Shrek Forever After

SHREK FOREVER AFTER Directed by Mike Mitchell Runtime: 93 min.

One minute into Shrek Forever After, a toddler down the row from me whined to his mommy, “I want to go home!” If only most children were so astute. Shrek, the giant green ogre voiced by Mike Meyers, is such an unappealing familymovie hero (menacing yet dorky) that recoil is the natural response for anyone not already inculcated into Hollywood’s consumerist obedience. So what’s the excuse for adult moviegoers who’d support another installment of this nonsense franchise?

William Steig’s sarcastic children’s book—which ripped off TV’s parodistic Fractured Fairy Tales—inspired an unimaginative, big-screen trivia game. Previous Shrek movies mixed fairy tale, nursery rhyme and cartoon icons in a manic, insincere jumble that included anachronistic pop tunes and cynical adult humor. This fourth film spoofs the fairy tale epigram “Happily Ever After” when Shrek experiences midlife dissatisfaction with his marriage to Fiona (Cameron Diaz), friendship with Donkey (Eddie Murphy), fatherhood to three ogre-babies and the routines of middle-class family life. His bargain with a Mephistophelean Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn) would only be instructive to adults who never heard of Faust and will surely puzzle/disturb children.

Forever After’s inane conceit is worsened by the series’ horrid visual design full of insincere “wonderment”: Fairy-tale figures have a weirdly doll-like look (3- D with rough textures) while human characters’ faces are mutant-like (swollen and indelicate). This monstrous look betrays the franchise’s essential cruelty. Based in congratulating the audience’s smartaleckiness, the Shrek movies playup disenchantment. (“Don’t you get it, it’s all just a fairytale,” says Fiona, Shrek’s now-faithless ogre-wife.) Each sequel exists only to confirm this cynicism— ironically, by loading-on cutesiness. Idiots will mistake the facetious pop-culture winking (the Three Little Pigs as German immigrants; Shrek making mud-angels in their pigsty) for entertainment. To quote the malevolent Rumpelstiltskin, “How is that for a metaphysical paradox?” After last year’s animation breakthroughs—Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox and Where the Wild Things Are—we can’t go back to this inanity. Not all family movies deserve our patronage and support. That Shrek-averse child showed rare wisdom.