Shrek 2

“Shrek 2,” released in 2002, is bright, lively and entertaining, but it’s not “Shrek.” Maybe it’s a lot to think that it can happen twice. “Shrek” was original in the animation and so much outpouring of creative imagination that it blindsided us. “Shrek 2” is wonderful in its own way, but more grounded. It’s more fun to see Shrek fight a dragon than to watch him meeting his parent-in-laws.

Shrek actually looks shaking on the edge of middle-class decency in the sequel. There’s nothing like a good woman to control an ogre. His previous way of being lonely in the swamp has changed so much thanks to falling in love with Princess Fiona, however his table manners could use improvement when he has dinner with her parents, King Harold (John Cleese) and Queen Lillian (the great and powerful Julie Andrews).

In the first film, as you should recall, Fiona’s curse was that she had been kidnapped by a dragon, but could be rescued if the dragon was killed and she was kissed by the hero who accomplished that. Superlatively, that would have been Prince Charming, voiced by Rupert Everett, but in “Shrek 2,” when he finally arrives at the castle, he sees to his strong disappointment that Shrek has already killed the dragon and married Fiona – and that Shrek’s kiss really changed Fiona. No longer small, she is tall and broad and green, and an ogre.

A letter comes from the Kingdom of Far Far Away: Fiona’s parents want to meet her new husband. This has a very long journey for Shrek, Fiona and Donkey, who insists that he wants to come along. Roger Ebert said in his review, “Donkey is the comic high point of the movie, with Eddie Murphy's non-stop riffs and inability to guess when he is not welcome.” “The Trick isn’t that he talks,” Shrek says in the first movie. “The trick is to get him to shut up.” The kingdom is really far, far away, which makes Donkey to keep asking, “Are we there yet?”

Their arrival at the castle of Fiona’s parents gives huge laughs. Harold and Lillian are shocked to see that Fiona has not only married an ogre, but became one. A flock of doves is released to welcome their arrival, and one of them is so shocked, it crashes into the castle wall and falls right at Harold’s feet.

Eventually the story takes us into the realm of the Fairy Godmother, voiced by Jennifer Saunders, an evil villain who works a huge factory mixing potions and curses. It is possible that her Happily Ever After potion could change ogres into humans. Not if she can make it. She wants to throw out Shrek and marry Fiona to Prince Charming, which was her original plan.

Ebert noted, “The screenplay, by J. David Stem, Joe Stillman and David N. Weiss, has the same fun that "Shrek" did in playing against our expectations.” Who would think a fight between Shrek and Fiona, with Shrek storming out of the house? Ebert asked, “What about the arrivals ceremony at the matrimonial ball, with all of the kingdom's celebrities walking down a red carpet while an unmistakable clone of Joan Rivers does the commentary?” There’s actually sincerity when Shrek and Fiona start kissing.

Ebert admitted, “The movie has several songs, none of which I found very memorable, although of course I am the same person who said the Simon and Garfunkel songs in "The Graduate" were "instantly forgettable." The first song, "Accidentally in Love," explains how Shrek and Fiona fell for each other. It's cut like a music video, which is OK, but I think it comes too early in the film, before we really feel at home with the narrative.”

A few minor characters from the first film, like the Gingerbread Man and the Three Blind Mice, return for the sequel, and there’s a new essential character: Puss-in-Boots, a cat who, as Ebert says, “seems to have been raised on Charles Boyer movies,” and is voiced by Antonio Banderas. Donkey and Puss have a huge shared hatred, because each one thinks he’s the star.

Sequels have their work cut out for them. Ebert admitted, “Some people think "Godfather, Part II" is better than "The Godfather," but the first film loomed so tall in my mind that I gave "Part II" only three stars. In the same way, perhaps I would have liked "Shrek 2" more if the first film had never existed. But I'll never know.”

Still, “Shrek 2” is a happy story, and Shrek himself looks strong enough to inspire “Shrek 3” with no problem at all. Well, we’ll have to see about that.

Before we get to that one, I personally think, like a lot of people, that “Shrek 2” is actually better than the first one. It’s livelier, cheerful, and funny and the songs I really thought were great. The problem was that I first started watching this in Spanish class when I was a junior in High School but I never got around to finishing it. Then, when I re-watched the first one on TV a few years ago, I went to the library and finally saw the second movie the whole way through. After seeing it, I thought the second one was better, but I don’t think, like Doug Walker does, that the first one was not good. I personally enjoy the first two “Shrek” movies a lot, but I think “Shrek 2” is the better movie.

Now with that said, stay tuned next week when we get into the disappointing third movie in “Shrek Month.”