'Shrek 3' - Threes A CG Charm
By: Tim - aurora - Dunn

The worlds most lovable monster, Shrek, is back as we all knew he would be and this time there's a whole lot more ogre(s) to go around. The on going tale of big, mean and green and his equally green but not so mean wife Fiona takes off as 2 left off. We have the same old tongue and cheek takes on our favorite fairy tale creatures and lots and lots of stabs at Disney (just how the heck do they manage that without Disney suing anyway?) Sadly those attempts at humor is now expected and its getting old and boring. Happiest of all we have a CG based writing/directing team that keeps trying to up the CG antty and this is where Shrek 3 really shines!

 

 

We start of with Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and now Puss-in-boots in tow, still in Far Far Away. Fiona's father, Far Far Aways very own Frog King is sick and dying leaving Shrek and Fiona to fill in for the king and queen. Needless to say this is a task Shrek does not favor and when daddy is lying on his death pad he tells Shrek how proud he is of him and that he is now heir to the throne. Shrek, with a new nice side, calmly informs the king he does not want the job. Happily Fiona's cousin, the next in line to the throne after Fiona, happens to be none other then Arthur Pendragon.

 

 

Excited with this news Shrek, Donkey and Puss immediately takes off on a quest to find this new king. Upon Shrek's leaving, Fiona informs Shrek she's pregnant. This leaves Shrek having nightmares about being daddy to ogre babies. Naturally this is an important story line through the movie and acts as the string that holds the movie together.

 

 

The soon to be King Arthur, insisting he be called Artie happens to be in high school. This leads the Shrek crew to a few new rounds at some good humor. All the old high school cliché's come out to play as Shrek wanders through the high school looking for Arthur. I'm sure I heard a laugh some where in the theater but I honestly think it was that obnoxious guy in the back that walked into the theater gabbing on his cell phone and never got off till he was asked to leave.

 

 

Once Shrek finds and informs Artie that he is to be king of Far Far Away he walks to center stage of a high school assembly to warn others to think twice about picking on hapless, helpless kids. Here is the perfect point to point out the main flaw with the movie. The comedy we loved in Shrek and made us all watch it a few times to catch it all is old. The writers most have known this and so tried to add moral highlights to the movie. Sadly neither the comedy nor the moral stories work well. Well its not that its bad, its just not the same powerful freshness we got the first time out.

 

 

While Shrek leads Artie to his new kingdom, Prince Charming, now turned actor and mourning over his mommy, plans once again to take his place his King Charming. To do so he travels to a shady dive filled with all the great fairy tale villains and calls them to arms with the promise that it's their turn to live happily ever after. After a way to quick over run of the kingdom, renaming it Go Go Away, opening a Hooters and with the aid of a traitorous princess, Charming grabs Fiona and her princes (and queen) gal pals. Charming puts Donkey's Dragon wife, donkey/dragon kids (my favorite characters), the three little pigs and others in the zoo. Pinocchio is back on strings and Gingie is for sale in a bakery. As for Charming he's setting the stage for the final act for Shrek and Fiona.

 

 

Never fear Shrek, with the aid of Fiona, once again finds a way to live happily ever after. As for Charming, well Arthur takes the same aim Charming did with all the villains and makes them feel as if they could be something more noble. Charming gets sent flying way paving an open road for a possible Shrek 4 (which is in addition to 'Shrek The Halls' coming this winter.)

 

 

As you may have noticed the story is on the weak side, the humor that grabbed us and made Shrek such a HUGE hit is running old and stale. The attempt to turn slightly Aesop fable-ish with moral endings just barely works. But what does make 'Shrek 3' worthwhile is the CG. Sure its the same basic style that we fell in love with in the original plus nowadays we have seen some absolutely amazing CG work done. So is there really anything new in Shrek 3 that we have not seen? Yes, attention to details! Take a close look at Shreks cloths and you'll see we now have full displacement mapping on everything. There's a much improved hair engine which allows better frayed ends on Shreks shirt. Look at his wool coat and shirt and you'll see little lint balls. Take a close look at Puss's feather in his hat and notice how light and really feather like it moves. Notice the way the wind now acts in the hair of the main characters. The wind in the flags and sails. The wind in the taller, denser grasses. Plus the flowing moving fog, the steam raising from Gingies cup of tea. The improved SSS used on Shrek, really watch his ears! New and better particles systems, for smoke, water and magic. Plus with Dragon back and all the baby donkey/dragons have been entitled to more and better fire. Watch closely at the end with all the babies playing together, there's a great bit with burping donkey/dragons and farting ogres.

 

 

In addition the colors are mush more vibrant and the lighting much more complex then seen before. As normal you need to sit through at least the first half of the closing credits where in you'll really see a new play with colors, lots and lots of psycho colors. But its not just the use of colors, all of the textures and matte paintings have gone up another notch in the CG quality belt.

 

 

The animation has also been upped a bit here and there. In many places we have the old style of blockish moves especially with the birds. In other parts we see some much improved animation thanks to our good friend Mr Mocap. I find it strange however as to why did they keep such a huge range of animation quality in this film? Considering the extreme attention to detail they took with everything else you'd expect the same attention in the animation department. As bizarre as this massive range is its covered by the gags and other CG effects so there's only a few scenes that makes you cringe a bit with the lower quality animation.

 

 

Conclusion:
'Shrek 3' like other sequels already out this year fumbles the ball when it comes to decent writing. I'm honestly not sure how they could ever write anything as fresh and exciting as the original was but after the disappointment with 'Shrek 2' you would have really hoped that they found a new weapon in writing. Instead they relied on Shreks second great characteristic its fresh and always rewarding CG. For the CG alone Shrek 3 is well worth the price of admission to see on the big screen where it can really shine and you can see all those details they worked so hard to create.

Ratings:

IMDB Film Rating: User Rating: 7.1/10 (717 votes)

- For a movie going experience I give it: 2.5 out of 5 stars.
First let me say its Shrek. Its hard to miss with Shrek but the power humor we saw n the original is now old and stale. Happily the CG is not!

- For a technical piece of CG and VFX work I give it: 3 out of 5 stars.
While there is nothing earth shakingly new in Shrek 3 but everyhthing you see, save some animation, is at the best levels avilable and the attention to detail is fantastic making for a rich and enjoyable visual experience!

Credits:

Cast:
Shrek - Mike Myers
Donkey - Eddie Murphy
Princess Fiona - Cameron Diaz
Puss In Boots - Antonio Banderas
Queen Lillian - Julie Andrews
King Harold - John Cleese
Prince Charming - Rupert Everett
Merlin - Eric Idle
Artie - Justin Timberlake
Evil Queen - Susan Blakeslee
Pinocchio/Three Pigs/Ogre Baby/Bohort - Cody Cameron
Doris - Larry King
Blind Mice/Heckler/Evil Tree #2/Guard #2 - Christopher Knights
Lancelot - John Krasinski
Captain Hook - Ian McShane
Ship Captain - Seth Rogen
Sleeping Beauty/Actress - Cheri Oteri
Mabel - Regis Philbin
Snow White - Amy Poehler
Rapunzel - Maya Rudolph
Cinderella - Amy Sedaris

Director - Chris Miller
Co-Director - Raman Hui

Story - Andrew Adamson
Screenplay - Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman, J. David Stem, David N. Weiss, Jon Zack
Additional screenplay material - Howard Gould
Shrek Book - William Steig

Executive Producer - Andrew Adamson, John H. Williams
Producer - Aron Warner
Co-Producer - Denise Nolan Cascino

Original Music - Harry Gregson-Williams

MPAA:Rated PG for some crude humor, suggestive content and swashbuckling action.
Runtime: 93 min