DreamWorks Review: Shrek the Third

DreamWorks Animation’s 14th feature film.

Watch Full Movie ON LINK

I just want to say, WE ARE HALFWAY COMPLETE. Thank the lord. Dreamworks movies are starting to tire me out, but I am gonna finish it. I would like to thank everyone who read this series and continue to support me.

My Opinion right after watching movie

My thoughts right after watching Shrek the Third is that it is boring, and rambles. The characters don’t really develop and the new ones are not interesting. Charming is not an engaging or good villain, and it is not really memorable. Shrek 2 had an opening for another sequel but the way they told this story, it might as well ended at Shrek 2.

Production

Production for this movie started when Shrek 2 was released, and on May 2004, Jeffrey Katzenberg commented “Shrek 3 and 4 are going to reveal other unanswered questions and, finally, in the last chapter, we will understand how Shrek came to be in that swamp, when we meet him in the first movie.” Director of the first two movies Andrew Adamson was not the director of the movie (which was taken by Peter Seaman and Jeffrey Prince). They changed the film’s name from Shrek 3 to Shrek the Third, so it won’t get confused with the Shrek 3-D package.

Famous Magazine stated that this film took 1000000 man hours to make the movie with 150 crew members, 2500 of the 4500 costume designs made it in the film, and 60 new environments were created for the movie.

Story

So we skip the storybook opening to see Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) performing a play onstage, but everyone boos him because he sucks. He goes to his dressing room/alley and cries to his deceased mother. He reads her card which says “don’t stop believing”, and he decides that he will get revenge on Shrek and be king of Far Far Away.

Sliiiiiight nitpick. You are Prince Charming and because you are a prince, you must be royalty and going to become a King, right?

We are taken to Shrek (Mike Myers) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz), who are filling in for King Harold (John Cleese) to get better. One issue, HE IS A FROG. HOW IS HE GOING TO BE A KING WHEN HE IS A SMALL FUCKING FROG? Anyways, Shrek screws up and is about to make some sort of debut when this happens.

Butt joke 7 minutes in, fabulous.

After Fiona tries to tell Shrek she is pregnant, the entire crew go and see King Harold who is dying. This is supposed to be a sad scene but they try to put a joke in every few seconds, which is kind of awkward. DreamWorks, you do not need to have a joke in all your scenes all the time.

His death is prolonged 3 times, and a fly comes out of his mouth. Ugh.

So the funeral is held, and Charming goes to the villain pub, and they are about to beat the shit out of him because he does not belong. He convinces them to join him so they can have their happily ever after.

He does this because he is a pathetic villain who cannot do crap on his own. His mother ran the show, and now we have this ninny. It would be one thing if he was amusing and threatening like Faarquad, but he is nothing.

The next morning, Shrek, Donkey (Eddie Murphy) , and Puss (Antonio Banderas) to get Arthur (Justin Timberlake), and Fiona finally tells him that he is pregnant, which he is nervous and does not like. After having a daydream about being a parent, he is nervous and they try to cheer him up. He is worried about parenthood because of the “I am an ogre schtick that he is STILL not over with. They reach the high school and we meet Timberlake.

I know he is Arthur, but look at the picture. Timberlake is not acting (though we know he can), and the two are IDENTICAL in facial features. When I see this character, I automatically think of “Bye, Bye, Bye” and “Suit in Tie”.

Timberlake is the loser turned to be someone important arc. So, the Disney Princesses  fairy tale princesses are at the castle to give Fiona a bunch of baby gifts, but Charming and his villains crash the castle, and they hide.

Timberlake turned the boat around after they scared him about being king, and they end up on land. This filler is supposed to make Shrek and Timberlake have a father-son relationship that will suddenly prepare Shrek to be a father. It is boring and contrived. So they visit Merlin (Eric Idle) for some reason, but he will not help them until they do soul searching. Yay. So Timberlake is the first one do this, and it is about a father bird abandoning a son bird, which is symbolizing how Artie’s father left him. Him and Shrek bond, and I am not invested in this contrived scene. It is not even developed properly.

So the princesses and Queen Lillian (Julie Andrews) run off to do……not explained, before Rapunzel leads them in a trap, and they are thrown in a cell. The other villains try to capture Shrek and the crew, but that fails. Timberlake gets Merlin to give them the potion to do…. I do not know, and they make it to Far Far Away to find it in ruins, and confronts Charming. This somehow ends up with Timberlake crying and running back to his school, with Donkey and Boots telling him that Shrek did it to save his life. Queen Lillian busts them out of the cell, and then this happens.

This is actually pretty funny, and one of the only satirical moments in this movie.

The theater performance which is a set up for Charming to kill Shrek has started, and everyone from the gang shows up to stop Charming. He is mad that people are awwing at Shrek and Fiona, so he stabs him, (but misses), and is killed as the tower falls over him. Timberlake has convinced the villains to not act like villains, showing that he is right for being the king, yea, yea, yea.

An anticlimatic climax is all this is.

So in the final scene, we are shown Shrek and Fiona’s 3 children who are just wrecking havoc along with Donkey’s children, and the big family are having fun.

The story does not really know what it wants to be. There are a bunch of ideas that are never really carried through, elements are contrived, and there is filler that makes you bored. It also helps that the premise is not interesting either.

Characters

The characters in this film do not develop. The ones that returned for this film did not show a new side to them (except Queen Lillian), and there is not much for them to do. A lot of the tie, they are just sitting there. And the new characters are not that engaging.

Shrek proved in this film that there is nothing more to do with his character. Sure, they have the father thing but he is mostly avoiding it, and he is STILL on the “I’m an Ogre thing”. He almost seems like someone impersonating Shrek.

Princess Fiona did not have a lot to do in this film. She is pregnant, and she is a lot more passive than she has been in the past 2 films. She is stuck with the princesses for most of the movie.

Donkey is just mere comic relief in this film and nothing else.

The exact thing that was said about Donkey.

Queen Lillian is the only one that we got to see a new side of, and she is kickass. She is alright though.

Prince Charming is a pathetic villain and character who needed a bunch of villains to help him.

I think I expressed what I think of Timberlake in the Story section.

Animation

The animation definitely improved over the first two (and it is hard to top Shrek 2 in animation). The colors stand out, the characters are well-designed (the ones that matter), the animation is fluid and detailed.

Music

The film also lacked in the music department. It has a bunch of songs from celebrities that you will not remember. It is aright, but you cannot remember them at all, but the public at the time clearly disagreed, with it charting on the Billboard 200 at #34, and the US Soundtracks at #2

This is the philosophy at DreamWorks Animation.

Reception at Release

When this film was released on May 18th, 2007, it made a record-breaking amount of $121,629,270, so it definitely opened at #1. It was only in theaters for 12 weeks and made $322.7 million domestically, and $476.2 million overseas, with a total amount of $798,958,162, and had a $160 million budget. It is currently the 4th highest grossing film of 2007, highest grossing animated film of 2007, 39th highest grossing film, and the 7th highest grossing animated film.

Things lucked out for them in the box office, but critically…. it received mixed-negative reviews. Critics complained about it not knowing if it is trying to be an adult or kids movie, it lacked heart, the story is barely there, the jokes being bad, and that this film adds nothing new to the franchise.

It also took its tolls when it comes to awards. It was nominated for an Annie in directing, a BAFTA, Golden Reel, nominated for 2 Kid’s Choices in voice acting (Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz), and won one (Eddie Murphy). It also won a People’s Choice for Favorite Family Film.

Reception Today

Like I have said before. Franchise=DreamWorks Classic, but among-st the public, it is hated and known as one of the worst DreamWorks films. People pretend tat the series ended with Shrek 2 and it is known as the worst Shrek film. It is a part of the Dork Age in DreamWorks Animation.

Final Score

Story = 4.5/10

Characters = 4/10

Music = 6/10

Animation = 9/10

=23.5/40=  59% 

Next Time……

Review: October 8th, 2013

Related articles

• DreamWorks Review: Shrek 2 (animatedkid.wordpress.com)
• DreamWorks Review: Shrek (animatedkid.wordpress.com)
• Shrek 1 and 2 (nerdywallflower.wordpress.com)
• Shrek 3 and 4 (nerdywallflower.wordpress.com)

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