DVD Movie Guide @ dvdmg.com Awards & Recommendations at Amazon.com.
.
Review Archive:  # | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z | Viewer Ratings | Main
DREAMWORKS

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Chris Miller, Raman Hui
Cast:
Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz
Writing Credits:
Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman, Chris Miller, Aron Warner

Synopsis:
Reluctantly designated as the heir to the land of Far, Far Away, Shrek hatches a plan to install the rebellious Artie as the new king while Princess Fiona tries to fend off a coup d'état by the jilted Prince Charming.

Box Office:
Budget
$160 million.
Opening Weekend
$121,629,270 on 4122 screens.
Domestic Gross
$322,719,944.

MPAA:
Rated PG.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audio:
English Dolby TrueHD 7.1
Portuguese Dolby 5.1
French Dolby 5.1
Spanish Dolby 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Spanish
French
Portuguese
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
English
Spanish
French
Portuguese

Runtime: 92 min.
Price: $19.98
Release Date: 9/23/2008

Bonus:
• Both 2D and 3D Versions
• “Spotlight on Fiona” Featurette
• “Secrets of Shrek the Third” Featurette
• Deleted Scenes
• “Worcestershire Academy Yearbook”
• “Shrek, Rattle and Roll”
• Previews


PURCHASE @ AMAZON.COM

EQUIPMENT
-LG OLED65C6P 65-Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart OLED TV
-Marantz SR7010 9.2 Channel Full 4K Ultra HD AV Surround Receiver
-Panasonic DMP-BD60K Blu-Ray Player
-Chane A2.4 Speakers
-SVS SB12-NSD 12" 400-watt Sealed Box Subwoofer


RELATED REVIEWS


Shrek The Third [Blu-Ray 3D] (2007)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (April 25, 2021)

Was it just me, or did 2007’s Shrek the Third hit screens with less fanfare than expected? After all, 2004’s Shrek 2 became that year’s biggest hit and took in $436 million in the US.

Without adjustment for inflation, only Titanic and Star Wars had earned more money as of 2007. Against that background, I’d have anticipated much more hype for Third.

In a summer packed with big-name sequels, though, Third got a little lost in the shuffle. Not that it did poorly, of course.

With a $320 million US gross, it became inevitable that we’d get a fourth chapter in the Shrek series. The movie simply failed to garner as much attention as you’d anticipate from a third chapter in such a hugely successful series.

At the film’s start, we saw what happened to Prince Charming (voiced by Rupert Everett), the defeated baddie of the second movie. Humiliated and left in exile, he dreams of revenge upon Shrek, and he decides on a new plan.

In the meantime, Shrek (Mike Myers) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) do their best to fill in for Far Far Away’s ailing king (John Cleese). When the ruler dies, he wants Shrek to take over as the new leader, but our ogre hero resists this call.

Instead, he prefers to find Arthur (Justin Timberlake), an awkward teen who also has a place in the royal lineage. This sets Shrek on a quest to find Arthur and place him on the throne – and also to deal with Fiona’s announcement that she’s pregnant.

While this occurs, Charming becomes the leader of all the various fairy tale villains. He appeals to them to create their own “happily ever after” and they take over Far Far Away. The movie follows these two main stories.

The first Shrek wasn’t great, but at least it managed to offer something different via its skewed take on famous fairy tales. Shrek 2 lacked the same sense of originality, and I still can’t quite account for its success. The movie presented some amusement but wasn’t anything particularly dynamic or inventive.

Against that backdrop, you should expect more of the same from Third. For better or for worse, this chapter falls into the same realm as its predecessors.

We get more lampooning of fairy tale characters and scenarios, though Third branches out into slightly different territory. The King Arthur legend may be mythological, but it feels like an odd piece to link to the world of ogres and talking animals.

Even if we accept that – and we probably should, since we’re willing to swallow so much - Third only intermittently succeeds. Actually, I think we find at least as many laughs as usual, and probably more.

Granted, the first two never amused me too much, but this one offers a decent number of chuckles. I particularly like two bits during the scene when Charming tries to find Shrek and Fiona.

We see Gingy’s life flash before his eyes in amusing fashion, and Pinocchio’s obfuscation is a hoot. A few other sequences also stand out as among the series’ funniest.

But plenty fall flat as well. We get too many of the usual bodily function jokes, and the attempts to show modern life in a fantasy setting get a little old. Yeah, these are inevitable and part of the series’ tendencies, but they start to sag after three movies.

One problem with a third chapter in a cinematic series comes from all the characters they amass. Third wants to give us most of the personalities from the first two flicks and add new ones as well.

This means some of our old favorites get a bit lost in the shuffle and don’t have much to do. Actually, the film balances them about as well as it could, but it would’ve worked better with fewer participants on display.

At least Third manages a reasonably concise and efficient story. With so many characters, it could’ve indulged in 47 different plot threads, but it really concentrates pretty heavily on the two I mentioned.

The issues with the heir and Charming’s revenge take the forefront, while Shrek’s family anxieties act more as a subtext. The movie blends the sides pretty well and ties them together semi-neatly in the end.

I must admit I could live without the parental aspects of Third, though. I think it would’ve been enough for Shrek to battle a sense of responsibility versus his natural inclination toward sloth and self-centeredness.

I guess the Arthur elements meant the filmmakers needed some payoff for Shrek other than as king, but I think the parental side of things feels forced – like it exists more as fodder for another sequel than as a natural story point.

I suppose if I directly compared the animation of Third with the original Shrek, I’d notice growth. However, it continues to feature the same look, for good and for bad.

On one hand, it’s positive that the series maintains a sense of continuity. We wouldn’t want a Shrek film that doesn’t fit in with the others.

Unfortunately, this means that many of the characters continue to look off-putting and odd. The human renderings still fare poorly, as they try too hard to be photo-real, and they just don’t work.

Poor Artie often looks like clay-mation more than anything else, and the moderate ugliness of the figures makes it tough to get into the story at times. I prefer the Pixar approach, which uses the advantages of CG animation but still manages to make its work look like cartoons.

If you read my reviews for the first two films, you’ll see that I thought both offered moderate entertainment but not much more. My feelings remain the same in regard to Shrek the Third.

This is a perfectly enjoyable film, though one that seems rather hit or miss much of the time. For every funny bit, there are plenty more than go nowhere. Third offers an amusing but forgettable 90 minutes.


The Blu-ray Grades: Picture B+/ Audio B+/ Bonus C-

Shrek the Third appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. No notable problems appeared here, but the image fell a bit short of greatness.

Most of the time, sharpness was strong. The vast majority of the flick showed tight, accurate delineation. However, a few wider shots could be a smidgen soft.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering materialized, and I noticed no edge enhancement. Source flaws also remained absent.

With its fantasy setting, Third boasted a broad palette, and it demonstrated very good color reproduction. The hues looked bright and dynamic throughout the film. Blacks were deep and firm, while shadows seemed decent.

They tended to be a little thick at times, unfortunately, and weren’t as consistent as I’d like. This was a very good transfer, but it just didn’t dazzle.

As for the Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack, it also worked well. Most of the material stayed in the ambient realm, as the elements usually just supported the settings in a general way.

A few action scenes managed to add activity from the sides and surrounds, and the entire track offered a good sense of place. The action sequences used all five channels in a satisfying manner and created a broad, involving sense of the material.

Audio quality was solid. Music sounded dynamic and full, and effects followed suit, as those elements appeared tight and accurate.

Speech came across as natural and concise, without edginess or other concerns. All in all, this was a very nice soundtrack.

This package includes the film in both 2D and 3D formats. The picture notes above reflect the 2D version – how did the 3D compare?

In terms of visual quality, the 3D looked fairly comparable to the 2D but a little notch below it. I saw a bit more softness, and the image felt slightly darker. These changes weren’t enormous, but the 3D picture didn’t match up to the same level as the 2D.

As for stereo presence, the 3D film showed a decent sense of depth and not much more. A few scenes with flying material showed good zing but much of the presentation remained pretty subdued.

All this left the 3D version as mediocre. The stereo visuals gave the movie a little more dimensionality, but its slightly weaker picture quality made matters a wash. The 3D wasn’t bad but it wasn’t memorable, either.

No extras appear on the Blu-ray, but the included DVD copy comes with some components. Spotlight on Fiona goes for nine minutes, 50 seconds and brings comments from directors Vicky Jenson, Mike Mitchell and Andrew Adamson, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberger, producers Teresa Cheng and Aron Warner, and actors Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Walt Dohrn and Mike Myers.

As expected, we get some notes about the Fiona character here. A smattering of decent notes emerge but we don’t find a lot of depth.

Secrets of Shrek the Third spans three minutes, 45 seconds and gives us a quick run-through of who performs a bunch of the movie’s roles as well as some Easter eggs. The hidden bits seem fun, but the rest feels like a glorified IMDB entry.

Three Deleted Scenes run a total of 18 minutes, 27 seconds. These include “The Fauxly Grail” (9:24), “Hot Lunch” (4:37), and “Cyrano De Artie” (4:26).

All three involve Artie at the fore. “Grail” offers a big action scene in which Artie must battle a dragon, while the second and third focus more on his love for Guinevere. “Doppelgangers” shows the gang on a missoin during which they encounter Gingy and Pinocchio imposters.

We don’t see these as fully-rendered animation – or even as storyreels. Instead, we watch the filmmakers’ pitch sessions during which they point to storyboards and act out the sequences. Of course, it’d be nice to see the scenes in a more finished form, but this format works fine. All fun to see.

Worcestershire Academy Yearbook provides an unusual interactive piece. It shows us high school yearbook entries for 30 characters. The presentation makes it a little tedious at times, but it presents enough creativity to amuse.

With Shrek, Rattle and Roll, we find two music clips. “Donkey Dance” features Donkey’s take on Men Without Hats’ “Safety Dance”. It runs a mere 33 seconds and seems mildly entertaining.

From Shrek the Musical, “Freak Flag” goes for three minutes, 57 seconds and brings a segment from the stage production. It doesn’t entice me to see the show.

If you liked the first two flicks, will you like Shrek the Third? Probably, as this chapter does little to alter the pre-established template. This is an amusing enough movie at times but not one that ever threatens to become especially memorable.

The Blu-ray brings us very good picture and audio along with a fairly minor selection of supplements. Third doesn’t do much for me as a movie, but this release brings it home in a satisfying enough manner, though the 3D doesn’t really add much to the proceedings.

To rate this film visit the original review review of SHREK THE THIRD

.
Review Archive:  # | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z | Viewer Ratings | Main