“Show me the roar!!” Well it’s finally here. The 4th and final installment of the Shrek franchise made its way into theaters. Shrek 4 takes us back to a land far far away where Shrek and Fiona are living in the swamp raising their 3 kids. The beginning of the movie goes back in time and shows Fiona’s parents attempting to make a deal with Rumpelstiltskin (I will call him ‘Rumple’ from here on out) to free their daughter from the tower in the Dragon’s Keep. In return for the safe rescue of their daughter, the king and queen would have to turn the kingdom of Far Far Away over to Rumple. Well the deal doesn’t go through because they found out that an ogre had just saved Fiona and Rumple is left without the kingdom that he has long for.
Go to present day and Shrek is going through some problems of his own. The doldrums of everyday life are starting to take its toll on the once feared ogre. Shrek longs for the days where he was feared and can do what he wanted whenever he wanted. There’s a series of scenes that reminded me of the movie “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray where Shrek lives the same day over and over and over. Kids wake up parents, he feeds them, changes diapers, tries to relax and take a mud bath but the outhouse is clogged, Donkey comes over with the wife and kids for playtime, tour buses driving through Shrek’s swamp so people can look at Shrek, feeds the kids, puts them to bed. Only to find that it’s the same thing day after day after day. The day comes when the 3 kids have their first birthday party and Shrek finds himself wanting more. Needless to say he freaks out at the birthday party, and after getting into an argument with Fiona, he storms out. Well little did he know that Rumple was listening to his argument and realizes that this is the perfect situation where he can not only get revenge on Shrek but get the kingdom of Far Far Away at the same time. He convinces Shrek to sign a contract that would give Shrek one day to do whatever he wants and that this day would be before he even met Donkey or Fiona or Puss in Boots, etc. But as Rumple tells him, “You have to give a day to get a day.” So Rumple talks Shrek into giving him a day when he was a baby and that no one would miss a day as when he was young.
Once Shrek signs his name he is taken away and begins his one day adventure. Well he finally realizes that not everything is as it seems. None of his friends knows who he is, Far Far Away is in shambles, the swamp and tree that Shrek lived in is no more, Donkey is scared of Shrek, Puss in Boots is a fat cat and Fiona is the leader of the Ogre resistance and has no desire to be with Shrek and witches are now capturing Ogres and bringing them to Rumple, who by the way is the new king of Far Far Away. Rumple tells Shrek that at the end of the day he will die and his kids will no longer exist and Fiona will never be a part of his life. What Shrek didn’t realize was that Rumple took one day away from Shrek as a baby, but that one day was the day that he was born. Which means that Shrek was never around to save Fiona and so that changed the events in time and the king and queen DID sign the contract for the safe return of their daughter, thus giving the kingdom of Far Far Away to Rumple. Shrek has until morning to help save the ogre population, get Fiona’s trust and have “true love’s kiss” sealed upon him from her as well to break the spell of the contract.
I went in with pretty low expectations for this movie, (anyone that had seen ‘Shrek The Third’ knows why). I have to say the movie was better than I expected…much better than I expected. It still lacked the humor and originality that the first two had but it still had its moments of greatness. This movie also had what the previous 3 installments lacked…heart! The storyline had more emotion to it as Shrek realized that he had the perfect life and as Fiona told him at the birthday party, “You have a wife and kids that love you and friends that look up to you and adore you.” There are parts of this movie, and I’ll be honest, that made me choke up a bit in a few areas. The message of the movie was a good one which Shrek himself sums up, “I didn’t know what I had until I lost it.”
In typical Hollywood fashion, (because let’s face it, Hollywood has run out of originality), this movie’s plot was taken from an already well known movie, the Christmas classic, “It’s A Wonderful Life.” I won’t go into the story of that movie but if you’ve seen “Wonderful Life” and then see “Shrek 4” you’ll see the similarities.
There is the typical potty humor that we see in all 3 movies but that only happens within a 5 minute montage of the day after day of Shrek’s life in the beginning of the movie. I only remember one swear word and that was Donkey yelling “I’m being assnapped!” as Shrek was chasing him through the forest to get Donkey to listen to him.
As for the 3D, I decided to save money and see it in 2D and I didn’t feel I would’ve missed out on anything spectacular by seeing it in 3D.
Another thing that this movie lacked that the other movies had was singing within the movie and also the big dance at the end that they do was nowhere to be found. Who knows, maybe they’ll add that scene as a deleted or extra scene when the DVD is released.
Rating of whether I would see the movie again:
1 = Definitely not!
2 = Probably not.
3 = Maybe.
4 = Probably.
5 = Absolutely!
Would I see the movie again in the theaters? 3
Will I rent it on DVD and watch it at home? 2
Would I buy the movie? 4
"Shrek Forever After" is rated PG and features crude humor and references (scatological and flatulence humor), some off-color language (innuendo and some suggestive talk), animated violent content (creature attacks, sword play and arrow fire, brawling, fiery and explosive mayhem, and violence against women, as well as some slapstick), derogatory language and slurs, and brief drug content (toxic gases). Running time: 93 minutes.
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