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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Shrek 2

21:52 / 29.07.04

Please, please don't tell me that this is being ignored by the Barbelith massive. I came back from seeing it a couple of hours ago and it's likely to end the year at the top of my "2004's best" list.

The first film was entertaining, but you could tell that Dreamworks were still finding their feet. It had a relatively compact brief - messing with fairy tale conventions - and while it stuck to it, it never really attempted anything different or adventurous.

The sequel is the creation of expert pop culture vultures. You're constantly hit in the face with a barrage of references, all within a perfectly structured movie. The big bad's home is a James Bond villain's lair. Princess Fiona's childhood four poster bed has a poster of 'Sir Justin' stuck to the top of it. The climax points to Frankenstein and Ghostbusters, amongst others, with the film's high point being a wonderfully underplayed and subtle nod to ET. John Cleese, as Fiona's father, gets the opportunity to reinvent a line from Fawlty Towers.

It's a vast improvement on the decent-enough first film. It probably marks Eddie Murphy's career peak. To quote myself from elsewhere, Dreamworks could kill Pixar with this. Not financially or commercially, but critically. Nemo, entertaining as it was, wasn't a patch on either Toy Story or Monsters Inc. It was big, brash fun, but there was very little in there for adults to spot and get an extra kick out of. Trailers for The Incredibles make it look like it's going to be good fun, but as a comic book fan it's goling to appeal to me anyway. I see no suggestion yet of anything deeper in its make up.

And Pinocchio secretly wears a thong.

Brigade du jour

22:04 / 29.07.04

Yep, Shrek 2 is a wonderful, wonderful movie.

I watched it last week, a little drunk, so I can't remember any specific bits, in fact even the ones you just mentioned fail to ring too many bells. But of course that's a reflection on my poor alcoholic memory rather than on how memorable the film is.

I'm not a big fan of animated movies generally, which is strange for somebody who loves comic books and sci-fi and all that. But films like Shrek 2 will probably inspire me to check some of them out. Especially Monsters Inc, if it's got John Goodman and Billy Crystal in it. Scientifically speaking, that really ought to rock a snow leopard's ass.

Anyway, I second that emotion - dudes, you have to see this!

23:11 / 29.07.04

Aye Aye. Its solidly funny stuff, with some twisted humor throughout.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

23:31 / 29.07.04

I fucking loved it.

Come on! It's got a pirate who sings in the voices of Nick Cave AND Tom Waits!

I said: a pirate who sings in the voices of Nick Cave AND Tom Waits!

How cool is that?

And Puss in Boots absolutely fucking ruled.

23:57 / 29.07.04

Argh! I meant to mention the pirate. And the numerous vicious digs at Disney (most notably their fetish for talking furniture).

It's a completist's nightmare, though. So many little things (the Gingerbread Man's legs being iced back on after the events of the first movie, the before and after portraits in Fairy Godmother's reception) that the DVD release is going to be essential.

01:28 / 30.07.04

I just saw it for that talking cat, man that talked cat ruled. and the movie was pretty good too!

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

12:55 / 30.07.04

Still have to catch this one, but I'll admit severe disappointment at the first one. I guess it's just being spoiled by Pixar's unflappable pedigree. Shrek seems like it would be a funny comedy, regardless of whether it was animated on a computer or featured Mike Meyers in a suit. I'm not saying Dreamworks has no sense of art, design, or utilization of technology, but it sounds like it's a typical summer comedy with the requesite pop culture references and freeze frame jokes of anything snarky and animated.

Pixar's stuff, and I'll certainly include Nemo here, is just entirely different kind of filmmaking. They're making the kinds of timeless animated classics that Disney used to rock in the, what, forties? You can (and most like will) watch Toy Story 2 in three hundred years and still be floored by it ("Jessie's Song"? I dare you to not weep openly.), whereas, I'm wondering if you can get the same kind of milage out of Shrek 2. Naturually, like I said, DW doesn't really care about that and that's fine. Neither do audiences, as S2 made a huge huge huge amount of money. It's shown that animated films can be just as pop and of the moment as any other kind of comedy.

I certainly recommend Monsters Inc to watch, as it's such an above all hilarious movie. Billy Crystal is friggin' relevatory as Mike. And it's got the most maturely understated ending of any kids movie ever made. And the animation is flat out the best CG animation I've ever seen.

I'm glad that there's more than one game in town as far as CG Animation goes, but in the long run, I'll always love Pixar's stuff more.

14:41 / 30.07.04

Surely Nemo was just Toy Story with fish?

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

14:56 / 30.07.04

If Toy Story was just The Odyssey with Toys, sure.

14:58 / 30.07.04

I'm not a Shrek fan, but then again I don't particularly find Mike Myers funny, nor Eddie Murphy. I loved Toy Story, but haven't seen Nemo or Ice Age or Monsters Inc.

None of them are as good as Fox and the Hound.

22:02 / 30.07.04

Bollocks. Monsters Inc. is fantastic. Much much better than Shrek in every way. Shrek was a massive disappointment. Take out the donkey and you have a shite, meandering adventure with forgetable characters.

Shrek 2, on the other hand, is excellent. A much more coherent story, genuinely funny moments (The carriage ride is hilarious) and great movie in-jokes. Puss-in-boots is excellent. Again, though, Shrek himself is totally forgetable. Did he have any funny lines at all?

22:50 / 30.07.04

This time around, Shrek himself hardly seemed to have any screen time compared to the supporting cast. In fact, the real focus was on Cleese and Saunders' characters - it's much more their film than it is Myers'. I could be wrong, but I don't think he got a single joke in the script.

I came away with the feeling that the team realised that they'd created a brilliant, vibrant world with the first movie and wanted to explore properly. Easiest and most productive way to do that is position it as a direct sequel.

nedrichards is confused

22:58 / 30.07.04

Nah, Toy Story was Ulysses with cowboys.

01:13 / 31.07.04

But, do you know the Muffin Man?

01:15 / 31.07.04

The Muffin Man?!?

16:41 / 02.08.04

The Muffin Man! Who lives on Drury Lane!

00:10 / 03.08.04

The Muffin Man and the Gingerbread Man made me think of Fru T. Bunn and his Gingerbread Sex Dolls, from Viz, which was probably not an intended reference...

Mongo the giant gingerbread man was, for me, the best thing in Shrek 2, storming the castle inna Stay-Puft stylee. Closely followed by Captain Hook's Waits/Cave crooning...

Judging by the trailers I saw before it (and no doubt spurred on by the new 'Best Animated' Oscar category) there's a rush on of CG animated films. The Invincibles looks pretty good, but I think I'll give Shark Story (or whatever) a miss. In general, though, I think its all A Good Thing. Cos, like, cartoons rule, and that.

00:13 / 03.08.04

(Er, I meant The Incredibles, obvously...)

09:30 / 03.08.04

Shrek himself is totally forgetable. Did he have any funny lines at all?

I don't think so, but Shrek stagediving was funny, even if that was mainly because of the little fluffy dog pissing itself with fear as a result.

Liked the Fabulous Baker Boys reference as well, when the Fairy Godmother is singing at the party... as everyone's already mentioned, so many good references. Pinnochio being turned into a real boy, and then back again was fun too - 'I'm a real boy! I'm a real... oooooooooooh.'

And Puss In Boots, and his little sad face. Of course.

16:11 / 03.08.04

So many funny bits whizzing past that will have to wait for the dvd. Brilliant! Fairy Godmother Sweat Shop Magnate, Puss in Fabulous Boots employing psychological and swashbuckling skills, Pinocchio, Wolf-Grandmother, Three Blind Mice, it went on and on and for the last twenty minutes I was in pain laughing, during the brilliant set-piece at the end.