Shrek 4: The Final... Nail

So we finally saw Shrek 4 at the local second run theater.  Capsule review of it: not as bad as I was expecting based on the reviews, but would not have been happy to pay more than $2 per person for it.

Of course, the film is subtitled "The Final Chapter."  My hope is it is the final nail.

When Shrek debuted in 2001, it was a kick to the groin (and I mean that in a good way).  Computer animated kids' movies consisted of the latest Pixar release and... the short movie they would show before the Pixar release.  The only real challenge to Pixar was Antz (aka, the other ant-centered movie released the same year as A Bug's Life).  You remember that one, right?  Woody Allen, Sylvester Stallone, Jennifer Lopez, Sharon Stone... yeah, didn't think so.

Shrek comes out and immediately it is rightfully hailed as a legitimate alternative to Pixar and Disney.  Hell, part of it's charm was the sand it kicked in the face of Disney.  Farquaad's castle is a thinly veiled mockery of The Magic Kingdom and Shrek and Donkey's arrival at the castle is still my favorite scene in any Shrek movie.

The original Shrek had all of the flatulence jokes the kids love and all of the pop cultural references that keep the adults from clawing their eyes out.  It had the wise-cracking sidekick.  It was a winning formula...

...that has been beaten into the ground for the last decade.  Call me a spoilsport, but almost every non-Pixar release for the last ten years has seemed like a pale imitation of that original Shrek.  It doesn't feel like Shrek has three sequels; it feels like it has dozens.  Ice Age.  Over the Hedge.  Open Season.  Shark Tale.  Ugh.

The Shrek series itself has never come close to the fun of the first.  It received a slight shot in the arm from the introduction of Puss in Boots, but Shrek ultimately became the very thing is was mocking: the excesses of cartoon marketing.  And the giddy, subversive thrill got sucked right out of Far Far Away.

Then a funny thing happened.  Over the last two years, computer animated movies became fun again.  Not by rediscovering that "Shrek formula" everyone had tried to copy, but by telling good, original stories.  I liked Monster House and Monsters vs. Aliens.  I love Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  I LOVE How to Train Your Dragon.  They are visually rich movies, with characters I care about and writing that serves the story and not the audience.  And nary a pop cultural reference or wise-cracking supporting character amongst them.

So it seems appropriate to me that this would be the moment for Shrek: The Final Chapter.  It is time to close the book on Shrek, Ice Age and the rest of the imitators out there.  Hopefully, we are entering a new era where computer animated films rely on good storytelling to engage audiences of all ages.  Hopefully.

Image from unrealitymag.com