Summer Flick: Shrek Forever After

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I took the kids to the theater this afternoon, breaking my vow not to do anything fun before all the school work is done. I suppose I just couldn't continue to be such an ogre (pun intended). The boys saw Prince of Persia, which they declared "solid" -- whatever that means -- and Peach and I took our large popcorn, large Pepsi and box of Raisinettes to the theater down the hall and sat in completely solitude (really nice!) to watch the fourth installment of the big green ogre (the 2D version). I am not a Shrek fan, I will say up front. I tolerated the first, which had a skosh too much potty humor for me. The second had far too much innuendo and more potty humor. I never saw number three. I saw a parent-written review, however, for number four and decided that it would possibly be tolerable. I was pleasantly surprised.

I won't give you a blow-by-blow, but I will tell you that fairly early in the movie you realize this is a Shrek-meets-George-Bailey story line, right down to the little ogre doll Shrek finds in his back pocket during the middle of his "if-I-had-never-been-born experience" (Zuzu's petals). When I got home from the theater, I looked online for a Catholic review and found that this meeting of story lines was obviously much intentioned.

The funny thing about my perception of the movie -- that it was a kinder, gentler Shrek -- is that for the same reasons that I liked it, many movie critics disliked it. That's pretty much par for the course -- I almost never like what the critics like.



PS The villain in this final chapter of Shrek is fairy tale character Rumpelstiltskin, with whom Shrek makes a deal, thus landing him in his "if-I-had-never-been-born experience." Rumpelstiltskin -- the voice and the mannerisms -- reminded me of Pee Wee Herman, which was really kind of creepy. You'll have to let me know if you see it too.

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