Our verdict on Shrek The Third

Posted by Boyd on Monday 21 May 2007

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Because our film editor Chas Gant is in Cannes watching documentaries about bestiality, I got to go to the first screening of Shrek The Third! And while the American critics have been lukewarm about the green ogre's new adventure, generally deciding it's the worst of the franchise so far, the feeling in our row was that it's still a winning combination of kiddie-friendly slapstick and more adult-oriented gags (including a rather complicated, but brilliantly conceived, dream sequence in which Shrek imagines being swamped by hundreds of mini-Shrek babies). As far as I'm concerned, any film which features computer-animated frogs singing along to Paul McCartney's Live And Let Die has got to be a winner, while my seven-year-old niece declared  it "the best Shrek so far", even after her mother had insisted she didn't have to say that in front of her uncle just because he'd got the tickets. Best of all, my five-year-old nephew summed up the attitude of a generation when he sat on my lap as the movie was about to start, and – just as the Dreamworks logo appeared on screen – whispered in my ear "Is Shrek 4 out yet?"