I am writing this as somebody who is not nostalgic for the franchise, despite really liking it. I saw Shrek 2 on TV a few times before Shrek 3 came out, and I give it four tree stars. I never saw Shrek 1 until college, but again 4 Tree Stars. I only made around 10 minutes into Shrek 3. Shrek 4 is incredibly divisive. It can be seen as another home run in a franchise that just has one hiccup in Shrek 3, the worst of the franchise, at least better than Shrek 3, or just an average movie. Time to see why.

This movie is full of callbacks to the first one, and that includes the opening with the book and part being ripped out. This time it is the villain, Rumplestiltskin reading it in anger due to the actual first scene. The King and Queen of Far Far Away were going to sign away the kingdom to him in return for freeing their daughter from the tower she is trapped in (if you are new to the franchise absolutely do not jump in with this one, something you can do with Shrek 2). Right before they sign the news come that Fiona has been saved, and they tear up the contract to Rumple's crying.

Unlike the other films this starts with dark coloring and uncomfortable angles to signal a darker film and tone.

We get to the ogre family, and I like this established dynamic. Shrek is happy with his family but the routine very slowly whittles away at him making him more and more frustrated. Part of the routine is a tour bus comes to look at the friendly ogres, and he clearly wants to be able to scare people again. I know there are tons of references tot he first film, but many other reviewers can describe that way better than me. Everything goes wrong at his triplets' first birthday party which includes a young "fan" demanding Shrek roar for him. Shrek is not happy with the chaos or the idea of having a fan, and he eventually gives in and gives a mighty roar. To his further anger instead of being scared everybody cheers. Fiona's mom was really unnecessarily cruel in this scene.

Shrek storms out and Fiona is frustrated at him. This contrasts Shrek's pure anger, as he tells her he wished he could go back before rescuing her, and Rumpelstiltskin heard the whole thing. Contrary to my fast recap these scenes are very slow and dramatic. It has a rocky ending as the words in that fight seem forced, but the rest can really capture the dullness of life at times or missing the nostalgic old days.

Rumpelstiltskin gets himself in trouble so Shrek saves him, and he then gets Shrek drunk to help him sign a contract. One day as a feared ogre in return for a day when he was a baby. This results in Shrek going back to the old days.

How I imagine myself when going to write these posts.

He does a rampage as the song "Top of the World" plays, and this scene is gold. It is a happy song about a man who has lost everything and has no idea. It also has hordes of foreshadowing of everything Shrek lost like his wife, his cat, his best friend, his reputation, and his children. All while he is so happily quoting the first movie.

Shrek goes to look at his wanted pictures, but he then sees that to his horror most of them are of Fiona, and they are everywhere. He then gets attacked and captured by witches. While being transported he sees Donkey is the pack animal, and his jokes make me wonder what Old McDonald did to him. They get to the castle at Far far Away, and Rumpelstiltskin is now the king there.

Notice they dried up the entire swamp.

There are many interpretations of this bad alternate universe, but here is mine- it is about the dangers of nostalgia. I normally disagree with this, but here I think that helps me to relate to Shrek.

Rumpelstiltskin (thank you spell check) reveals he took the day Shrek was born, meaning with nobody to save Fiona the king and queen signed the contract which ended their existence as well. Now Rumpelstiltskin rules with an iron fist, and he is incredibly pleased with his decorating designs.

He tells Shrek that when the day ends at sunrise Shrek will disappear from existence, but Shrek manages to escape and bring Donkey with him to his horror. It is clear that a Witch is worth less than an ogre in a fight.

Boy does this film have a lot of plot, and I do not have time to go into great detail about resolving everything so here are the general placements for everyone.

Donkey- He and Shrek reverse their meeting in the first film. Donkey is against befriending him until he sees Shrek crying. He is able to discover that the escape clause is true love's kiss, but he gets them captured by an army of ogres.

Fiona- She is leading the army of Ogres in resistance to Rumpelstiltskin. This is the only time in the franchise we see other Ogres. I presume that means they are solitary except in times of great need. She cares for nothing but her cause. She thinks Shrek is either insane or was given brain damage by Rumpelstiltskin. None of Shrek's moves from the first film work on her, and with nobody to rescue her she saved herself. This means she turns into a human during the day, and she keeps this hidden from the other ogres. On the bright side the other ogres love Donkey's jokes and no longer want to eat him.

Puss- Apparently he was sent to assassinate Fiona and like Shrek she instead made him her friend. This actually shows how great of a match Shrek and Fiona are, but she pampers him. This makes some surprisingly good fat jokes. Despite no longer being a fighter Puss is still very good at reading people, and he believes Shrek. He tries to help him, and Shrek's devotions to being a good soldier are working.

A few ogres have some personality, but the one I really like is Cookie. He has a stereotypical gay voice, which I dislike for a cook, but the lines, fun attitude in a dark film, and the delivery won me over.

A few viewers are mad the alternate universe was not explored more, but I disagree. This is a character based movie, and I like that it keeps the focus on the four main characters of the franchise.

Next the comic relief comes from the villains, and I love these jokes. Rumpelstiltskin tortures the witches with a glass of water, and their smug expressions become pure horror. They do the typical fake good boss gig where he kills one, but he immediately then realizes her idea of getting a bounty hunter is good. He calls in The Pied Piper and pays him in advance. We get more laughs, as he shows his power by forcing the mocking witches to dance. He can also control inanimate objects (Orpheus could also do that with his music), but he never uses that against the heroes.

On a related note The Pied Piper can be seen as a hero or villain from the folk tale. All the modern takes I see make him a villain, so I would like for one to make him a hero.

This leads to the best scene in the movie. Shrek is making moves on Fiona that are not working, but then they start dancing. Shrek insists it is love, but Fiona disagrees. The Pied Piper is making all ogres dance to "Shake Your Booty" into prison, and this is so great. Cookie makes an important and wise choice. If he is going to be danced into prison against his will he might as well enjoy every second of it.

I appreciate a guy who can smile in the face of certain defeat.

Puss and Donkey get Shrek and Fiona away from the music, but everybody else is captured. Tired of Shrek saying she has to kiss him she kisses him and nothing happens. I will say it, this is a better deconstruction of this trope than Frozen. She leaves on a suicide mission to rescue her army, as Shrek slumps in despair.

This changes when Gingy attacks him. He discovers from him that Rumpelstiltskin is offering a reward of one free wish to anybody who brings Shrek in. We get some comical scenes of side characters bringing in fake Shreks (Pinocchio has the best one), but Shrek comes in to claim the reward.

He cannot undo his contract but he frees the other ogres. If he cannot get his reality back he wants to at least save Fiona and her cause. For his capture he demands and gets the release of the ogres. However since Fiona is only an ogre by night she is kept in prison to Shrek's fury.

This is a great torture by Rumpelstiltskin. When ever they try to get closer the connected chains pushes the other away. It is now that Fiona is won by Shrek only for them both to be kept apart.

The ogres, Puss, and Donkey plot a way to get it and rescue them. (I would go to the Muffin Man to get lots of dough since it is full of water. Since people are mostly water shouldn't hugging a witch kill her?). Donkey knows Rumpelstiltskin is buying a new decoration to replace one Shrek destroyed earlier so they hide in it when it is delivered.

Still more mobile than my last orange cat.

We begin the climax as the villains are about to feed Shrek and Fiona to Dragon, but Donkey, Puss, and the ogres arrive. Donkey tries to woo his wife, but she eats him only for Puss to save him.

Shrek and Fiona use their chains and Shrek's knowledge of child care to defeat Dragon (it makes sense in context) to defeat the dragon, and Rumpelstiltskin is losing badly.

We all know Cookie and chimichanga cart were the real MVPs.

Shrek finishes him off and like the good husband lets Fiona be the one to heroically catch him and get credit for the victory. Then comes the expected but still sad scene where Shrek is kissed right before he disappears, and Fiona stays an Ogre in the morning (how does her curse work during an eclipse?). Shrek then vanishes into golden flakes and so does the rest of the alternate universe.

I have heard jokes and statements that Avengers Endgame ripped this movie off. I have not seen Endgame nor do I intend on ever watching it, thus I sadly cannot judge.

Then the movie starts to fall part as everything vanishes. This cursed world going away is more scary than it should be, and Rumpelstiltskin looks so heart broken to see his beloved goose disappear. Then back at the real world Shrek should go back to when he signed... No he goes to the roar so he can undo his mistakes, but it still has the sweet scene with his babies. Then it is a dance party ending with a little fine imagery. Even all the ogres and other alternate universe characters are there, but the problem is Fiona kills Rumpelstiltskin's goose in front of him. That is just cruel.

This movie has several hiccups in the post-climax and opening action, but the middle, beginning of the end, and end of the beginning are rock solid. It is the third best in the series and a low 4 Tree Star film. My brother was disinterested, but dad and I really enjoyed it.

Next time on June 15th I will attempt to answer a question I posed in my review of The Land Before Time XI. Was it a spiritual remake of The Land Before Time II?

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