Ryan McNeil
As my basketball game went to halftime last night, I grabbed my remote and searched for something to watch. I landed on ABC, a channel that has already gone full-swing with their Christmas Specials schedule. Much to my dismay, last night’s choice was a new animated special called SHREK THE HALLS. This thing disappointed me for so many reasons.
The empire that is “Shrek” saddens me these days. When the first one came out in 2001, I was one of its biggest fans. With just the right amount of celebrity voices, SHREK was beautiful, clever, and most of all – funny. Much of it was obviously inspired by Jeffrey Katzenberg’s ugly split with Disney…but a lot of that was what made it so funny. It went head-to-head with Disney’s own CG monster movie, MONSTERS INC., and won the fight handily. Then it became a victim of its own success.
SHREK 2 was still amusing, but not nearly as entertaining as the original. Don’t even get me started about the mess that was SHREK THE THIRD. Every chapter has added more characters, and more celebrity voices. As a result, the films are starting to mirror what happens to a comic book franchise when you add too many villains; everything becomes watered down, and what could have been stretched over three or four movies is jammed into two. Unfortunately we aren’t through with the series – SHREK GOES FOURTH is slated for a 2010 release.
If SHREK THE HALLS was at least entertaining, I could forgive the steaming swamp-heap that were the last two movies (Though I will give it credit for giving The Three Little Pigs some good lines). Unfortunately, it was a silly rehash of a grump who needs to be taught the meaning of Christmas. Interestingly, SHREK THE HALLS was followed by THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS, which stood in stark contrast of what a Christmas special is supposed to be, especially if you want it to be one with any sort of shelf life.