It’s probably fair to say that “Shrek 3″ was a disaster. Thankfully though, the team have seen sense and gone back to the fairytale format that made “Shrek” so enjoyable in the first place.
Our favourite ogre family are living the good life in “Shrek Forever After”, but Shrek has lost what made him fearsome. He no longer scares the villagers, and instead he’s a tourist attraction for the residents of Far Far Away.
This all gets too much for Shrek and he makes a deal with the conniving Rumpelstiltskin which sends him into an alternate reality where he was never born, where he never met Donkey, and where he never married Fiona.
The series’ main characters are then reintroduced to Shrek without the fairytale trappings, which makes this film a little more heartwarming than its predecessors. This is also helped by the omission of the over-the-top puns and parodies found in the previous films.
Newcomer Walt Dohrn (Rumpelstiltskin) has brilliant vocal abilities which match those of his celebrity co-stars, and although the script is sometimes lacking it’s a lot more satisfying than that of “Shrek the Third”. Also, the film’s 3D presentation adds a visual depth without being a gimmick.
The plot is predictable, but the inevitable happy ending still makes you feel warm and fuzzy.
6/10