Shrek Forever After

(2010)

Dir: Mike Mitchell

I might be remembering my first viewings of Shrek and Shrek 2 through rose tinted spectacles, but Shrek Forever After just doesn’t have the grand appeal anymore.

The fourth (never!) instalment in the big green franchise, this time our titular ogre is faced by his biggest enemy of all: tedium. Shrek is bored. He longs for the days when he was free to be feared, free to be an ogre. So what does ol’ greeny do? He makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin of course, giving the shady midget one day of his past in exchange for one day as an ogre. Unfortunately, the day Rumpelstiltskin takes turns out to be the day Shrek was born, erasing Shrek and all his heroic and (rather importantly) sexual accolades from history.

First of all, kudos to the writers for realising that Shrek’s offspring are, like most cinema sprogs, bone-stewingly annoying. So with the brats jettisoned due to the lack of Shrek semen in this alternate universe, Forever After is already one pitch down, but star one up on its predecessor. Also in its favour are two very, very entertaining villains. Walt Dohm’s Rumpelstiltskin is deliciously ruthless and hilarious in a way not seen since John Lithgow’s Lord Farquad from the original. The Pied Piper is another inspired choice, turning the fabled child catcher into the literally musical assassin dispatched to hunt down the renegade ogre.

But Forever After is still simply not as good as its mummy and daddy. As a standalone it’s a fun yet forgettable romp, but one that would have served to a much better as a conclusion to the trilogy rather than a quadrilogy.

If only Rumpelstiltskin could do us a deal where Shrek The Third was gone forever…

*** / *****

“Ogre and out.”