Breathtaking animation and the voices of Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy make this a laugh a minute
There was a time when swearing was a big no-no in films from the squeaky clean DreamWorks stable. But then we had "cunt" in American Beauty, and now, in Shrek, their glucose-enriched computer animation comedy for all the family, we have "fuckwad". That is: the evil Lord Farquaad, who banishes all fairy tale characters from his kingdom, and the purpose of whose odd name can only be to contain that single entendre. It's hardly a pointer to the rest of the movie's tone; in fact it's a measure of Shrek's uproarious wholesomeness that it almost gets away with the sheer effrontery of that gag without anyone noticing.
Shrek itself is the name of a big, green, cantankerous ogre voiced by Mike Myers in a slightly scaled-down version of his "Fat Bastard" Scottish accent. And that name has a Germanic, Grimm brothers feel: Schreck, horror; or perhaps the kiddie phrase Schreckbild, or bogey man. Either way, he's a horrible, giant, oafish creature who stomps crossly about in a kind of medieval jerkin, terrifying the local villagers and doing gross things like removing a great conical plug of wax from his ear to serve as a candle.
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Breathtaking animation and the voices of Myers, Cameron Diaz and Eddie Murphy make this a laugh a minuteThere was a time when swearing was a big no-no in films from the squeaky clean DreamWorks stable. But then we had...
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