Plot: Shrek (Mike Myers) is a big, green, anti-social hunk of an ogre who just wants to be left alone in his swamp. Little chance of that happening, for the diminutive Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) has been banishing those pesky fairy tale creatures to this very swamp, and soon Shrek's domain is overrun with the likes of the three blind mice, the three bears, Tinker Bell, the seven dwarves... you get the idea. To get his swamp back, Shrek strikes a deal with Farquaad, agreeing to rescue Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from the clutches of a dragon. But the developments between Shrek and Fiona put a damper on Farquaad's plans to marry the princess. Then there's a donkey named Donkey (Eddie Murphy) who's Shrek's wisecracking sidekick on the mission...

Once upon a time, there was a princess who was rescued from a dragon by an ogre. After a night's rest, she wanders into the woods nearby, thrilled to be alive when she spots a bluebird. She coos a high note; the bluebird responds with a similar call. The princess trills some more, and then some more. In trying to keep up, the bluebird puffs itself up so much that it bursts into a mass of feathers. The princess is sad, but also hungry. So she takes the bluebird's eggs and in no time has them sizzling on a hot stone for breakfast.

That's 'Shrek' for you, doing a nasty/funny tweak on accepted fairytale tropes. A major part of the fun in this film is in seeing how these familiar, potentially-oh-so-cute scenes give way to something totally unexpected and twisted. Touches that would have seemed anachronistic in traditional fairy tales seem totally at home here. For instance, there's a magic mirror (of 'Mirror, Mirror on the wall' fame) offering dating choices to Lord Farquaad (Candidate #1 is Cinderella, #2 is Sleeping Beauty, and so on.). There's even a Matrix-style slo-mo, freeze-in-the-air fight with Robin Hood and his Merry Men to add to the melee.

A lot of American comedy today is gratuitously gross, but in 'Shrek', the grossness is all part of the fun. Imagine how very anti-Disney is the thought of a lead character being an ugly ogre who makes candles out of his own ear wax!

There's even an unexpected element of sweetness as Shrek and the princess fall in love, but are unable to do anything for a while as she harbours a major secret. In a lesser film, the moral gleaned from this secret would be thrust in your face, replete with the unavoidable big musical number, but here it's all discreetly left in the background. This segment of the film does lag a bit, especially coming after wonderful set pieces like the escape from the dragon's lair, but it does allow for a few more fairytale ideas to be wickedly bent.

The animation here is fabulous. The characters look fake, but their facial expressions, movements, and skin tones come miraculously close to natural. The voices are all fine and perfectly suited to the characters. Eddie Murphy, in particular, is a hoot as Donkey.

Rating: If you are an animation buff, you'll find all of this very fascinating. But even if it holds no appeal, you shouldn't give 'Shrek' a miss. It's good, rowdy fun, the likes of which live action films seem to have forgotten how to deliver.

This review was written by Baradwaj Rangan. If you have any comments on this review, post a message on our message boards or write to editor @sitagita.com

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