Shrek 2

OK, OK, so I liked it more than I thought I would...

As a general rule of thumb, movie sequels suck violently. They tend to be visual expressions of Hollywood's laziness, cashing in on one good idea by rehashing it again and again. A truly horrible sequel can drag even the good qualities of the original film down into the pit of Bad Movie Hell, and I don't really want to reward Hollywood hacks for ruining a film I loved. For this reason, I still haven't seen The Matrix Reloaded, and I'm not looking forward to the final Star Wars installment. (On the other hand, despite my current annoyance with J.K. Rowling, I want to see Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban right now.) Shrek was a good enough movie that I just knew Dreamworks and PDI couldn't top their earlier work in a sequel. But hubby dragged me and mom out to see Shrek 2 anyway. I was pleasantly surprised.

And to be fair, the original film did leave a couple of plot threads hanging. For instance, Princess Fiona (Diaz) has a family—what will they think of her marriage? How will they deal with her permanent transformation into ogrehood? Just because Fiona is happy with Shrek (Myers), does that mean her family will accept him too? And can people with unconventional looks ever be truly comfortable in an image-obsessed society?

We get a chance to discover the answers to all these questions when, shortly after their honeymoon, Shrek and Fiona are invited to meet the parents in her former home, the kingdom of Far Far Away (which looks like the product of a love tryst between Disney's Fantasyland and Beverly Hills). Fiona's mother (Andrews), although clearly disconcerted by her daughter's choice of mate, seems less concerned about outer appearances than her husband (Cleese), who seems on the verge of bursting a blood vessel at the very sight of his big green son-in-law. No doubt some of this animosity stems from Fiona's parents having a little secret of their own—one which observant moviegoers will probably recognize early on—but some also arises from Fiona not being rescued in a timely manner by Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), who reached the dragon's keep just a leetle too late. And of course, something has to be done about it—so the king hires the world's greatest ogre-dispatcher, the legendary Puss in Boots (Banderas), to off Shrek.

Shrek 2 isn't as funny as the first film—its predecessor had the advantage of surprise, tickling the audience with unexpected fairy-tale parodies and pop-culture jokes; in the sequel, the novelty has worn off—but it does an unexpectedly good job of delving into the personalities of Shrek and Fiona. The ogre couple experiences some of the same problems real newlyweds do; Fiona angrily points out that Shrek married into her family and Shrek bridles at this "fine print," Shrek makes a few unilateral decisions without consulting his wife, Fiona wonders briefly whether marrying Shrek was a mistake.

We discover a few things about Shrek in this movie—he's still an ogre, but he also has a burning desire to please his wife and would do just about anything to make sure she's happy—even if that means making nice with in-laws who try to kill him, even if it means making drastic personal changes, and even if it means letting her go. The film also sheds some interesting light on Fiona's character. We see, in a number of different settings, how truly right Shrek is for her. She may have looked like a princess on the outside, but it was a role she was truly uncomfortable playing. Though her ogress body may look awkward and ugly to her family and the plastic-perfect residents of Far Far Away, she is truly happiest in her own (green) skin. (And besides, she is just the CUTEST ogress! So there.)

At one point, Shrek finds (and reads) Fiona's childhood diary and is dismayed by her youthful obsession with marrying the perfect prince. I suspect that if my own husband were to read some journal entries from my childhood and teenage years, he might be similarly dismayed. He would, of course, realize at some point that those entries reflected who I was then, not who I am now, and that my teenage crushes have been swept away by true love for one particular man. The point has been reiterated so many times it is rapidly descending into the realm of cliché, but it's still true—the things we plan for our lives sometimes end up being nowhere near as happy or fulfilling as the situations we blunder into serendipitously, the people we never planned on meeting. Fiona never planned to meet an ogre, much less marry one—but we see that Shrek is infinitely more suitable for her than the vapid, egocentric, medievally-metrosexual prince her parents picked out.

If Shrek taught us that ogres aren't all bad, Shrek 2 reminds us that fairies aren't all good. Absolutely Fabulous star Jennifer Saunders plays a Fairy Godmother that's a glorious pastiche of Martha Stewart and Joan Crawford—and she is, to quote another Mike Myers movie, "eeeee-ville... like, it's the froo-its of the Dev-eel, eee-ville." And, surprise, Prince Charming just happens to be Mama's Darling Boy.

Yes, there are a couple of rehashes from the original, and we get to see what parts of the first movie are considered essential to the Shrek "formula"—the opening book, the quest, the fairy-tale sidekicks, the evil character(s) consumed with perfection, the "jam session" just before the credits roll. Donkey is still just as annoying. And although definitely toned down from the original, Shrek 2 isn't free of puerile humor. (Dreamworks folks, I really, REALLY did not need to know what kind of underwear Pinocchio is in the habit of wearing. UNCOMFORTABLE!!! LA LA LA I'M NOT LISTENING!) Nonetheless, once you get past the slow-moving first part, what you have is a fun and surprisingly engaging film for grown-ups as well as kids.

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