautiful Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from the Dragon’s castle, then he will rid get his sought after time alone. After rescuing the princess however, Shrek falls in love, but why would a beautiful princess want to be with a grumpy ogre? The resulting adventures experienced by Shrek, Donkey and Fiona are quite amusing, and at points the romantic story between Shrek and Fiona is quite gratifying. The film is a very simple story, but the actually processing of the film is dazzling, and worth watching in itself just to see the technology used.

This is set in Shrek’s swamp at the beginning of the film, Shrek is a bog-standard ogre; he is vast, green, unsightly, putrid ogre. He is perfectly content just living alone in his run-of-the-mill swamp. He enjoys taking mud showers, eating forest bugs and frightening anybody or anything that crosses his path. It takes a princess that can easily thump anyone to finally soften his heart.

Princess Fiona is not your mainstream damsel in distress. While she tries as much as possible to stick to all the fairytale traditions. She is intelligent, resilient and strong-willed, but she is also a princess with a deep, dark secret who waits patiently for her one true love to sweep her off her feet.

Eddie Murphy captivates the aspects of how donkey’s can be perceived as hilarious and shows a devastating turn in the world of comedy, comedy that has never been used before, this is a new way to send the audience into fits of laughter. Donkey talks, sings, dances and just won’t shut up. He is Shrek’s unlikely sidekick, but it doesn’t take long for you to see his appealing and sanguine nature. He finds true companionship and a romance where he least expects it.

Shrek brings together the team of composers John Powell and Harry Gregson-Williams, who previously teamed up to make DreamWorks animated films Chicken Run and Antz. The soundtrack was recorded in December, 2000 at Abbey Road Studios in London. The Shrek soundtrack featured songs from Baha Men, Smash Mouth and DreamWorks recording artists Lifehouse, eels, Rufus Wainright, Self and newcomer Leslie Carter.