Originally posted 6/13/04
Shrek 2
Directors: Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, Conrad Vernon
Writers: Story by Andrew Adamson, Screenplay by Andrew Adamson, Joe Stillman, and David N. Weiss & J. David Stem
Producers: Aron Warner, David Lipman, John H. Williams
Featuring the Voices of: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, John Cleese, Julie Andrews, Jennifer Saunders, Rupert Everett
It is a sign of the good will earned by the charming characters of the first Shrek movie that I’m smiling from the moment the movie begins. By the time we’re in the movie’s climax, where an assault on a castle is achieved through the most absurd and hilarious use of a baked good in history, I’m still smiling, not to mention laughing, and barely able to control myself, which is a sign that the asylum is still safely in the hands of the lunatics.
Sometimes what’s most astonishing about Shrek 2 is that there is anything about fairy tales they didn’t get around to tweaking last time. And yet this movie’s cup is just as overflowing, from the bar called The Poisoned Apple – where famous unsavory characters tip a glass – to throwaway gags in the background like that storefront for Old Knavery.
The movie is determined to be just as much fun to kids, who will be amused by how the newly-married Shrek (voiced by Mike Meyers) and Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) make bubbles in their mud bath, as it is to adults, who stand a better chance of understanding why Donkey yells “I’m coming, Elizabeth!” before he passes out. And that baked good ought to find those adults’ inner children no matter how deeply they might be buried.
This is the rare sequel that dares to follow through on the implications of its first story, rather than simply re-hash it. Before, we learned that beauty comes in many forms, and that the idealized love of fairy tales is no match for someone who makes you laugh and feel comfortable being yourself. But we all know that there’s more to it than that – even good relationships can be a lot of work. And so we have what might be the first piece of family animation which is about precisely that.
See, there actually is a Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), and he did set out to slay the dragon and rescue Princess Fiona from her tower (and the curse that made her turn into an ogre at night). He just took rather a long time getting there, which has thrown a monkey wrench in everything.
So Shrek and Fiona are just getting back from their honeymoon – and finding, to their dismay, the newly-single Donkey (Eddie Murphy) back at their place, hoping to hang out like the old days. His over-enthusiasm (even for Donkey) and need for company is a little poignant, given how tight-lipped he is about how things “didn’t work out” with Dragon. We’ve all had that friend. All of a sudden, a royal herald comes from the kingdom of Far, Far Away, with an invitation for the Princess to return and introduce her new husband to her parents, the King (John Cleese) and Queen (Julie Andrews).
A good relationship is not only about sacrifice, but about making peace with each others’ worlds. Shrek’s world is simple: he lives in a swamp and has no friends – people have a habit of reaching for their pitchforks and torches around him sooner or later. And he likes it that way. And he’s pretty sure that going to Far, Far Away is a bad idea. But he goes anyway because it means so much to Fiona.
My office is in Beverly Hills, so I have a great deal of appreciation for just how many architectural details the artists at PDI nicked while they satirize Los Angeles and its environs. In Far, Far Away, the rich ride around in stretch chariots, and no royal ball is complete without a red carpet arrivals ceremony. And lording over it all is the Fairy Godmother, who concocts miraculous potions in a factory which belches glorious rainbows of smog.
Prince Charming is her beautiful if slow-witted son, and it was her lifelong plan to marry him well, into the royal family. But in great stories back to Shakespeare, potions and spells can be devilishly literal things, and Shrek’s love broke the curse because he turned out to be Fiona’s kind of guy. But Fairy Godmother hasn’t given up yet.
Computer animation has come so far as to almost not be worth comment anymore – the colors are bright and beautiful, and the grass and hair and flowing water seem more alive than ever. While there is that extra level of polish and detail all around, and PDI has a real deftness with facial expressions (study the reaction shot of the family at dinner when Shrek realizes he’s sipping from something he shouldn’t be), they keep even the human characters just a little cartoonish in their mannerisms and movement.
A Japanese robotics expert coined the phrase “Uncanny Valley” to describe a threshold where a simulation of a person becomes too close to accurate – and instead of charmed by how life-like it is, we start focusing on the flaws and become repulsed. Some of the characters in Square’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within had that Beautiful Zombie aspect to them, and might have had something to do with audiences not embracing it. PDI sees the Uncanny Valley, and stays out of it.
Instead, we get what won us over before – memorable characters with emotional problems we can relate to, and great gags. The most charming new addition is Puss in Boots, which may be Antonio Banderas’ best role in years. Part Zorro, part Inigo Montoya, and all manipulative, mischievous feline (watch how he unleashes those irresistible kitty eyes when it works to his advantage), Puss is an unforgettable creation. Sensing that his sidekick role is in jeopardy, Donkey defensively declares – The position of annoying talking animal has been filled!
The movie never disregards its naughty streak – see if your kids go around repeating the Gingerbread Man’s declaration – “It looks like we’re up chocolate creek without a popsicle stick!” – and we learn something about Pinocchio we never knew before (and which he’s no doubt still denying). But that seems to be part of what makes Shrek Shrek. When we look at fairy tales we see idealized, perfect people that we will never be. Shrek knows what we really are, which is messy, and emotionally unstable, sometimes surly and selfish and anti-social. But it doesn’t mean we cannot find happiness that’s worth storming castles over.