Movie review: Shrek - Forever After ****

Shrek: Forever After

****

Stars: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Walt Dohrn

Director: Mike Mitchell

Rated: PG

Showing: Southside Cinema

Runtime: 93 minutes

Animation/fantasy/comedy

The world’s favourite ogre returns for his fourth and supposedly final feature-length adventure — this time in spectacular 3D.

Shrek is having a midlife crisis and the domesticated dad-of-three longs to feel like a wild, fearsome ogre again.

He curses the fact that now, instead of scaring people away, they want their pitchforks autographed.

He is tricked into making a pact with shady deal-maker Rumpelstiltskin, who offers him a day where none of his adventures ever happened and his life is as it was once.

All he wants in return is one day of Shrek’s life — but the day he takes is the day Shrek was born, meaning he never existed and nothing is as it was.

He is thrown into an alternative version of Far, Far Away and, similar to the classic It’s A Wonderful Life, he discovers how horrifying life is for his loved ones without him.

Vengeful Rumpelstiltskin is king — the king and queen had planned to turn over their kingdom to him if he broke Fiona’s curse but changed their minds upon hearing Shrek had rescued her.

Donkey is pulling carts and terrified of his former best friend, while swashbuckling Puss has ditched his boots to be a fat and lazy housecat who cannot even be bothered to chase mice from his milk.

Even the mild-mannered Gingerbread Man is completely different — he is now a ruthless warrior fighting animal crackers.

Worst of all, Fiona — now leader of the ogre resistance to Rumpelstiltskin’s rule — despises Shrek when she meets him.

But if Shrek can share true love’s kiss with her by sundown, his contract with Rumpelstiltskin will be broken and the former timeline will be restored.

After the disappointing Shrek The Third, this is a return to form for the franchise.

It breathes new life into the well-told ‘if I’d never been born’ plotline and combines humour with heartfelt emotion.

Eddie Murphy is hilarious as always as loveable Donkey, his quickfire delivery and infectious energy a pleasure to watch.

Studio Dreamworks’ head of story Walt Dohrn provides the voice of Rumpelstiltskin — a surprise given the stars the part could have attracted — but his manic performance is on a par, and in many cases outshines, his co-stars.

The addition of 3D enhances the somewhat dated animation — at least in comparison to Dreamworks’ recent offering, How To Train Your Dragon — and makes the fairytale world more immersive.  A chase scene with flying witches is particularly impressive.

Overall, Shrek’s grand finale will be a big hit with fans, although it remains to be seen whether studio bosses keen to cash in will really let him live happily ever after.