Shrek the Third

November 13, 2007

Shrek the Third is a 2007 computer animated comedy film of the Shrek series. It is the third film in the series, following Shrek and Shrek 2. It was produced by Jeffrey Katzenberg for DreamWorks Animation, and is distributed by Paramount Pictures, and was released in U.S. theaters on May 18, 2007 (June 8 in Mexico, June 22 in Spain, June 15 in Brazil, June 13 in France and June 29 in the UK and Ireland).

It was produced with the working title of Shrek 3. Like the first two Shrek films, the movie is significantly based on fairy tale (specifically Grimm’s Fairy Tales) themes.

Plot

King Harold has fallen sick and his ogre son-in-law Shrek and daughter Fiona are next in line to be king and queen. Shrek declines, believing that there has to be someone else for the job. With his final three breaths, the king tells Shrek that there is one other heir who can become the new King of Far Far Away: his nephew, Arthur Pendragon. Shrek sets out to find ‘Artie’, along with Donkey and Puss in Boots. As they’re sailing off, Fiona runs to the dock and announces to Shrek that she’s pregnant. Surprised and shocked, Shrek begins to have nightmares about his future children on their journey to Worcestershire Academy, where they eventually discover that Arthur, who is an academy student, is a loser picked on by the other students - even the nerds. Arthur at first feels good about his new role until Donkey and Puss scare him with responsibilities. Arthur tries to take control of the ship and ends up crashing it on an island where they meet Arthur’s retired wizard teacher, Merlin.

Meanwhile, Prince Charming has gone to the Poison Apple Bar where he convinces all fairy tale villains (including Captain Hook, the Wicked Queen, a Cyclops, Rumpelstiltskin, Mable the Ugly Stepsister, Headless Horseman, and Stromboli) to join him in a fight for their "happily ever after". The villains feel their side of the story has never been told and now is the time to do it. Prince Charming and the other villains invade the kingdom. Among their crimes are the imprisonment of Fiona, Queen Lillian, and Fiona’s famous princess friends, including Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty.

Shrek arrives at the city to find that Charming is bent on revenge against Shrek for ’stealing’ his "happily ever after" and plans to kill Shrek in a play later that night. Charming’s men arrive shortly and quickly capture Shrek and Arthur. The princesses and Queen Lillian manage to escape and free Shrek. In an effort to save Arthur, Shrek tells Charming that Arthur was just a patsy to take his place as King of Far Far Away. Charming believes Shrek and lets the now angry and disappointed Arthur escape. Charming stages a theatrical performance that culminates in Shrek’s being led onto the stage, where to Charming’s chagrin Shrek wins the audience’s support by ridiculing his singing and acting. Just as Charming is about to kill Shrek, Fiona and her friends leap onto the stage to confront the villains. Charming demands his "happily ever after," then attempts to kill Arthur, but Shrek protects him and Charming suffers a mortal blow. Shrek offers the crown to Arthur, who accepts it with the crowd’s approval. In the end, Shrek retires with Fiona to his swamp home, having three babies and actually enjoying his new life as father.

Cast

• Mike Myers as Shrek
• Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona
• Eddie Murphy as Donkey
• Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots
• Julie Andrews as Queen Lillian
• Justin Timberlake as Arthur
• Rupert Everett as Prince Charming
• Jim Cummings as Shrek (sometimes)
• Eric Idle as Merlin
• Conrad Vernon as Gingerbread Man, Rumpelstiltskin, and the Headless Horseman
• Cody Cameron as Pinocchio, the Three Little Pigs, Ogre Babies, and Bohort
• Larry King as Doris The Ugly Stepsister
• Amy Poehler as Snow White
• Megan Hilty as Snow White (singing voice)
• Maya Rudolph as Rapunzel
• Amy Sedaris as Cinderella
• Aron Warner as Big Bad Wolf
• Cheri Oteri as Sleeping Beauty and Actress
• Regis Philbin as Mabel the Ugly Stepsister
• Ian McShane as Captain Hook
• Susanne Blakeslee as Wicked Queen
• John Krasinski as Sir Lancelot
• Seth Rogen as Ship Captain
• Kari Wahlgren as Old Lady
• John Cleese as King Harold

Production

With Viacom’s acquisition of DreamWorks SKG, Shrek the Third is the first Mike Myers film to be released by Paramount Pictures (which itself was bought by Viacom in 1994) since 1993’s Wayne’s World 2. On the 2004 show, Father of the Pride, Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy) was featured, solely to promote that Shrek 3 although he stated that it was to be released in 2006 rather than 2007. Five actors from NBC’s Saturday Night Live appear in the movie. Two actors, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph, were current cast members at the time of the film’s release; the remaining three are Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cheri Oteri. Two members of the Monty Python troupe, John Cleese and Eric Idle, provide voices in the film. Cleese has reprised his role as King Harold, while Idle provides the voice for the new character Merlin.

Reception

Critical reception to Shrek the Third since its release has been mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes it received a 41% rating, It has the slightly more positive score of 6.3 out of 10 on the Internet Movie Database, making it the poorest rated Shrek movie made and one of the poorest-received DreamWorks Animation films made, behind Shark Tale and tied with Madagascar. On the website Box Office Mojo, it currently has a B-. Critical reaction was more negative than that for the first two films in the series. David Ansen wrote that his problem with the film was that, "its slightly snarky wit is aimed almost entirely at parents… this one never touched my heart or got under my skin. It’s a movie at war with itself: a kiddie movie that doesn’t really want to be one."The film yielded some positive reviews from writers such as A. O. Scott from The New York Times who believed that the movie "seems at once more energetic and more relaxed [than its predecessors], less desperate to prove its cleverness and therefore to some extent, smarter." The Times newspaper also rated it 2 out of 5.

Despite these criticisms, Shrek the Third opened in U.S. theatres in 4,122 cinemas on May 18, 2007. The film grossed a total of US$121,629,270 in its first weekend, the best opening weekend ever for an animated film, and third best overall. As of October 25, Shrek the Third has grossed $321 million in the United States and $471.9 million overseas, bringing its cumulative total to $792.9 million. Compared to its predecessors, the film also had an unusually short box office lifespan. Shrek the Third spent only 12 weeks in theaters, while Shrek and Shrek 2 were respectively in release for 29 and 21 weeks.

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