Review: Cattily ever after in ‘Shrek’

Geoff Carter

Thursday, May 17, 2001 | 9:04 a.m.

Shrek

Grade: Three stars

Starring: The voices of Mike Meyers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow.

Screenplay: Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stilman and Roger S.H. Schulman.

Director: Andrew Adamson and Vickie Jenson.

Rated: PG for mild language, some crude humor.

Running time: 89 minutes.

Dreamworks' computer-animated comedy "Shrek" opens with Smash Mouth's catchy "All Star," a song that's been played often enough to have earned sufficient royalties for the band to buy their way into the Steven Spielberg / Jeffrey Katzenberg / David Geffen-run studio.

The song's familiarity serves "Shrek's" purposes immediately: It establishes the title character, a grotesque yet cuddly ogre (voiced by Mike Myers, using a softer Scottish accent than usual) as a nice guy. As it turns out, it's a deceptively simple trick in a movie chock-full of them. "Shrek" is funny, fast, and possessed of more intelligence than nearly any other animated family film of the past five years, save Disney's wickedly funny "The Emperor's New Groove," which "Shrek" resembles in tone. Hey, it's an all-star.

Based on a book by William Steig, the technically dazzling world of "Shrek" is a kingdom where every last fairy tale character -- from Pinocchio to the Three Blind Mice -- has come home to roost. Specifically, they've come to roost in Shrek's swamp on the orders of the diminutive Lord Farquaad (voiced by John Lithgow). Enraged, the ogre takes a talking donkey for a guide (a motor-mouthed Eddie Murphy) and ventures to Farquaad's castle to demand his land back.

But Farquaad has other ideas. Former Disney executive Katzenberg was obviously giddy at the notion of swamping his old employers, and thus: Farquaad's castle, Duloc, is a wicked take on Disneyland, and Farquaad himself a slimy, fast-talking executive with notions of becoming king. (Remember when the Disney CEO called Katzenberg a "midget"? Guess how tall Farquaad is.)

Farquaad agrees to return Shrek's swamp if he rescues Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz), a beauty "who likes pina coladas and getting caught in the rain" and could allow Farquaad to ascend the throne. That's all the plot there is, and frankly, that's all the plot "Shrek" needs, with dialogue this hilarious:

FIONA: You didn't kill the dragon yet?

SHREK: Hey, it's on my "to do" list, okay?

The joys of "Shrek" are quite literally in the details. The rendered animation is gorgeously rich -- a quantum leap beyond the flat, square world of Dreamworks' first computer-animation effort, "Antz." The script matches it nuance for nuance -- watch for a catfight between Cinderella and Snow White, the theme-park whimsy of Duloc ("Wait from this point: 45 minutes") and a hilarious interrogation scene built around a popular children's limerick.

In point of fact, the kids will have a field day. Like Disney's "Emperor's New Groove," "Shrek" never talks down to its young audience or pushes heavy-handed sentiment on adults. Its message -- being different is okay -- is hammered home a bit too loudly, but who has time to worry such details when the characters are having as much fun as you are? And they're not even human?

"Shrek" is a keeper -- a tough, witty family film that doesn't sacrifice dialogue for graphics, even when there's better things to watch for than Eddie Murphy's voice coming out of a talking donkey. Like "All Star," it's destined to become a minor classic -- maybe too familiar to be original, but a catchy little ditty all the same.