Shrek 2

Shrek 2

I still remember when I first saw Shrek and promptly coughed up a lung. Continually funny, a brilliant story and great characters. I remember when I bought it on DVD and watched it about 10 times in a month. Everybody I know loves Shrek. As this is the case, I was very interested to see what they could do with the big green ogre next. Luckily, it doesn't disappoint.
There was always going to be a massive interest in the second outing of donkey, Fiona and the lovable Shrek. With it being family friendly material, the age span of the audience was huge and that's why the first took the world by storm. Jokes for all ages, film references, cute characters and famous voices galore. Shrek 2 has the lot.

The film continues from where the first left off. Shrek and Fiona on their honey moon, before returning back to their swamp! A hilarious montage sequence involving a fantastic Disney mickey-take (no pun intended!). This leads straight into a Lord of the rings spoof which finished me off. Crying with laughter, it was one of those moments which begged for being rewound and watched again immediately.

After sunning themselves silly, the couple get back to the swamp to life happily ever after and but straight into donkey. The annoying little furry animal has a surprise for fiona when he gives her the post. A letter from Mum and Dad a.k.a the king and Queen of far far away. From then on, the film becomes a animated version of meet the parents. As the now threesome, make their merry way to Fiona's folks, a contender for funniest bit of the film appears. Donkey at his most annoying. The reactions from the actor's voices mixed with the superb subtle facial expressions from Shrek and Donkey exactly replicate what it would be like in real life. Juvenile in some ways, but absolutely hilarious.

The the film then continues as the relationships between the King (John Clesse), Queen (Julie Andrews), the fairy godmother (Jennifer Saunders) and Prince charming (Rupert Everett). Tossing and towing between the films central characters, its amazing how the film manages to stay simple. The film is slightly darker than the first,with more of an enemy figure as an adversary for Shrek and co. But, with more characters comes lots of different laughs. The introduction of Antonio Banderas as Puss-In-Boots adds another element to the relationship between donkey and Shrek, but also gives even more laugh out loud moments.

The soundtrack is as good as the first, with differing versions of well known songs. And the musical numbers within the film, are well done and also pick away at Disney's back catalogue. Look out for a brilliant Beauty and the Beast jibe. The animation is amazing and possibly even better than the first. The story is simple, yet effective and the actors have done another superb job into adding as much humor as possible into the short running time.

Quite different from the first, yet quite similar in other ways, Shrek 2 has already made millions and will no doubt continue to make more throughout the world and on DVD. Definitely as funny as the first, and the characters haven't become boring. I can guarantee you will watch this film more than once!