It can be a pleasant surprise what you can find showing at a cinema when you least expect it. A lesson I learned very well when I came across a screening of Shrek 2. I had seen the film many times before but re-screenings of films I may have actually wanted to see don’t appear very often.
Before I go any further a think a little recap is necessary. Disney dominated animated films throughout most of the 1990s, but then at the dawn of the new century along came DreamWorks who had a huge hit with their film Shrek. So, like any successful film a sequel was on the cards and in 2004 Shrek 2 was released.
Under the direction of Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon, the plot is fairly simple. Shrek (Mike Myers) and Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) along with Donkey (Eddie Murphy) in tow are all summoned to the kingdom of Far Far Away so they can meet Fiona’s parents – the king (John Cleese) and queen (Julie Andrews). They are understandably shocked to see that Fiona is still very much an ogre as well as being married to one, as it interferes with a deal the king made with a fairy godmother (Jennifer Saunders) about Fiona marrying her son Prince Charming (Rupert Everett). This leads to the fairy godmother wanting Shrek out of the way by any means necessary, even getting the king to hire Zorro-inspired mercenary cat Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) to kill him.
Right away most of the cast do a very good job of voicing their characters. I can’t say for sure how well they can portray different emotions but what I can say for sure is that whatever they may lack in that area they make up for with charisma and line delivery. This is something that comedy veterans like Myers and Murphy should know all about and put to good use. Saunders and Everett are undeniably having fun as the fairy godmother and Charming and they do make for an entertaining pair. Diaz, Cleese and Andrews can sometimes feel like they are just going through the motions but I don’t think that’s too much of a problem. Banderas, as the instantly-likeable Puss in Boots, really made the role his own. Co-director Vernon voices several characters but gets all his best lines through the character of Gingy. They do come across as throwaway lines but the character is one of the franchise’s most beloved, so I feel a bit of leniency is allowed; some other characters like the wolf, the three blind mice and the three little pigs are also mostly just there for throwaway lines but are still memorable and funny. There are different actors playing certain characters in the US and UK versions, but they are so small I doubt it makes much impact.
The name Shrek may have come from a book by William Stieg, but everything this film has to offer comes from Adamson and a team of writers that include Joe Stillman, J David Stem and David N Weiss. It may not seem obvious at first, but the story has clearly felt the influence of the film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. That aside, most of the humour that made the first Shrek so enjoyable is still here. Its subversive nature when handling fairytale tropes, its anti-Disney methods of characterisation and storytelling, and of course jokes about popular culture from Alien, The Lord of The Rings, Spider-Man and Beauty and the Beast. There are also references to the shows COPS and American Idol, and at the start someone plays the theme to Hawaii Five-0. There is genuine effort to develop the characters, especially Shrek and I would argue it’s handled well. The character of King Harold goes through his own clichéd but impressive development. It’s clear at the start he’s meant to be a villain but he’s far from unlikeable. Some moments and lines have become iconic, like Murphy’s “are we there yet?”
Something else that really surprised me was how well-paced it is. It clocks in at around 92 minutes, where the first one was two minutes shorter. The first film had already had to set up the world and the characters, so the sequel would have more to space to do new things – new characters and new situations that have to be set up and then executed as well as possible. Even in slower moments the film still goes at a pace that is fast but not too fast and at the best of times can feel less like a film and more like a longer version of a TV programme. Everything here is constantly entertaining, even the climax which has a lot of significant elements to include but still moves very quickly. I’m sure there are a few popular culture in-jokes I have either forgotten about or missed entirely, but as most of them are fairytale related I think I can leave the viewer to pick them up.
I would argue that in the early 2000s, entirely CGI-animated films were still in something of an infancy stage, but despite the film being nearly twenty years old I would like to think the animation on display here still looks pretty good, for example the look of Far Far Away and its more-than-blunt parody of Hollywood (complete with a sign of giant letters bearing its name). There’s a lot of colour being put to use – just look at the scenes that take place in the fairy godmother’s factory. That alone should show how good the animation is.
I hope I’m not disrespecting Harry Gregson-Williams here, but the music that people remember isn’t so much the original score, but the renditions of popular songs – which I would say adds to the feeling of how the Shrek films want to stand apart from the Disney crowd. The soundtrack features songs like Accidentally In Love by Counting Crows, I Need Some Sleep by The Eels and Livin’ La Vida Loca by Ricky Martin (but it’s sung by Murphy and Banderas while in character). There are also cover versions of songs like Ever Fallen in Love by Peter Yorn, Changes by Butterfly Boucher with David Bowie on backing vocals, and not one but two versions of Holding Out For A Hero – one sung by Saunders during the climax and an electronic version by Frou Frou. There are fragments of other music heard throughout, but these are what people remember best when they think of this film and its music. There is of course Far Far Away Idol but that’s more of an extra that was made for the VHS and DVD releases.
Shrek 2 is definitely an excellent movie and sequel which is something than can rarely be said, not just about animated films but films in general. It keeps what people liked the first time around, while trying new some new material. I will admit that it’s kind of sad that this is where the franchise seemingly peaked, and the later films seemed unable to reach the same heights as the first two. Shrek is still held in high regard even now and there is talk of possibly more of him in the future. I’m hopeful that something happens. But for many Shrek fans who probably didn’t see the special that came out in the early 2010s following the last film, Shrek 2 is where it was ogre and it should have stayed ogre.
