Shrek Reviews

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Quotes From Mainstream Press Reviews of Shrek:

Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times - "Like many movies nowadays, Shrek is a blistering race through pop culture, and what the movie represents is a way to bring the brash slob comedy of 'The Simpsons' and 'South Park,' as well as the institutional irreverence of 'Saturday Night Live,' to a very young audience. This leads to some very funny scenes, like the torture of the Gingerbread Man..."

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times - "...Still, all the craft in the world would not have made Shrek work if the story hadn't been fun and the ogre so lovable. Shrek is not handsome but he isn't as ugly as he thinks; he's a guy we want as our friend, and he doesn't frighten us but stir our sympathy. He's so immensely likable that I suspect he may emerge as an enduring character, populating sequels and spinoffs. One movie cannot contain him."

David Elliott of San Diego Union-Tribune - "...In place of ye olde Arthurian magic, it has sitcom zingers and rock tunes, while Farquaad carries on a vendetta against 'fairy tale trash' and the tiny Gingerbread Man shouts 'Eat me' there are lyrics about sushi, hot tubs, piña coladas. The cleverness, though adroit, seems pitched very hard to the wiseguys in high school. The zippy fun with a snake and a frog is cute, but must the beauty of the stars at night be used for a flatulence joke?..."

Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter - "Shrek is best compared with Dumbo, one of the most charming cartoons made at Disney Studios under Walt Disney's aegis. Both play the tale of 'The Ugly Duckling' for all its worth. But instead of a tiny elephant with huge ears, the title character in Shrek is an ogre -- green, ornery, nasty-looking and foul-smelling, and, what's worse, he has terrible table manners...the fantasy worlds conjured up by these computer magicians are brilliantly surreal with tiny, tiny details coming alive in unexpected and delightful ways."

Mike Caro of the Chicago Tribune - "...Although it reportedly makes technological advances in the art of computer animation, Shrek isn't nearly as visually pleasing as the Pixar/Disney collaborations (the Toy Story duo, A Bug's Life). A few set pieces wow, such as Shrek's and Donkey's over-the-lava bridge crossing and their subsequent showdown with the dragon, but in general the look is rather dim and drab..."

Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times - "As the more wised-up version of that wised-up modern fairy tale, Shrek, the film, is all comic attitude, all the time. Casual, carefree, consistently amusing, it plays a lot like the earlier Aladdin, which Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio, lead writers and co-producers here, also wrote. Like Aladdin, which did wonderful things with Robin Williams as the irrepressible genie, "Shrek" is blessed with Eddie Murphy as a motor-mouth donkey named, well, Donkey..."

Todd McCarthy of Daily Variety - "Shrek is an instant animated classic. Rudely sending up even the most beloved fairy tale traditions while at the same time effectively embodying them, this spirited and often very funny lark accomplishes something that most films in the bygone Hollywood studio era used to do but is remarkably rare in today's world of niche markets: it offers entertainment equally to viewers from 4 to 104. This story of an ogre's odyssey from contented oblivion to unexpected love will make out like a Prince Charming wherever it plays, representing a bonanza for DreamWorks theatrically and forever after in home-viewing markets..."

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone - "Forget the in-jokes, the moral messages about beauty being skin-deep (No! Really?) and the rock soundtrack. By the time Smash Mouth sings the Monkees' hit 'I'm a Believer,' you'll be a believer, too...Shrek is a world-class charmer that could even seduce the Academy when it hands out the first official animation Oscar next year..."

Jane Sumner of the Dallas Morning News - "...From its irreverent opening, the potty humor will grab little kids. The swamp-dwelling ogre not only lights a cone of earwax for a candle, but also lowers his big bottom into a lake and gasses hapless fish. For adults, there's a witty tale and amazingly detailed animation. Check out the facial expressions, flowing hair, grass, flames and fluids..."

Cameron Meier of the Orlando Weekly - "...the film spends so much time being cleverly hip and spoofing all things Disney that it struggles to find its own identity. The plot is little more than a simple fable with the cliché message of not judging a book by its cover thrown in, which is ironic since the movie spends most of its time trying to both lambaste and turn on its ear conventional fairy-tale animation..."

Newsweek (May 7, 2001 issue - page 62) - Adapted from a children's book, Shrek is an irreverent comedy which sets out to flip conventional fairy tales on their heads, writes Film Critic David Ansen. He describes the animated movie as "hilarious" and "captivating," adding that it is "the wittiest and most endearing Hollywood animated movie since Toy Story 2."

Daniel Fox of the Harvard University Crimson - "...Speaking of computer animation, the movie is done entirely in computer graphics, and yes, some of the visuals are quite stunning. However, it should be noted that there is yet to be a computer-animated movie with believable human forms. The men and women in Shrek often appear to move like possessed nutcrackers. Actually, the movie itself is a possessed nutcracker: an old children's concept trying to pull some new tricks. Shrek may not turn the traditional animated movie upside-down, but at least it turns it on its side."