Inside Pulse DVD Review: Shrek 2

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Before we officially begin, let me just say that I loved Shrek. I hadn’t seen it in theaters, and had actually heard very little about it until one day it was placed before me on DVD. I watched it once and fell in love. The charm of the characters, the amazing writing, the jokes for kids and adults, it was all fantastic. It has a high place on my favorites list, and is definitely one of the best animated films in some time. Expectations were high for Shrek 2, and I saw it on opening weekend, and then again on DVD. Was it as good, or better, than the first? Well…..

Story

The film opens with narration by Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), the guy who was supposed to rescue Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) in the first film. When he gets to the castle, he finds a cross-dressing wolf instead of his beautiful princess, and the film takes off from there.

Shrek (Michael Myers) and Fiona are celebrating their honeymoon, and as soon as that ends they receive an invitation to visit Far Far Away, the land where Fiona is from and her parents rule. Shrek is definitely against this, but both Fiona and Donkey (Eddie Murphy) talk him into it.

Once they arrive in Far Far Away (Think fairy tale LA) the King and Queen (John Cleese and Julie Andrews, respectively) are more than shocked at the sight of the two love birds. The King is not happy and he and Shrek get into quite a verbal quarrel, but things get even worse from there. The Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders) is not happy that her son Charming has lost his bride in Fiona. She tells the King, in no uncertain terms, he best fix this or else.

That’s all that should be revealed about the plot here, because some of the stuff in this film is pretty funny and should be seen before being read about. That, and the fact that the plot itself is kind of light. It mostly is made up of TONS of pop culture references and fairy tale gags, enough to put Aladdin to shame.

Of course, there is also Puss In Boots (Hilariously voiced by Antonio Banderas), who steals the movie. Puss is an assassin that is hired to kill Shrek but instead befriends him, and spends the rest of the film by his side. Puss was a great addition, as he is funny on his own, but also makes a perfect counter to the always over the top Donkey.

The animation is fantastic. Pixar may be the big dog in the yard of CG films, but DreamWorks is definitely up there with them. The only noticeable problem is the fact that sometimes the mouth movements don’t match what is being said. It takes you out of the story a little bit and brings down the level of believablity.

It should be said that this movie just doesn’t feel as good as the first one. On its own it is a solid, if not great film. But as a sequel it is compared to its successor, and it is just not as good. Perhaps its the overabundance of pop culture shots, or the lack of Fiona for a nice chunk of the film, or some of the less than stellar jokes, but when you walk away from seeing this film, don’t be surprised if you feel as if something was lacking.

Video

1.85:1 anamorphic transfer. It’s crisp and looks great.

Sound

Shrek 2 comes with a few options in the audio department. You can choose either English and French Dolby Digital 5.1, or English and Spanish Dolby 2.0 audio. Subtitles are in English, French and Spanish.

Extras

Well, Shrek 2 certainly isn’t lacking in the features department. Whether or not they’re worth much will vary by personal interest.

There are two commentary tracks featuring the films directors, producers and editors. They get into technical issues and research, and even point out what is being made fun of just in case you miss it. Nothing overly thrilling here.

On the main menu, there is an option for Far Far Away Idol, a take on American Idol, Shrek style. They even include a CG Simon Cowell here. You can choose the winner each time you watch and the ending cinematic changes to incorporate their reactions.

Under Special Features are a number of relatively short featurettes. The Tech of Shrek 2 shows off all the fun techie stuff and computer power that does into making the film. They explain how they did such neat effects this time around that they couldn’t do in the first film. Meet the Cast has interviews with all the stars, and Meet Puss In Boots focuses on the show stealer himself, with reactions from the other cast members. The Music of Shrek 2 is pretty self-explainatory, and Technical Goofs is a look at what happens when animation doesn’t go quite the way it should. Some of these are surprisingly funny, and not just for those interested in the tech aspect.

On the next page, there are previews of upcoming films, including A Series of Unfortunate Events in theaters, and Millennium Actress and Thunderbirds on DVD. Far Far Away Times is a parody newspaper to look at but not read through. The Special Features section is rounded out by cast and filmmaker biographies and production notes.

There is also a section on the menu called DreamWorks kids. Included here are favorite scenes, Far Far Away Idol, Shrek’s Music Room, Gingy’s House of Games, Shrek 2 Web Links, and Printables.