Yesterday, I went to catch the newest installment of the Shrek movies, Shrek Forever After. Knowing very well that it is a children's movie, I decided to let go and just enjoy the movie, no matter how ridiculous or annoying it becomes. Because of that, I actually enjoyed the movie, but there's still one problem with it. The whole thing moves too fast!
In the final chapter of Shrek's life, he's living happily with his wife, Fiona and three children in their home. However, Shrek finds the life monotonous and repetitive. People treat him like a joke and are no longer scared of him. He longs for the days back when people ran away from him and he could simply walk into a village and everyone runs away.
After destroying his children's birthday party and having a huge fight with Fiona, Shrek meets the evil Rumpelstiltskin, who tells him that he can have it all back if he could just sacrifice one day of his life. Shrek agrees, and Rumpelstiltskin takes away the day he was born. Which means he never existed. Which means he never resued Fiona. Which means he never met Donkey, Puss of Ginger.
After having fun scaring villagers shitless, he suddenly gets captured by witches and taken to Rumpel's castle, who is now King of Far, Far Away after the king and queen signed over their kingdom to him so that Fiona could be rescued. On his way there, Shrek meets Donkey, who doesn't recognise him. They escape the castle together, and Shrek formulates a plan to overturn Rumpel's curse. He must share 'true love's kiss' with Fiona before sunset, or his old life will be gone forever, and him with it.
So Shrek looks for Fiona, and to his horror, she's the leader of an ogre revolution hidden in the jungle. And she doesn't recognise him at all. His attempts to kiss her are cringe-worthy. The funniest scenes are probably those with Puss. He actually ate the Gingerbread Man! Even as a very fat cat, Antonio Banderas still manages to make Puss sound.... heroic, somehow? He retains his raspy voice, though he does look a helluva cuter now.
After an ambush fails, all the ogres are captured except Fiona and Shrek, and Puss and Donkey. Rumpel promises anyone who can get Shrek anything he wants, so Shrek turns himself in in return for the ogres' release. After the deal, he finds out that Fiona did the exact same thing, so they're both prisoners. Then the other ogres break in, together with Donkey and Puss to save the day. Shrek and Fiona kiss, and everything is restored to normal.
It's a pretty normal kiddie feature, but fun if you ignore all the discrepancies that pop up everywhere. And some scenes get pretty annoying too, if you watch it for too long. And of course, the fact that Shrek took less than 24 hours to woo a warrior princess doesn't make sense. And Donkey wooing the dragon was hilarious! Certain scenes make the movie worth it, though if you're the sceptical kind, better not watch it.
Shrek Forever After is not especially good (the first one is still by far the best Shrek movie ever) but it's entertaining if you have a load on your mind and want to forget all about it. Shrek gives you an hour of good-hearted laughter, and I needed it, so maybe that was why I enjoyed something that I would've hated otherwise. It made me forget certain things for a while, with its ridiculousness, and I would like to thank Shrek for that.
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