5.7 | / 10 |
Users | 4.4 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.2 |
When his new father-in-law King Harold falls ill, Shrek is seen as the heir to the land of Far, Far Away. Not one to give up his beloved swamp, Shrek recruits his friends Donkey and Puss in Boots to install the rebellious Artie as the new king. Princess Fiona, however, rallies a band of royal girlfriends to fend off a coup d'etat by the jilted Prince Charming.
Starring: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Julie AndrewsFamily | 100% |
Adventure | 92% |
Animation | 82% |
Fantasy | 71% |
Comedy | 70% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 2.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Here we have the latest installment in a rather dubious legacy; Shrek the Third or, The Further Adventures of One Very Lucky Ogre. I'm sure most will not require a refresher course on the commercial darling of DreamWorks Animation, but bear with me. Debuting in 2001, Shrek was a CG animated feature loosely based off the children's book of the same name by William Steig. Telling the story of a hermitic swamp-dwelling ogre whose territory is overrun by displaced faerie tale creatures, the film was a wild and biting parody of the many cultural clichés stemming from classic children's literature. Specifically, Shrek was aimed squarely at the legacy of Disney animated features - many of which are based on the age-old tales. The film served as a sort of vendetta by one Jeffrey Katzenberg, a former Disney honcho who was booted out in a battle royale over corporate power. Still licking his wounds, Katzenberg - one of three founders of DreamWorks SKG productions, the parent entity of DreamWorks Animation - produced Shrek with then-partner Pacific Data Images in an effort to turn the faerie tale genre on its ear. The film's cynical attitude and somewhat novel premise proved to be a winning formula, and Shrek went on to gross nearly $500 million worldwide. This began an entire animated phenomenon from the studio, starting with Shrek 2 in 2004, wherein the eponymous hero must meet his in-laws and contend with the scheming Fairy Godmother. Oh, the fun never stops!
In the years following the first film's enormous success, DreamWorks has certainly been trying their damndest to oversaturate the market with Shrek mania. Three feature films have been released thus far, with three more planned. The television Christmas special Shrek the Halls debuted on the ABC network last year. A stage musical adaptation just opened on the United States' west coast, with plans to open on Broadway in December. Countless amounts of merchandise and licensed deals for everything under the sun have been produced and sold. And one does not have to be a Merlin to divine that DreamWorks will continue their reckless pace with the big green ogre until he ceases to be lucrative. Perhaps the mediocre Shrek the Third is the beginning of the end?
"So what do you think of my high definition croc skin, mamita?"
Shrek the Third makes its debut on Blu-ray Disc with an AVC encoding averaging about 30 Mbps. Being a film fresh out of 2007 with completely digital origins, Shrek the Third looks excellent in this high definition transfer. The lushly detailed environments are done incredible justice in this release, with every rough surface or flower petal visible from any distance. The hyper-realism that DreamWorks employs on its human character designs in the Shrek series is quite plain to see here, with a hint of creepiness that hovers over the Uncanny Valley. The incredible amount of fur detail on Puss and Donkey, or the scaly hide of his mate Dragon, or even the pores and stubbly "shadow" on the face of the title ogre himself are so distinct, they may prove a bit distracting at times should one catch themselves marveling.
Colors are reproduced well throughout - even the pervasive golden lighting on characters, which became a bit annoying after a while, truth be told. Still, it was the choice of one co-director or another to use those warm tones, and the Blu-ray captures them well. Shadow detail is excellent, and no compression artifacts or transfer flaws of any sort are apparent. Overall, this film looks quite superb on Blu-ray, but is there a CG animated film yet to be released that doesn't look stellar in high definition?
Boasting a nice array of audio options, Shrek the Third provides an English track in Dolby TrueHD 5.1, as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks in Spanish, Portuguese, and French. The TrueHD mix does well in creating a believable soundscape for the film overall. Dialogue is clear and projects nicely from the center channel and the fronts, wherever the character's position calls. Scoring, as well as the film series' signature flavor-of-the-moment pop songs, play over the action but never drown it out. The rear channels do a fine job of engulfing the viewer in the ambient noise of rushing water, the ethereal flow of magic, or the discord of action scenes. Likewise, the LFE adds appropriate weight to the action onscreen without overdoing bass effects. This Blu-ray has an impressive aural presentation that does justice for its excellent picture quality.
Shrek the Third comes to Blu-ray with a good supply of extra features, although very few are especially substantial. With one exception, all of the included material is provided in high definition. At the top of the list is the Animators Corner, a picture-in-picture feature that plays the entire film in its storyboard form along with the finished product. At certain points, the disc uses branching technology to play pitches of deleted scenes. Two additional features are available during playback of the film, though the ubiquitous audio commentary is surprisingly excluded this time around; one can only wonder why DreamWorks decided to boot any filmmaker insight for Shrek the Third's home video release. In any case, Shrek's Trivia Track provides many a tidbit on the film's production and characters. Additionally, The World of Shrek focuses all creatures great and small within the ogre's fictional world, compiling profiles and favorites for everyone from Fiona to the Three Little Pigs. It's a bit of odd choice making this feature available only while the film is running, but hey.
Shrek's Guide to Parenthood is a skippable novelty featuring tips in the form of text screens from Donkey, Puss in Boots, Pinocchio, and Gingy the Gingerbread Man on how to handle children and any problems that may arise from them. Meet the Cast, the only standard definition featurette on the disc, runs about 11 minutes. The breezy segment looks at the celebrity voice talent behind the film's main characters, as well as the comic women (many of whom are Saturday Night Live alumni) who voice the gang of faerie tale princesses. Lost Scenes is the longest of the disc's supplements, with 26 minutes worth of concepts that never made it beyond storyboard form. The four scenes - "Fauxly Grail," "Hot Lunch," "Cyrano de Artie," and "Dopplegangers," are pitched by their respective board artists and focus mainly around Artie's character development. Whether it's his infatuation with Guinevere or attempts by Shrek to boost his morale, it seems that spending valuable runtime to flesh Artie out a bit became less of a priority, as his very superficial character in the final film could attest. The tired gags and listless, generic action contained in these sequences certainly didn't help to make them more appealing.
The Tech of Shrek discusses the differences in Shrek the Third versus the previous two films. More complex musculature, hair, textiles, and effects work like water, fire, and the plasmic beams of magic show a distinct improvement in the ogre's latest iteration, while lighting, crowds, and environments have become more complex as the technology has evolved to allow it. As an example, Shrek took 5 million CPU render hours to complete, Shrek 2 took 10 million, and Shrek 3 took a whooping 20 million. Of course, among those millions of rendering hours, mistakes will occur due to incorrect or corrupted data, and the more amusing results end up on Big Green Goofs, which showcases 2 minutes worth of hairstyles going crazy or limbs defying the laws of physics.
The remaining extras are pure novelty or kiddie fluff. The Donkey Dance is a short 30 second clip of Donkey shaky his furry butt to his own rendition of the 1982 single "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats. It comes out left field, frankly - there was nothing from the film itself that spawned this little "music video," and it can only be speculated that it was meant for some promotional tie-in or another. My Menus allows the viewer to pick the theme of the pop-up menu should they select it during the film. Choices range from the original "skin" to character specific menus featuring Shrek, Fiona, Donkey, Puss-in-Boots, or Gingy. The DreamWorks Animation Video Jukebox contains music segments from eight of DreamWorks' most recent CG animated features, with all of the clips presented in high definition.
The DWK (DreamWorks Kids) section contains three rather disparate features. Merlin's Magic Crystal Ball is nothing but a set-top game version of a Magic Eight Ball. You ask a yes or no question and press a button, resulting in a random positive or negative response from Merlin. Learn the Donkey Dance is little more than the aforementioned clip played repeatedly with simplistic instructions like "jump" or "shake your behind." Finally, How To Be Green is a 4 minute feel-good list of tips on how to live in a more ecologically friendly manner. I'm all for a paradigm shift in the way we humans interact with our environment, but this odd little clip, hidden away in the kid's section, just feels like a throwaway corporate obligation more than a genuine effort at education.
Although the Shrek films have enjoyed a fine amount of popularity in their time, Shrek the Third clearly shows that the series is wearing out its welcome. Perhaps it is because the production changed hands this time around, but whatever the case, the film is a whole different beast from the other two, and not in a good way. Full of a confusing quantity of characters, subplots, and "talking head" moments, Shrek the Third never gels into a cohesive whole. Be that as it may, the Blu-ray release boast excellent picture and sound, and a good quantity of supplemental features, if not exactly quality. This is recommended for the die-hard Shrek fan, or as a rental for the curious.
2007
2007
Family Icons
2007
With Family Icons
2007
2007
2007
2004
2010
20th Anniversary Edition
2001
2011
Collector's Edition
2012
Ultimate Collector's Edition
2016
2014
PIXAR
2010
2008
Ultimate Collector's Edition
2013
2013
2011
2016
Ultimate Collector's Edition
2010
2008
1995
1999
2011
2017
2001