Reviewed by Alicia Glass

Studio: Dreamworks Entertainment

MPAA Rating: PG

Director: Mike Mitchell

Review Rating: 8 Melting Witches

Big bad green ogre Shrek, bogged down with married life and fatherhood, makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin, for one day of what it’s like to be a true ogre, at a huge price.

I’m a big fan of the Shrek movies, the series that parodies every single last fairy tale we grew up on, in a manner that both children and adults can appreciate. The third Shrek movie wasn’t quite as good as the first two, since the focus was mainly on Arthur and his whole becoming King quest thing. This fourth and final movie focuses entirely on what might-have-been and presents Shrek and company in a whole new, much darker, world. Most of us know that the story of Rumplestilskin, either the modern or even the older original version, was a very dark story, and this movies Rumple is no exception. Granted he’s like a tiny Troll and changes wigs while he rants, but nothing says we can’t make fun of the main villain anyways.

So Shrek is overwhelmed with a mid-ogre crisis and family bliss, fondly remembering times when he was chased with torch and pitchfork, feared across the land as a truly scary ogre. And caught in a moment of real (arranged) weakness, Shrek signs a contract with Rumpelstiltskin wherein he’s promptly duped into a much darker version of Far Far Away, where Rumpel rules, ogres are being hunted down, and Shrek and Fiona never even met. Shrek is fairly promptly captured and the one driving the cart to wherever the ogres are taken turns out, of course, to be that annoying talking Donkey, who serves as the makeshift radio for the witches driving the cart. Rumpel is off in his Taj Mahal palace look-alike, being served by a whole bunch of witches like police, hunting down ogres in the night. Shrek manages to clumsily escape, only to finally be found by a whole bunch of other ogres, being led by, oh it was inevitable, Fiona herself. She looks much different too, now all dressed up with wild-spirit red hair and Celtic fighting gear, but she’s still the same Fiona with the same curse that only Shrek can actually lift. And that, the true love that Shrek and Fiona share, is what finally saves everyone, despite what Shrek did, and the big green crazy ogre plus the rest of the audience is soundly reminded, to treasure what you have, you never know when it will all just up and disappear!

Shrek Forever After gets a rating of 8 Melting Witches! Dark, dank and delightful, this movie was a really great one to end the series on! And yes, I know the film was offered in 3D – I did not watch it that way. Check out the trailer below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7__TG7swg0]