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Published: 01 July 2010
by DAN CARRIER

HAPPY birthday, Shrek: it’s been 10 years since Mike Myers voiced the big green ogre, and hasn’t he aged well?

While films often get tired after a sequel, this one – number four in the adventure – proves that if the original premise is fun, and you have a team of writers willing to find a freshness to the tales, then series are not always the evil brother  of originality.

Add to this the fact there is now a new generation of little people ready to be charmed by Shrek, and you can only conclude it’s as good as anything the star-studded cast have come up with: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Julie Andrews, Antonio Banderas and John Cleese all reprise their original roles with verve.

It is charming, beauti­fully created, and runs for just about the right amount of time – at 90 minutes, the story careers along nicely and the little ones it is aimed at will not get too restless.

The action starts at a birthday party for Shrek and Fiona’s triplets, three horrible looking creatures that are the apple of their parents’ eyes. But the never-ending nappy changing, tourist carriages coming past their swamp home to get a glimpse of the famous ogres at play, and general non-ogre-like activity are getting our green hero down. He is, frankly, having a mid-life crisis. 

Enter the gloriously evil Rumpelstiltskin. We learn he has already tried to trick Shrek’s in-laws, the king and queen of Far, Far, Away into signing over their kingdom in return for him lifting the curse Princess Fiona was saddled with. It didn’t work, because of Shrek, and so now he is out to get his own back.

Rumpelstiltskin offers Shrek the chance to live one day as an ogre, a proper ogre who doesn’t have to change nappies and can instead about frightening people, in return for a day of his life. 

The film is incredible to look at. In this world of Avatar, of weekly new releases boasting CGI, there is still something fresh about the animation here. Rumpelstiltskin has a team of witches that keep him safe, and they are hilarious: zipping around on broomsticks, strutting their way through Rumpel­stilt­skin’s palace on his own personal giant dance floor and generally kick­ing up a right old green-skinned stink. 

They are my new fav­ourite cartoon baddies.