Shrek

Rating:
Summary: SHREK: Great Movie. Weak DVD.
Review: Ah, SHREK. One of the outright funniest movies I've ever seen, and truly evilotionary in the world of computer animation, it gets an undisputed five stars. But, alas, the DVD is not up to par. Here's why.

* The menus are very cute, and the gags in them are just as great as the movie's. (For example, Pinnochio says "There aren't any special features here," and unsuprisingly his nose grows.) But the menu is exactly the same on both discs, scratch the one menu item on the firist disc titled "DWK: DreamWorks Kids - The Way to Play!" This, to me, is boring. Why can't they create a second menu for disc two?

* Filmmaker's commentary is only on the second disc, which contains the widescreen version of the movie. I don't like widescreen much (I don't have a widescreen TV, so having it in that format makes it all distorted), and prefer to watch the fullscreen edition found on disc one. If only the commentary came on disc one as well!

* Oh, yeah, there's the fact that you have to go all the way to disc two for the theatrical trailer. Also, this is not the trailer I remember seeing, and I know they had more than one. Why couldn't they put them both on the DVD?

* On Disc 1 there's a bonus feature titledd 'Sneak Peak Trailer.' When I read this, I expected the original Shrek trailer, or, even better, a sneak peak look at Shrek 2, which is sceduled for release in 2004. Instead, it's a trailer for another completly different DreamWorks project, called "Spirit," which is said to come out in 2002.

* The DWK features ("Dress the Gingerbread Man," "Ask the Magic Mirror," "Character Morph," "Dress the Gingerbread Man," etc.), are not very entertaining at all, and once you play them, you don't get much out of them if you play again. Exept for the triva game, I think they're a waste of space on the first disc, space which could have been used to include the commentary on disc one.

* The claimed "Extended Ending" is instead a DVD/VHS bonus feature and doesn't fit in with the actulal movie. Although it is quite entertaining in its own right, it's not part of the film, and it shouldn't be called part of it.

* The Spanish audio option is good to have there, but the voices sound pale and boring when compared to the English version. Same with the French audio option.

* It costs too much for the weak bonus features that you get, although the behind the scenes featurette and kareoke dance party are very, very funny.

This about sums up my problems with this weak DVD, although the movie itself recieves 5 stars. If you want a better family DVD, I strongly suggest Disney's platnum edition DVD presentation of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."

Rating:
Summary: Do you know the Muffin Man?
Review: Funny, funny movie. I had a great time with this one. This is one of those where I didn't see it in the theatre so I took a chance and bought it anyway on DVD. Thankfully, I had a great time with this one. Technically, the film looks sharp with great character animation all-around. Meanwhile, Shrek's a fun, well-cast movie with humor that will please both young and old, without going too over-the-top. I came unglued during the Gingerbread Man interrogation scene. Thankfully, this slick DVD has chapter stops so I could watch the scene again and catch the portions I missed while I was laughing so hard. And I knew I had a winner when I watched it again and the scene was just as funny.

Mike Myers is excellent as the title character and Murphy is a delight as Donkey. The DVD has some real nice extras. You should check it out.

Rating:
Summary: Shrek-Good Animated Movie For Adults -- NOT FOR KIDS
Review: My wife and I went to see this one in the theater while the kids (aged 5 and 8) were out of town. Knowing it was PG, we wanted to review it before the kids saw it. From the viewpoint of adults, it was a great comedic fairy tale.

But showing this to children is a bad idea for two reasons:
-vulgarity. Eddie Murphy's character uses words we don't use in our house. If I hear my children's friends using these words, we tell their parents about it.
-rudeness. The three main characters treat each other with disrespect and sarcasm that is not appropriate for small children to experience. Many modern kids movies do this (Hercules, for example), but my kids don't have to see it.

Rating:
Summary: Overdone cartoon
Review: I probably would have given this 4 stars on its merit, but I was severly disappointed by Dreamwork's animation here. Here they totally missed the mark--even a computer animated cartoon should be a cartoon. Lord Farquar for example is maddenly realistic and yet not at all realistic.

Look at Snow white's innocense and the simplicity of its animation. Take Pinocchio and the water scenes that you believe because they're not too real. Dreamworks tries too hard to make things look real and limits your imagination.

There were great comical moments, but they have done much better story-lines in the past. It's definately a worthwhile movie and I don't regret buying it, but it will never be a top ten for me.

Rating:
Summary: This is a Cartoon my grandma loved....
Review: Truely the first movie that every single person in my family loved and enjoyed and there where no complaints.... Evem my grandma who falls asleep during all films loved this movie... True Family entertainment for the whole family and I feel every house hold should have this movie, no matter what age, it is that good..... 5 stars and nothing less.....

Rating:
Summary: I Wanted to Cry . . .
Review: (warning: no spellcheck used.)

This movie would have been OK except for the donkey.
He was the only character with a modern day "lowerclass black american" accent.

He incidentally was lazy, stupid and greedy as well. I'm not a psychologist, but this made me feel really bad. I went with a friend, and he felt uncomfortable, too.

It's become acceptable to associate negative traits with certain dialects. For instance an "appalachian" or deep southern accent with ignorance and baseness.

My review is not going to change anything; but I hope that people with children teach their little ones to judge people based on their actions, character and intellect--instead of making assumptions based on the way they speak.

Thanks,

Joanne

Rating:
Summary: Shrek Is Funny
Review: If you like Austin Powers type humor you'll be happy...

Rating:
Summary: The bird scene alone is worth 5 stars...
Review: This is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. My wife was baking cookies at the time we watched it, and I heard several loud bursts of laughter coming from the kitchen from her just listening to it.

I almost had an aneurysm on the "singing to the bird" scene. Had to rewind several times. The princess simply steals the show here, and in the "Matrix" scene. "This would be a lot easier if I weren't color blind", and several other Eddie Murphy ad-libs also are worth good laughs.

Adults and teens will get more from the humor, although I'm sure little kids love the animation. I personally don't let my little kids watch movies with so-called "mild" profanity, so they didn't see this one. (I think there's only two words).

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie
Review: This was a great movie - I loved it and I'm over 30!

Rating:
Summary: How much toilet humor can you stand?
Review: I expected this film to be clever and witty, more like Toy Story or Antz. I don't see the difference between this and many of the weak comedy entries this year. This felt like a studio trying to break in to the smart funny Pixar world, and failing. After Prince of Egypt I expected something classier and better quality than this dreck. I can't believe this was the highest grossing movie of the year. And even worse- critics have given it high marks! I just don't get it.