Shrek - Special Edition [VHS] [2001]

Antz was the last animated film from Dreamworks, and despite being very cleverly scripted and appealing to audiences on many levels, Disney's A Bugs Life was possibly the better film. Shrek has turned the tables on Disney though, both technically and in sheer viewing pleasure.

The film is just outstanding. It's fun to watch for kids, because it's a fairytale about rescuing a princess from a castle and a fierce dragon; it's fun to watch for adults because of the clever script - much of which thankfully passes over the heads of my kids. There are lots of opportunities to poke fun at Uncle Walt - why does Lord Farquaad's castle have turnstiles on the door, I wonder?

The animation is wonderfully detailed. It's not photo-realistic (the animators explain in one of the 'featurettes' that they had to pull back from making the human characters too realistic, so that they fitted into the fairytale visual ambiance), but it is immensely detailed - to the degree that individual pores are detailed on Shrek's face, and droplets of water are individually animated.

There are a couple of witty extras on the DVD - the animated characters talk (in the manner of film actors everywhere) of how pleased they were to work on the film, and of their future plans, and there's a karaoke montage of the characters singing disco hits. Robin Hood and his Merry Men singing Y.M.C.A. is a sight not soon to be forgotten.

This is the movie that has made $472 m at the box office and has made $420 m in two months of DVD and video sales. This is the gift that everybody got for Christmas. This is the gift I gave everybody for Christmas. This is the DVD I got for Christmas and this is the movie I've seen about six times so far BUT it doesn't matter how many times you watch Shrek, it still amuses, it still entertains and it doesn't ever disappoint. It has that rare quality of appealing to both children and adults, which is extremely beneficial if you have kids who liked to watch movies over and over and over again.

It is a beautifully written send up of Disney films, fairytales, and other movies, with so many clever visual and verbal jokes; only some of which (thankfully) kids will understand. All of which adults (with a sense of humour) will love. It is a perfectly cast movie with Mike Myers voicing the mild-mannered ogre Shrek and Eddie Murphy in his best form for many a year as his sidekick donkey. John Lithgow stars as the villain Lord Farquaad and Cameron Diaz voices the feisty Princess Fiona. They are all magnificent but it was a stroke of genius to cast Myers and Murphy together as they spark off each other and excel with comic ad-libs.

Whats more the extras on this DVD are just magnificent. There are games, deleted scenes, behind the scenes stuff, hilarious fake interviews etc. etc. and with reported sales of the DVD worldwide, at 10m and rising, Dreamworks have put together a fantastic package and really hit the jackpot. I don't know anybody, young or old who doesn't like this movie and for once I'm pretty happy to be in the majority.