Shrek (Two-Disc Widescreen & Full Screen Edition)

We bought this DVD because we love this movie. Our 5 year received this DVD for Christmas and loved it when she watched it for the first time.

Based on William Steig's bizzare backwards fairy tale, DreamWork's SHREK has fantastic animation, great voice casting and infamous "irreverent" humor. An ogre and a donkey rescuing a princess for an under-endowed King. How cleverly post-modern. Ha and indeed ha. Yes, it's a worldwide cartoon phenomenon or something like that. Now don't get me wrong, I like the recent movies like this one that trade traditional cute jokes for movie lampooning and irreverent gags, but I find it hard to avoid the fact that this "hilarious" comedy is somewhat overrated. Shrek (Mike Myers) and Donkey (Eddie Murphy) are a good odd-couple and there are some great jabs at Disney throughout the film's running time. But fart gags and weird humor aside, it's not as clever as it thinks it is. There are some fantastically funny moments in the film, especially the gingerbread man sequence and lines like "In the morning, i'm making waffles!" And the escape from the dragon's castle is a tour-de-force of fantastic animation and strange gags. However it's far more funnier if you take it as the sum of its parts rather than the movie as a whole. It may sound like just knocking success, but if you actually sit back and watch it, well, it really depends on if you want to sit through a cartoon with gross-out humour and fart gags. From a technical standpoint, the CGI photo-realistic water and fur simulation is brilliant. Since the success of TOY STORY, computer-generated cartoons have come a long way and it's impossible to deny that the CG is impressive. But then, so was the CG in Godzilla (Lesson: Impressive effects do not a good movie make). Watching SHREK in comparison to Pixar's competition MONSTERS INC, the latter is a more clever premise. Shrek gets 5 stars for animation, but it's a 3 star movie for laughs. the DVD extras are impressive though, with Commentaries, mock interviews, 'making of' docos and trailers.

Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) is ruler of Durok. After he realizes he must be a king in order to be ruler of a kingdom he chooses Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) as his bride. Fiona is locked away inside a castle surrounded by a fire breathing dragon. Farquaad holds a tournament to determine the princesses rescuer. Shrek (Mike Myers) wins the tournament and makes a deal with Farquaad. The princess for the deed to his swamp. Farquaad agrees and together Shrek and his loundmouth donkey (Eddie Murphy) set off on an unforgettable adventure.

Shrek has already raked in over 266 million in the us box office alone and thats for a good reason so if you havent seen it yet, what are you waiting for. This is a great film for all ages. There is the perfect mix of humor for the younger and older audience. The voice overs by the actors is excellent and the CGI is just jawdropping(look out Pixar).

Dreamworks has put together an excellent DVD. The transfer is just flawless. The picture is clean and there is no edge enhancement. With all the debate over pan and scan and widescreen maybe this dvd should become the blue print for the standard. Pan and Scan (don't know why some people prefer it) with DD on one disk and Anamorphic widescreen with DTS on the other for the video and audio freaks like myself. The disk is just loaded with far to many extras to list here but trust me they will keep you busy for a couple of hours after the movie is over. If you can only get one dvd this month Shrek should be it.