We opened the 2004 summer movie season with Shrek 2, going with the office gang (Dan, Trevor and Stacy) after beer and dinner at NXNW. Shrek 2 isn’t the movie we would have chosen. In fact, we hadn’t even bothered to see Shrek 1. Yet we found ourselves being dragged to the sequel, though not before sharing a few scornful remarks. So we sceptics were surprised ourselves laughing out loud from start to finish.
Shrek 2 is fast-paced and clever–sort of an animated The Princess Bride. I liked it better than the two other animated features I’ve seen lately: Finding Nemo and Lilo and Stitch. Like The Simpsons it has enough gags, verbal and visual, happening in the periphery to make watching it over and over interesting.
Ebert says “Shrek 2 is bright, lively and entertaining, but it’s no Shrek.“. He is so unable to shake the ghost of the first movie from his review of the second, that I’m really, really glad I saw the second one first. And Ebert gives short shrift to my favorite character, Puss In Boots, voiced by Antonio Banderas.