Part of the problem with sequels is that audiences want more of the same, and then some. Shrek II sort of fulfils that brief. It is a fun movie — at least as funny as the first one.
Here’s the story so far. Once upon a time, there was a princess who had been sent to a cold and creaky tower for her own good until her true love managed to rescue her. Princess Fiona (voiced by Cameron Diaz), who, in being rescued by Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) found she wasn’t such a monster in his eyes after all, got carried off to live happily ever after. That was the first Shrek movie.
But back at the tower, another fair knight, Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) arrives out-of-breath in a cloud of lip gloss and hair spray, and learns from a sheep flicking through a bit of pornography that his ticket to royalty has been snatched by a green ogre. That’s where Shrek II begins.
Fiona and Shrek are having a happy honeymoon (having fun like ogres do — farting in the mud and terrorising villagers) and then return to his shack at the edge of the swamp. Wisecracking Donkey (Eddie Murphy) is banished, but not before an invitation arrives from Fiona’s mother (Julie Andrews) and father (John Cleese), who live a very, very long way away indeed. They are queen and king in the kingdom of Far Far Away.
Ah, it’s good to be back in this bright, mad, gag-a-minute world; the place where a thousand fairytales are mashed up and dressed up as something else, the land where mermaids get eaten by sharks and Pinocchio wears slinky women’s underwear.
But what would a good story be without an evil Fairy Godmother? In this case, the Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders), with her flying stretch limo and her iron grip on the lucrative manufacture of spells and potions, will seemingly stop at nothing to secure her son, Prince Charming, a crack at being king.
At the castle of the king and queen, prejudice is getting in the way of happy families — just the sort of situation the conniving Fairy Godmother can take advantage of. Next thing, an assassin in the form of Puss-in-Boots (Antonio Banderas) is being hired …
Although I am sure the filmmakers used the very latest state-of-the-art computers to produce the film, it doesn’t look any better than, say, Finding Nemo. It just looks good (and will probably look even better if you take drugs).
Merchandising for Shrek II has been particularly savage. Most shopping centres have more life-size adverts for this movie than products on the shelves. Indeed, nothing must be allowed to get in the way of profits, and, with this is mind, the film’s distributors warned reviewers that they must not, on pain of death, give away the movie’s big “twist”.
Well, I’m not going to be the one to spoil all the fun, except to say that, under that smooth green skin, Shrek isn’t the man you thought he’d be.