MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

Shrek Forever After Rated PG

Directed by Mike Mitchell.  Animated Feature.

Photo © Paramount
Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

In an early scene in Shrek Forever After the big green ogre is at his child’s birthday party. Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) is asked to roar like he used to do in the good bad days before he loved a princess, married and started a family. 

Shrek resists the request initially, but finally, when he’s had enough, he not only growls but flies into a temper tantrum, destroying the birthday cake and the festivities.  Shrek is now a respectable member of the middle-class and is getting tired of the boredom of changing diapers, playing with the kids and putting up with his celebrity status. 

Enter Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn), who offers Shrek the chance to enter a world in which he had never been born.  It doesn’t take much imagination to see Shrek Forever After as a reworking of the 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life, with Shrek standing in for George Bailey and Rumpelstiltskin taking over for mean Mr. Potter. 

The land of Far Far Away is now a terrible place and Shrek soon decides to save it.  He needs to reestablish relationships with Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) (who don’t remember him) and come up with a rescue plan.  There is a way to break the contract, but it won’t be easy. 

Shrek Forever After reunites us with characters that we’ve come to enjoy, but it’s far too complicated for younger children and unintelligible for anyone who has skipped the first three films in the series. 

Shrek eventually has to accept a Christ-like sacrifice in order to save his friends, but for what purpose? The moral of this story seems to be: Embrace mediocrity and routine because that is where true love will be found.   If that message is to be believed, you will find true love when you watch Shrek Forever After.

Pitchfork/Halo Ratings:

Three halos. Friendship and sacrificial love are well displayed in this entertaining but somewhat overly complicated family film.

One picthfork. For baby poop jokes.

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