Shrek

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

For me it was true love when the soundtrack to this fabulously funny animated topsy-turvy fairytale broke into Hallelujah.

No, not Handel's greatest hit but the Leonard Cohen tune as sung by Rufus Wainwright (who has a very nice song on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack as well).

The ballad arrived during a poignant will-they-ever-see-each-other-again moment between Shrek, the not-so-jolly green giant of questionable personal habits, and Princess Fiona, feisty heroine.

Had this been Disney, the song would have been a squealathon by the latest teen audition for Whitney Houston's old job, not a mordant ballad by laughing Len.

It's just one sign that Shrek and its makers - including braindrain Kiwi animator and co-director Adamson - haven't played by the rules.

Yes, but Shrek is a good sort of irreverent. It might poke fun at most every fairytale character touched by the hand of Walt (they all set up a refugee camp in Shrek's swamp after being turfed out of the kingdom of midget megalomaniac Lord Farquaad), but it also knows it can't rely on clever sideswipes alone, nor on the occasional spot of parody from non-bedtime story sources (see Fiona's Matrix moves on Robin Hood and company).

No, Shrek turns into something splendid, care of that sense of humour combined with its wondrous visuals - a disconcerting blend of the real and the fantastical - and a ripping yarn complete with an old moral delivered with a fresh twist.

Of the voice cast, Myers adopts a variation on his Austin Powers character, the Scottish monstrosity Fat Bastard, for Shrek, while Murphy's obsequious motormouth Donkey couldn't be funnier. Lithgow seems to be channelling Laurence Olivier as Farquaad (helping to make one very memorable scene in which he tortures the Gingerbread Man), and Diaz helps to make Fiona a beauty who's a fine match to Shrek's beast.

Yes there's plenty that will keep grown-ups utterly charmed and giggling throughout. But, you say, is it okay for kids? Well, it shares a sensibility (but very little else) with its source material - William Steig's children's book of the same name. And in the film there are a couple of possibly scary but slapstick bits involving a very large, very fiery dragon. Worse - the closing credits come with the utter terror of Murphy's vocals on I'm a Believer. Singing out of his ass, you might say.

But even that can't stop this being the year of Shrek.

When they award the first animated feature Oscar next March, everybody better stand way, way back for the big smelly green guy.

Cast: The voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow Directors: Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson.

Rating: (PG, contains low-level violence)

Running time: 90 mins

Screening: Advance previews this weekend, Village, Hoyts, Berkeley cinemas