Reviews

There are a lot of people who didn't enjoy the original Shrek. As both an anachronistic spoof of Disney princess films and fairy tales in general, Shrek also told its own story. When it came time for the inevitable sequel, the plot was practically abandoned in favor of pop culture references, mostly with hit and miss success. By the third film, the first half showed a glimmer of hope before jumping plots with some "passing of the torch" idea to... Justin Timberlake? Fortunately, Forever After finally ties together the right balance of story, character, and spoof while still building on the established franchise, making it the perfect place to stop.

Truth be told, the best sequel to the original thus far is actually at Universal Studios inside the Shrek 3-D attraction. Not only does it take viewers on an incredible ride, it also revisits a character absent from the all the sequels: Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow).

By Kevin A. Ranson

As written by Darren Lemke & Josh Klausner and directed by Mike Mitchell, Shrek Forever After does what all best sequels do: remind us why we fell in love with these characters, while also finding different ways for them to interact in a new adventure. …

As you can see, far from being another lazy sequel, Shrek Forever After dares to turn everything inside out, making Shrek an outsider again and forcing him to rise up to the occasion once more. This involves, amongst other things, a lot of awesome 3D action sequences, including clashes between Rumpelstiltskin's army of flying broom-riding witches and the Ogre Resistance, which is led by Fiona, Warrior Princess! Add a lot of humor, just as much heart and plenty of fun music cues (The Carpenters, Beastie Boys, Lionel Richie, etc.), all of which are plot and character driven, and you get that rarest of things: a fourth episode in a film series that equals, possibly even surpasses the original.

By Kevin N. Laforest