This year marks the end of a hugely successful franchise for one loveable huge green ogre. Shrek Forever After hits theaters May 21st in what is sure to be the first megahit of summer family movies. According to the Internet Movie Database, the movie will be rated PG like all of the other Shrek movies.
This last installment has the titular ogre wanting to be just a regular ogre again instead of a family man of society raising children. When the evil Rumpelstiltskin tricks Shrek into giving up his kingdom he finds himself in a decrepit world where Puss is a fat cat and ogres are enemy number one. Before audiences indulge in the final chapter, let’s take a look at the greatest moments of the first three films to discover how Shrek got to the point of his last predicament.
Shrek
The initial movie was received with much fanfare in 2001 and was one of the runaway hits of the summer movie season. Shrek, voiced by the hilarious Mike Myers, is pushed off his land by other magical creatures that are being captured by Lord Farquaad played brilliantly by John Lithgow. When Shrek sets of to make things right, Donkey (Eddie Murphy) joins him on his quest and they free Farquaad’s bride-to-be Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from a dragon-guarded castle.
Before Shrek can deliver the feisty redhead to Farquaad they end up hitting it off and fall in love. In the end it is revealed that Fiona is part ogre and she marries Shrek. The adventure along the way wasn’t always simple but it was extremely funny.
The part of the movie that my family always quotes is Shrek explaining to Donkey that ogres are like onions because they have layers. The banter between Donkey and Shrek makes the first movie and definitely contributed to the great writing and movie magic.
Shrek 2
All the original cast returns from the first film in the 2004 sequel except for John Lithgow since his character was eaten by a dragon. The additions of Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots, Julie Andrews as Queen Lillian, John Cleese as King Harold, Jennifer Saunders as Fairy Godmother, and the impeccable Rupert Everett as Prince Charming made this all-star cast even better than the first movie.
The King only wants what’s best for his daughter and that means marrying Prince Charming. He made a pact that Charming should marry Fiona to inherit the kingdom but Shrek messed things up when she married the ogre instead. When Harold hires Puss in Boots to fix the situation things go awry and he joins Shrek to save the day and his marriage.
When Shrek takes a potion that turns himself into a human being all sorts of things happen. Three fair maidens swoon over the suddenly handsome Prince Shrek and from then on he tries to win back his love to the satisfying conclusion. The additional cast was perfect and this was my favorite film in the franchise.
Shrek the Third
Justin Timberlake (Cameron Diaz’s ex) plays Artie in this 2007 release that has Fiona’s father dying in the beginning and Shrek is presumably the heir to the throne. But Shrek doesn’t want to be king so he must find the king’s nephew, Arthur, to take over duties as king.
But Prince Charming has other ideas and is out for revenge. He gathers all of the other outcasts of Far, Far Away to mount a coup against the Queen and Princess as Shrek is away. When Queen Lillian head butts a stone wall to break free, all Fiona’s princess friends are the only ones staving off a new order while they await Shrek to deliver Arthur to be king.
My favorite part in this rather dark film is Eric Idle as Merlin who tries to conjure up a spell to get Shrek and Artie back to the palace in time to save the kingdom. My family and I saw this film once in the theaters and never saw it again because it simply didn’t have the humor from the first two films and was very dark by comparison. Perhaps it had something to do with a different set of writers and a different director at the helm of the third film.
