MArooned Movie Review: Shrek the Third

Took the family to see "Shrek the Third" tonight. We've seen both previous installments and the kids love the franchise; we saw "Shrek 2" in the theater when it came out; and we own both DVDs. It was more or less expected that we would see "Shrek the Third" in the theater, especially since we haven't seen a movie since "Meet the Robinsons"...

CAUTION: Slight spoilers ahead. Nothing that hasn't been in reviews and trailers, but nonetheless, if you want to be completely surprised, stop reading now...

I'd read a bunch of reviews, and very few were favorable. Not enough character development, some said. Mike Myers phoned it in this time, another said. Too few pop-culture references to keep mom & dad happy, chimed in a third. Yet another review didn't like the way the music was choreographed.

I'm happy to report that the unfavorable reviews were apparently written by people who watched some bizarre alternate universe version of "Shrek the Third", because I loved it. I didn't care much for "Shrek 2" because I felt that they went way overboard trying to cram in pop-culture references - where the original "Shrek" inserted sly twists on the fairytale standards, "Shrek 2" tried to cram and contort the old fairy tales into new and uncomfortable pop-culture twists. I didn't feel it worked.

Well, they must have gotten a lot of feedback similar to mine, because "Shrek the Third" recaptures much of the first "Shrek"'s magic. There are humorous takes on the different fairytale denizens (such as a Sleeping Beauty with sleep apnea); there are sly and subtle twists for the grown-ups in the audience; there's more... heart... in this version. Whoever wrote this screenplay has kids, that's for certain - the dads out there will agree with me that Shrek's fear and self-doubt struck a chord with my own feelings...

It's well-worth the money to see this in the theater. Considering that buying the DVD is pretty much automatic for me at this point when it comes to children's movies, that's saying a bit. I give "Shrek the Third" an unqualified MArooned endorsement.

That is all.