THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
There is not that much of an argument when I say Shrek changed the game of animation genre completely for its comedy being capable of refreshing fairy tales and stellar computer animation earning the inaugural Best Animated Feature Oscar. With such critical and financial success, it wouldn’t take too long for Dreamworks to make a sequel that was arguably on par with what was done before.
PLOT
Shrek 2 follows the infamous ogre and his wife Princess Fiona. After returning from their honeymoon, the latter’s parents King Harold and Queen Lillian invite her back home to the Kingdom of Far Far Away to celebrate her marriage via royal ball. This excites Fiona since this is an act to give their blessing to her husband. After the two travel hundreds of miles alongside their friend Donkey, Shrek’s greatest fear occurs when both parents are in shock Fiona changed from human to ogre permanently. While Lillian quickly comes around it, Harold is openly uncomfortable because the curse was supposed to be broken by Prince Charming. He and Shrek fight over their differences during dinner because while the king disapproves of his future grandchildren to be ogres, the protagonist expresses disgust that he left his daughter in a tower surrounded by the Fire Breathing Dragon. When Fiona briefly locks herself away in her room to take a breather from the family chaos, it would only continue when she meets her Fairy Godmother who also disapproves of her marriage. The constant repulsion leads to Shrek wanting to leave. However, Fiona points out he isn’t giving her family a chance. The male ogre would only rebuff by claiming he won’t change his attitude, believing he’ll never get their blessing even if he wanted it. The Princess would end the argument by reminding him she was willing to change for him. It is after this argument where the Fairy Godmother confronts Harold of the recent events. She is livid that her son Charming is not with Fiona since the deal was for the two to be together in exchange for the king to have his own happy ending. So she demands him to get Shrek out of the equation. Feeling out of options, he hires an assassin to kill him. He is able to stage it by inviting the ogre to a hunting trip. Heading to the woods with Donkey, both encounter the assassin himself who happens to be a talking cat named Puss in Boots. The cat fails to kill him when he suffers a hairball, resulting in him to admit he was paid by the king to do so. Heartbroken but still wants to make Fiona happy, Shrek goes directly to the Fairy Godmother for help. Puss joins him & Donkey and offers his allegiance as an act of making amends. When reaching the Godmother’s cottage, where she makes her potions, she doesn’t bother helping because she doesn’t believe ogres deserve happy endings like humans. Not wanting to give up, Shrek decides to steal a potion in hopes to restore Fiona’s love for him. He particularly takes the ‘Happily Ever After’ potion, but inadvertently makes a mess on the way out. When the Godmother realizes which potion was taken, she hatches a new plan to benefit her. When Shrek & Donkey try the potion, nothing immediate happens except that they fall asleep by rainfall. It effects Fiona as well since she faints by rainfall, just when she considered leaving the castle. By the next morning, Shrek wakes up human and Donkey wakes up a white stallion. In order for the effects to be permanent, Shrek has until midnight to give true love’s kiss to Fiona. When the two and Puss make it to the castle, the princess wakes up human again. However, Fairy Godmother tricks Shrek into letting his wife go when he sees Charming posing as him. Luckily this ruse doesn’t last too long because later on during the same day, Shrek would overhear a conversation between Harold, Godmother and Charming which reveals that Fiona is not reciprocating the latter’s advances. In order to keep things as planned, the Godmother gives Harold a love potion to give to his daughter, which’ll ensure she’ll be in love with her son by first kiss. Since Shrek gets caught overhearing them, he gets arrested by royal knights and gets labeled as a bandit, as well as Donkey & Puss. When his other fairy tale friends (Pinocchio, the Gingerbread Man, Three Blind Mice, Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf) found out what happened on television, they quickly break them out from imprisonment. Determined to save Fiona from untrue love, Shrek & Gingy make a gigantic gingerbread man to get to the castle faster. Gingy’s new brother Mongo would be sacrificed, losing his arms and falling into the moat after being drenched in foamy milk while briefly opening the gate to let Shrek in, who also lets his friends in on the other side. Shrek is able to delay Charming from kissing his wife during the ball and his friends help him steal the wand from the Fairy Godmother. Charming would still kiss Fiona, but she responds by knocking him out. This reveals that Harold chose not to give her the potion. When Godmother reclaims her wand and tries to kill Shrek, the king blocks her spell and when it ricochets her, it strikes and kills her. Harold would survive the blast, revealing himself to be the Frog Prince. Now in his true form, he apologizes for his selfishness and dishonesty, and officially gives Shrek his blessing. When midnight strikes, Shrek tells Fiona they can stay human if they quickly kiss as human. However, the Princess chooses to stay an ogre with her husband. As the couple returns to being green, Donkey reverts to his donkey form as well. The film would end with everyone at the ball resuming to celebrate their marriage. There would also be a shocking mid credits scene, showing the Dragon arrive at the kingdom and reveal to Donkey she gave birth to hybrid babies.
THOUGHTS
I remember watching Shrek on loop when I was a kid and once I heard this sequel was happening, I knew I was in for a whole new set of laughs. That is exactly what I got when I saw it in theaters and I'm still laughing to this day with each rewatch. The directing team of Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury & Conrad Vernon succeed in crafting a sequel that had the right momentum to be special. The animation excels significantly and the majority of its comedy hit their mark right. I mean they take great advantage of being meta by having Joan Rivers take part of a red carpet and have a parody of Cops called Knights. I feel like I'm gonna lose my breath when Pinocchio denies wearing a thong. Just seeing him lie out of instinct is too funny to not laugh about. And for some reason, the soundtrack claps hard here. I mean each track keeps the mood going and I appreciate that. In all seriousness, I think the reason this one has had such an effect would be because it has its own effective message as well, so effective it doesn't feel topped by the sequels the franchise would later deliver: True love only matters for what people are inside and never out because there should be no shame with who you are in love with. If you try to change for the sake of approval, you won't seek the results you desire. Thanks to a memorable ensemble, it feels easier to grasp it all. Back as the lead, Mike Myers shows Shrek in a very big stage of his life, where he is letting more people in his life. He never thought he'd fall in love, which makes him very lucky to have Fiona. For crying out loud, the song 'Accidentally in Love' is literally and beautifully about falling in love when you least expect it. With that being said, it's still hard for him to be open to others because he still fears of getting discriminated. That still happens, but he doesn't back down without a fight which proves exactly how formidable love is. His endgame was making Fiona happy, and he felt being human like she was would satisfy her, but she reminded him that being yourself is what made her happy. Knowing that is exactly what made it satisfying to see them go back to being green. Also, I thought it was cute for him to still befriend the other fairy tale creatures because he wouldn’t have met Fiona had it not been for him to undo their exile. Cameron Diaz continues to have us love Fiona because she remains reserved than before, being past letting her emotions getting the best of her. She wants Shrek to be open minded and like her family because that feeling is what led to her being an ogre. She is fine with changing and because of that, she shows him you have to at least try things out before a final decision is made. Even though there were times where she wasn't on the same page with him, she still cared about his wellbeing and wouldn't stop worrying until it got resolved. Since they got their resolution by staying green together, it's good to see how strong love is on her end. And I gotta continue being honest when I say how hilarious it was for her to headbutt Charming. If you say she chopped his neck, then that is a Mandela effect going on. That whole scene was funnier than her feeding Ariel to the sharks. Eddie Murphy still has us adore Donkey because apart from speaking his mind in comedic fashion, he is still a good friend towards Shrek. He actually expressed how risky it'd be for him to change without return and proved his intelligence by having Mongo follow him to the castle. His boredom during the road trip is the funniest scene for me because I relate to the feeling. I would totally pop my lips like so if he was bored. So both reactions from Shrek & Fiona made it all the more better. Since this is a sequel, you already there would be new characters to spice it up and boy was there a few. Meeting the parents of your significant other is better to dealt with like a Band-Aid, for the sake of ending the tension. And seeing Shrek meet Fiona's parents was that prime example. John Cleese had us extremely conflicted in the role of Harold because for the majority, he acts more of his self interest than what his daughter wants. I don't exactly condone his past actions, but I get where he's coming from. He chose to go along with what the Godmother wanted because he doubted that he'd find love in his true form. He didn't approve of Shrek because it reminded him of himself. The more he saw Fiona wasn't happy, he thankfully came around in putting himself aside for the first time when protecting his son-in-law in the end. Julie Andrews is able to stand out as Lillian due to being 100% supportive towards what Fiona wants like any loving parent should. She already hated that her daughter was stuck on a tower and the last thing she wants is to push her away. You definitely feel bad for her a lot since she had no idea she married a frog. She still loves her husband because that's what she feels, but she deserved the truth way before they had a daughter. It's crazy how true it is that friends can come from unexpected places because that is exactly what happened when Shrek & Donkey met Puss. Antonio Banderas straight makes this cat the best thing about this movie for making him for being an aggressive fighter, but also a charming individual who has his own set of honor. If he ain't winning you over with his cute set of eyes, he will likely do it fighting for you. He chose to become an ally towards Shrek the second he realized how much he loved Fiona, which shows the benefit of hearing two sides of personal conflict. Apart from being cute, Shrek overall gave him a chance because he accepted his actions to kill him were not personal. It would then become pretty sweet for him to stick around as the franchise progressed, long enough to have his own spin-off that brought fresh air into the franchise. With Farquaad gone, you know there is going to be another villain that'll give a run for the money at being pure evil and Fairy Godmother is just that. When not singing her as off, Jennifer Saunders is able to have us love hating her by going deep at being as conniving and manipulative for someone so powerful. It is indeed dark knowing she's forced people to love each other long before forcing Fiona to love her bratty son Charming, but it gets worse knowing she won't hesitate to take it away, which is what she threatened Harold. She is living proof of consequences that can be made when manufacturing love, which makes it a sweet relief that she bit the dust because there is no telling what she could've done with other objectives. And again, it is so easy to hate Charming since Rupert Everett is on point in making him extremely spoiled of a character. He may have done the travels to be a hero, but he expected satisfying results for himself. Rather than finding love on his own, his mother is handing it to him and it's disgusting. It made sense for him to be the villain for the Third because there is no way he wouldn't avenge her. I still have a good time watching this as well, but there were still moments that make me prefer the first one. Like I can’t be the only one who thought it really wasn’t a good idea for Fiona to be put on a remote tower instead of one closer. I know Fairy Godmother wants the story to be believable, but if she is so manipulative, she should’ve given her son better chances. I was laughing when the Big Bad Wolf was chilling at the same tower, but why there? I feel like he could’ve picked better places since Shrek allowed all fairy tale creatures to live anywhere in the forest. And I can believe Charming would be behind on the news, but how come Fiona’s parents get behind on what happened to her? If anything, Harold should’ve been on top what was going on. If a lot of people knew she got married, someone should’ve told him she married an ogre. To go even further, if he knew where to reach her, he again should’ve known what happened. And goddamn how fast is everyone in this movie? The Big Bad Wolf makes it to the swamp to house sit after just meeting Charming, which takes at least two days overnight. And later on, he and the other fairy tale creatures make it in time to break out Shrek, which took apparently over 700 miles to travel. It’s like all the side characters become speedsters to keep the story going in a faster pace. And I find that really weird. Am I the only one who thought Shrek was too damn lucky to find Fairy Godmother’s cottage? It makes sense for it to be in the forest, but she doesn’t even give its coordinates for those who would like to meet her. I’m sure I said it before, but how the hell does the Godmother’s henchmen miss shooting at Shrek when aiming directly at him? It’s not like they’re shooting underwater, so it’s ridiculous how it’s even possible. I even get more surprised on Fiona not knowing what Charming looks like. If she knew who he was based on her diary, and admitting she expected him to rescue her from the tower, it’s insane she never saw at least one picture of him. One picture of him and his mother’s plan would’ve ruined much faster. And why doesn’t Godmother just kill Shrek when she spotted him? Since she is popular and was claiming him to be a bandit in front of the guards, she totally had good cover to have the defense to do it. I don’t want to root for this villain, but she could’ve made better decisions. Moving on, am I the only one confused on how Hansel and Gretel run a honeymoon hideout when they’re kids? If their dad Hansel Sr. is doing it, I wish that is clarified. Also, how long exactly did it take for Mongo to be created? If it really took another hour before Shrek had to head to the castle, I would not mind that being exposited for Christ’s sake. Other than that, this movie is still overall entertaining. In short, Shrek 2 is a great sequel for continuing to spark creativity in the given setting as well as be just as funny as the predecessor. You want to keep laughing? Check this out as soon as possible.
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