Shrek Movie Review ( 2001 movie )

Shrek Movie Review

Shrek, the popular 2001 movie seems to continue to be watched by children everywhere nowadays. Shrek is a very comedic animated movie. If you simply love the sound of your children's laughter, then take them to see Shrek! You will hear lots of roaring laughter for sure and you will laugh quite a bit yourself. We all need some comic relief sometimes. Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy are among the voice actors for the movie, Shrek.

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The kids summer movie series is in full swing in Greensboro, North Carolina.

• Kids can see featured kids movies at select movie theaters for just $1 per child and $1 per accompanying adult.
• Most concession snacks are sold at regular prices but there is a kids’ small soda and popcorn combo being sold for $3 if you would like to add it to the cost of the kids summer movie series ticket.

Our own movie theater of choice here in Greensboro has been Red Cinemas and we have been going to the 9am movie show several times so far this summer. We like to go to that early show and do many errands in early mornings before it get super hot for commuting outside. A few days ago, we went to see the movie Shrek at Red Cinemas. Yes, Shrek is a movie that is several years old now but Shrek the movie is still popular with children.

• In the kids summer movie series, the movies shown are usually at least a few years old.
• Kids get the excitement of being able to watch a movie on the big movie screen but at that cost of just $1, the movie is not a newly released movie.

We arrived at the movie theater at around 8:45am to see Shrek and the kids were super excited to get to go to the movies again. We did select a kids popcorn combo and a couple of other snacks this time and headed in to the theater for the movie Shrek that was starting at 9:00am.

The movie Shrek tells the story of a fairytale. The computer animated movie Shrek begins with a large ugly green hued ogre named Shrek voiced by actor Mike Myers. The ogre named Shrek is hired by a Lord who is seeking to become King. The prospective King needs a Queen to help to authenticate his title and he hires the ogre named Shrek to rescue the trapped Princess Fiona who he sees as the candidate to be his Queen.

Princess Fiona is trapped in a large castle, a familiar scenario among fairy tales. She has also had a curse placed upon her by a witch. Princess Fiona has been plagued with this curse since she was a child. “By day, one way. By Night, another.” Princess Fiona, voiced by actress Cameron Diaz is a pretty princess by day but when the sun goes down, she turns into an ogre as well, the female counterpart of Shrek!

Shrek is unaware of this and remains oblivious for quite a while. The fact that Princess Fiona changes into an ogre every night is actually first revealed to Shrek’s pet, a talking donkey named Donkey, voiced by actor Eddie Murphy.

By this time, Shrek has rescued Princess Fiona from the castle where she was trapped. Shrek was accompanied by Donkey to make the rescue and they all overcame much treachery including the flames of a fire breathing dragon. On the way to take Princess Fiona to Lord Farquaad, they stop to make camp. At first, Princess Fiona is frustrated because she was expecting that trip should take just one day without having to stop overnight to make camp. Princess Fiona actually has a few different tantrums along the way. At one point, she had been envisioning the knight in shining armor that would come to rescue her and it certainly was not Shrek. She was even telling him, no, you are not supposed to be an ogre. I am supposed to be rescued by my one true love. Shrek explains that he is the hired help. Princess Fiona even sits down at one point to say that if Lord Farquaad wants to rescue her, then he should come and rescue her himself.

Well, during the overnight stop to make camp, Donkey sees Princess Fiona as an ogre and he can not believe that it is her. It is quite dramatic and funny as Donkey thinks that Princess Fiona, the ogre ate the real Princess Fiona.

• Princess Fiona is exasperated as she tries to convince Donkey that what he is looking at is her, Princess Fiona.
• She asks Donkey to keep her secret for now and he reassures her that he will not tell Shrek but says that she should.
• Princess Fiona makes her decision with the petals of a flower as someone would say “He loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not”, she says “Tell him, don’t tell him, tell him, don’t tell him”… until she has plucked all of the petals from the flower. With the plucking of the last petal, she says “Tell him.”
• She jumps up not wanting to waste another moment and goes outside from the little shelter with the make shift door that she had been in (earlier, Donkey tells Shrek that he does not think that the space is fit for a princess and she lets them know that it will do and says good night to them.) As she emerges, the sun is coming up and she returns to the human princess form before Shrek can see her. When he does, he is angry with her because he had overheard Donkey and Princess Fiona speaking the previous night.
• Princess Fiona had spoken of how ugly she was as an ogre and Donkey said something to the effect of “You’re ugly but you’re not that ugly.” Somewhere along the way, Shrek thought that they were talking about him as the ugly ogre. He did not see them. He only heard them.

The rift between Shrek and Princess Fiona lasts until Shrek brings Lord Farquaad to her and she agrees to marry Lord Farquaad, a very short man that uses stilts in his shoes to be able to ride his horse.

1. Princess Fiona wants to marry Lord Farquaad before nightfall, before she can turn into an ogre again.
2. Princess Fiona is hopeful that when she kisses her new groom at the end of the wedding ceremony, the curse upon her will be removed forever and she will always be in the human form, night or day.

It is Donkey that ends up encouraging Shrek to crash Princess Fiona and Lord Farquaad’s wedding to say “I object”. Donkey gets carried away in coaching Shrek in how to go about everything and by the time Shrek gets through the door to interrupt the wedding ceremony, the ceremony is just about over.

Lord Farquaad and the guests at the large wedding ceremony find it laughable that Shrek would try to interrupt the ceremony. That is until the sun begins to set and Princess Fiona is again revealed as an ogre. Then there is chaos and everyone is having trouble believing what is going on.

1. By this time, Princess Fiona admits that it is Shrek that she loves and wants to marry.
2. Lord Farquaad, greedy to take his throne as King says that he has married Princess Fiona and it is binding.
3. At this time, in a dark turn, the fire breathing dragon that has befriended Donkey swoops in and eats Lord Farquaad, regurgitating just the crown that was on his head.

Princess Fiona then marries Shrek. It was said in the curse that Princess Fiona will take her true form when she finds true love and that true form was to remain as an ogre by both day and night, without changing into a human again. Princess Fiona and Shrek both remain as ogres and it is expected that they will live “happily ever after.”