By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * * * * )
Luc, who has just turned 4, will always remember Shrek because it is the first movie he went to a theatre to see (okay, a multiplex). I know this because I'm his grandfather and I can still remember my sister taking
my brother and me to see Noddy And Big Ears at the Capitol in Balmoral during the school holidays. Luc got by far the better treat.
Shrek is not your average family cartoon. Several years in the making at Spielberg and co's DreamWorks studio, it's an astonishing technical achievement — as the publicity says, no animated being has moved, breathed or had its skin crawl quite as convincingly as this jolly green ogre; even his world is completely made up.
Shrek (voice: Mike Myers) lives in a swamp. He wants to be left alone and is horrified when the swamp is invaded by cartoon creatures who have been sent packing by Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow).
Older viewers will recognise many of these: the Three Little Pigs, the Three Bears, the Three Blind Mice, Tinkerbell, the Big Bad Wolf and Pinocchio, which has led many adult critics to suspect some of the DreamWorks crew are taking potshots at their previous employer.
Farquaad wants to marry Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) but is not up to slaying the requisite dragon. He hires Shrek to do it, and the ogre agrees, on condition the fairytale invaders leave his swamp afterwards. Shrek is joined by a donkey named the Donkey (Eddie Murphy) in a thrilling and funny journey to the Princess' castle to take on the dragon and ... you didn't think I was going to give away the ending, did you?
Running time: 90 mins
Rental: Today
