Review: Shrek Forever After
When Shrek first appeared on the big screen, many people were pleasantly, uproariously surprised at how funny and accessible the film was for all ages. Bathroom humor blended with cutting wit and good-natured silliness, upending quite a few fairy tales. Four films into the franchise, however, Shrek Forever After is encumbered by a preposterous preceding film and the simple fact that nothing stays fresh forever.
It's been less than a year in Shrek's life since we last him, yet he's already feeling the strain of domestication. With a twist on It's a Wonderful Life-esque stories, Shrek's "happy ever after" is just a little too domesticated, so when Rumplestiltskin offers to give him a day before his life changed, Shrek gets more than he asked for. Suddenly he's thrown into a world where ogres are underground, fighting for their lives, and his beloved Fiona has had a very different life.
Despite the fact that Shrek is now in a new world, nothing seems all that different beside characters not recognizing each other. What made Shrek and Shrek 2 fresh and funny was their fracturing of fairy tales, combined with simple stories. Shrek the Third failed because in part, it had nearly as many writers as it had characters. This time, and for the first time, a Shrek film has only one director and two writers (besides William Steig, who created the characters). With so little time passing between tales, even Shrek can't overcome the now dated style of humor that seemed so invigorating when the first film premiered.
It doesn't help that Walt Dohrn, who wrote a song for Shrek 2, additional material for Shrek the Third, and was a voice actor for the in The Third and now Forever After is also voicing the lead villain, Rumplestiltskin. Dohrn, who's who's worked on such projects as SpongeBob SquarePants and Dexter's Laboratory brings the stagey kid-tv sensibility to Shrek Forever After that doesn't match the first two films. It's less fractured fairy-tale humor as it is precocious and predictable, especially when the villain seems like he needs a time out and a nap.
While Shrek Forever After isn't nearly as bad as Shrek the Third, it cannot live up to the breathless laughs and big-hearted charm of the first two movies any more than a clever child remains precocious through adolescence. It's been nine years, it's time to let Shrek rest in peace.