It’s the first big animated movie release of the summer! “Shrek” is a Dreamworks movie studio production. These are the guys trying to take a big chunk of the kiddie business away from Disney. One of the Dreamworks executives, Jeffrey Katzenberg, left Disney and ended up suing the mouse-eared people for money he said he was owed. It’s not pretty and I mention all this because the villain in this movie, the evil, all controlling, dwarf-like Lord Farquaard, is said to be patterned after Michael Eisner.

Let’s put all that aside for a bit. “Shrek” is sort of the anti-fairy tale fairy tale. The story is pretty simple. “Shrek” is an ogre living out in the swamps. He’s lonely and bitter but pretends he’s happier all by himself. The voice of Shrek is provided by Mike Meyers and is sort of an Irish-Canadian thing if that makes any sense. One day Shrek stumbles into a talking donkey, voiced by Eddie Murphy. They are, of course, polar opposites. Shrek is quiet and moody, the donkey is talkative and upbeat. Before long, they travel on a mission to rescue a Princess. She is to marry Lord Farquaad, who’s looking to be made a king. The voice of the Princess is done by Cameron Diaz and the Lord’s voice is performed by John Lithgow.

It’s hard to pick on this movie. It’s rare that you get to see an animated kid’s movie that plays around so openly with all the fairy tale stereotypes. There are some hoots. Shrek enjoys some unusual foods, including what appeared to be a bowl full of eyeballs for breakfast. And who can resist laughing when the Princess sings along with a sweet songbird until she hits a note that would make Mariah Carey proud and the bird bursts apart and the Princess cheerfully takes the eggs from it’s nest and fries them up.
Pretty sick, huh? But, sadly, too rare in this movie. Nearly all the fairy tale busting jokes can be seen in the movie previews. Most of the rest of this movie is spent in a fairly tame fairy tale mode. Shrek and the Princess meet, get to know each other, bond, fight, misunderstand each other, keep secrets from each other, well, you know the routine. I wish some of this had been funnier, but it’s not. Yeah, Eddie Murphy the donkey does provide some laughs, but he peters out after a while. “Shrek” soon became a real child’s film without some of the sharp, witty writing I’ve seen in, gulp, the Disney movies. I actually hate saying that but I can remember many more laughs while watching “The Lion King” or “Toy Story”. Plus, I’m not sure the very young kid’s aren’t going to be horrified by some of the goings on. Hey, the Dreamworks people started this battle with Disney. They’re going to have to get used to the comparisons.

I guess I had heard so much about this movie, maybe my expectations were too high. I have to say the “animation” was something I’ve never seen before. I sometimes felt like I was watching a 3-D movie. I guess it’s breakthrough technology which is worth seeing more of, but I found it distracting at times. I also believe the Disney references will go over most people’s heads, including Lord Farquaad and his neat and fascist looking empire, which is supposed to be a swipe at the “magic kingdom”. The appearance of Snow White and Cinderella and the rest of the fairy tale world is a more recognizable spoof, but it isn’t funny enough for long enough. I give “Shrek” a 6.0. The effort is there. The results just come up a bit short.