Aladdin ( 1992 )

Runtime: 90 mins

Genre: Childrens
Review :
"Master, I hear and obey," said the Genie in the storybook version of "Aladdin," and his comments seldom went further than that. For an exercise in contrast, consider the dizzying, elastic miracle wrought by Robin Williams, Walt Disney Pictures' bravura animators and the Oscar-winning songwriting team of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman in "Aladdin," the studio's latest effort to send the standards for animated children's films into the stratosphere.

It may be nothing new to find Mr. Williams, who provides the voice of a big blue Genie with a manic streak, working in a wildly changeable vein. But here are animators who can actually keep up with him. Thanks to them, the Genie is given a visual correlative to the rapid-fire Williams wit, so that kaleidoscopic visions of Groucho Marx, Arnold Schwarzenegger, William F. Buckley Jr., Travis Bickle and dozens of other characters flash frantically across the screen to accompany the star's speedy delivery. Much of this occurs to the tune of "Friend Like Me," a cake-walking, show-stopping musical number with the mischievous wit that has been a hallmark of Disney's animated triumphs.

If the makers of "Aladdin" had their own magic lamp, it's easy to guess what they might wish for: another classic that crosses generational lines as successfully as "Beauty and the Beast" did, and moves as seamlessly from start to finish. "Aladdin" is not quite that, but it comes as close as may have been possible without a genie's help. The fundamentals here go beyond first-rate: animation both gorgeous and thoughtful, several wonderful songs and a wealth of funny minor figures on the sidelines, practicing foolproof Disney tricks. (Even a flying Oriental rug is able to frolic, sulk and move its thumb, which has evolved out of a tassel.) Only when it comes to the basics of the story line does "Aladdin" encounter any difficulties.

It may date back to the early 18th century, but the "Aladdin" story has a 1980's ring. Here is the ultimate get-rich-quick tale of an idle boy (a cute, raffish thief in Disney's modified version) who has the good luck to be designated the only person able to retrieve a magic, Genie-filled lamp from a subterranean cave. Once in possession of the lamp, the original Aladdin goes to work improving his fortunes. He acquires slaves, loot and an extravagant dowry so as to win the hand of a princess, eventually ordering the Genie to build them a palatial home. Even in the movie version, this hero, who has been made more boyish and remains unmarried, dreamily tells his pet monkey: "Some day, Abu, things are going to change. We'll be rich, live in a palace and never have any troubles at all."

Compared with the sounder underpinnings of "The Little Mermaid" and especially of "Beauty and the Beast," this has an unfortunately shallow ring, as do the two teen-age types on whom the story is centered. The blandly intrepid Aladdin (with the speaking voice of Scott Weinger) and the sloe-eyed Princess Jasmine (Linda Larkin), a nymph in harem pants, use words like "fabulous" and "amazing" to express unremarkable thoughts. (Jasmine's main concern is deciding whom she will marry.) Luckily, they are surrounded by an overpowering array of secondary characters who make the film's sidelines much more interesting than its supposed center. The scene-stealing monkey Abu (with noises supplied by Frank Welker) is a particular treat, as when he jealously mimics the Princess or otherwise comments on Aladdin's adventures.

Synopsis:
This funny, romantic tale about a spunky orphan and a smart princess won the hearts of children and adults alike. Poor Aladdin looks longingly at the Sultan's luxurious castle, and dreams of... This funny, romantic tale about a spunky orphan and a smart princess won the hearts of children and adults alike. Poor Aladdin looks longingly at the Sultan's luxurious castle, and dreams of living inside, but Princess Jasmine wants only to escape that pampered life. Finally, she does run away, only to discover how hard life on the streets can be -- especially when a vendor accuses you of thievery. Aladdin comes to her rescue, and soon the two have fallen in love. But how can a beggar marry the sultan's daughter? His only hope lies in a magic lamp from the Cave of Wonders and a wisecracking genie who can grant wishes. But Jafar, the Sultan's evil advisor, desires that lamp himself, so he can rule the kingdom and possess Jasmine. Soon the handsome young boy and the cruel Jafar are locked in a battle of wits -- and unleashing magic the likes of which no one has seen before

Starring: Robin Williams, Lea Salonga, Gilbert Gottfried
Director: Ron Clements, John Musker

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WALL-E ( 2008 )

Rated: G

Runtime: 16 hrs 38 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:Jun 27, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $223,749,872
Review :
The first 40 minutes or so of “Wall-E” — in which barely any dialogue is spoken, and almost no human figures appear on screen — is a cinematic poem of such wit and beauty that its darker implications may take a while to sink in. The scene is an intricately rendered city, bristling with skyscrapers but bereft of any inhabitants apart from a battered, industrious robot and his loyal cockroach sidekick. Hazy, dust-filtered sunlight illuminates a landscape of eerie, post-apocalyptic silence. This is a world without people, you might say without animation, though it teems with evidence of past life.

We’ve grown accustomed to expecting surprises from Pixar, but “Wall-E” surely breaks new ground. It gives us a G-rated, computer-generated cartoon vision of our own potential extinction. It’s not the only film lately to engage this somber theme. As the earth heats up, the vanishing of humanity has become something of a hot topic, a preoccupation shared by directors like Steven Spielberg (“A.I.”), Francis Lawrence (“I Am Legend”), M. Night Shyamalan (“The Happening”) and Werner Herzog. In his recent documentary “Encounters at the End of the World” Mr. Herzog muses that “the human presence on this planet is not really sustainable,” a sentiment that is voiced, almost verbatim, in the second half of “Wall-E.” When the whimsical techies at Pixar and a moody German auteur are sending out the same message, it may be time to pay attention.

Not that “Wall-E” is all gloom and doom. It is, undoubtedly, an earnest (though far from simplistic) ecological parable, but it is also a disarmingly sweet and simple love story, Chaplinesque in its emotional purity. On another level entirely it’s a bit of a sci-fi geek-fest, alluding to everything from “2001” and the “Alien” pictures (via a Sigourney Weaver voice cameo) to “Wallace and Gromit: A Grand Day Out.” But the movie it refers to most insistently and overtly is, of all things, “Hello, Dolly!,” a worn videotape that serves as the title character’s instruction manual in matters of choreography and romance.

That old, half-forgotten musical, with its Jerry Herman lyrics crooned by, among others, Louis Armstrong, is also among Wall-E’s mementos of, well, us. He is a dented little workhorse who, having outlasted his planned obsolescence, spends his days in the Sisyphean, mechanical labor of gathering and compacting garbage. His name is an acronym for Waste Allocation Load Lifter- Earth Class. But not everything he finds is trash to Wall-E. In the rusty metal hulk where he and the cockroach take shelter from dust storms, he keeps a carefully sorted collection of treasures, including Zippo lighters, nuts and bolts, and a Rubik’s Cube.

Wall-E’s tender regard for the material artifacts of a lost civilization is understandable. After all, he too is a product of human ingenuity. And the genius of “Wall-E,” which was directed by the Pixar mainstay Andrew Stanton, who wrote the screenplay with Jim Reardon, lies in its notion that creativity and self-destruction are sides of the same coin. The human species was driven off its home planet — Wall-E eventually learns that we did not die out — by an economy consecrated to the manufacture and consumption of ever more stuff. But some of that stuff turned out to be useful, interesting, and precious. And some of it may even possess something like a soul.

Observing Wall-E’s surroundings, the audience gleans that, in some bygone time, a conglomerate called BnL (for “Buy N Large”) filled the earth with megastores and tons of garbage. Eventually the corporation loaded its valued customers onto a space station (captained by Jeff Garlin), where they have evolved into fat, lazy leisure addicts serviced by a new generation of specialized machines. One of these, a research probe named Eve (all of the robot names are acronyms as well as indicators of theoretical gender) drops to Earth and wins Wall-E’s heart.

Their courtship follows some familiar patterns. If “Wall-E” were a romantic comedy, it would be about a humble garbageman who falls for a supermodel who also happens to be a top scientist with a knack for marksmanship. (I’m pretty sure I reviewed that a while back, but the title escapes me.) Wall-E is a boxy machine of the old school, with creaks and clanks and visible rivets, his surface pocked with dents and patches of rust. He is steadfast, but not always clever or cool. Eve, shaped like an elongated egg, is as cool as the next iPhone and whisper quiet, unless she’s excited, in which case she has a tendency to blow things up. She and Wall-E communicate in chirps and beeps that occasionally coalesce into words. Somehow their expressions — of desire, irritation, indifference, devotion and anxiety, all arranged in delicate counterpoint — achieve an otherworldly eloquence.

That they are endowed with such rich humanity is as much a Pixar trademark as the painstakingly modeled surfaces or the classical virtual camerawork and editing. The technical resourcefulness that allows “Wall-E” to leap effortlessly from the derelict Earth to the pristine atmosphere of the space station is matched by the rigorous integrity the filmmakers bring to the characters and the themes.

Rather than turn a tale of environmental cataclysm into a scolding, self-satisfied lecture, Mr. Stanton shows his awareness of the contradictions inherent in using the medium of popular cinema to advance a critique of corporate consumer culture. The residents of the space station, accustomed to being tended by industrious robots, have grown to resemble giant babies, with soft faces, rounded torsos and stubby, weak limbs. Consumer capitalism, anticipating every possible need and swaddling its subjects in convenience, is an infantilizing force. But as they cruise around on reclining chairs, eyes fixed on video screens, taking in calories from straws sticking out of giant cups, these overgrown space babies also look like moviegoers at a multiplex.

They’re us, in other words. And like us, they’re not all bad. The paradox at the heart of “Wall-E” is that the drive to invent new things and improve the old ones — to buy and sell and make and collect — creates the potential for disaster and also the possible path away from it. Or, put another way, some of the same impulses that fill the world of “Wall-E” — our world — with junk can also fill it with art.

Synopsis:
Even for Pixar, this might be a first: an animated film that contains not only a fully realized world as photorealistic as it is teeming with wonder, but also the Gargantuan themes and visuals of... Even for Pixar, this might be a first: an animated film that contains not only a fully realized world as photorealistic as it is teeming with wonder, but also the Gargantuan themes and visuals of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, the kind of stripped-down sad-clown pathos reserved for classic Buster Keaton comedies, and one of the most moving love stories in a long time. Director Andrew Stanton kicked up the visual acuity of an already-stellar Pixar Studios in 2003 with his reflective, refractive, color-shimmery realization of FINDING NEMO's oceanic world, which genuinely felt as though it spanned the entire earth. Now, with WALL-E, Stanton replaces an estranged journeyer of an apprehensively fishy disposition with a curious and love-struck robotic one, allowing the quest for eternal love to extend from a desolate, dust-covered, palpably polluted future Earth and into an even more mysterious abyss: the far reaches of outer space. With virtually no dialogue, WALL-E's neatly contained, eerily vaudevillian first act introduces the tragic robot of the title. Whirring amid dilapidated skyscrapers and equally tall compacted trash heaps, he's the last living thing on Earth (aside from a little cockroach friend). WALL-E has developed a tender and inquisitive personality doing what he was built to do--allocate and dispose of human waste--day in and day out for the past 700 years simply because no one turned him off when the human race left the now-hostile planet. Soon though, the directive-oriented automaton Eve comes crashing into WALL-E's life from above, immediately becoming the object of his infatuation. At the drop of a hat, the little guy follows her back into the dangerous unknown, where the sight of two robots gliding through the cosmic ether, dancing via fire-extinguisher propulsion, joins the many memorable moments of a deceptively simple, expansively romantic story.

Starring: Fred Willard, Jeff Garlin, Ben Burtt, Sigourney Weaver, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy Director: Andrew Stanton Screenwriter: Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon Story: Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter Producer: Jim Morris Composer: Thomas Newman Studio: Disney/Pixar

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Cars ( 2006 )

Rated: G
Runtime: 1 hr 56 mins
Genre: Education/General Interest
Theatrical Release:Jun 9, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $244,052,771
Review :
THE temptation to write about "Cars" using automotive metaphors may be unwise, but it's also irresistible. You could say, for instance, that the film — the first directed by the Pixar guru John Lasseter since the company's 1999 hit "Toy Story 2" — tools along at an easy clip, rather like a Volvo station wagon en route to another family vacation. At no point does it spin out of control, much less venture off-road. Instead, the film just putt, putt, putts along, a shining model of technological progress and consumer safety. But, as Ed (Big Daddy) Roth might say, chrome don't get you home and neither does 3D animation.

Mr. Roth was the creator of a delightfully unappetizing cartoon rodent called Rat Fink, a kind of anti-Mickey Mouse mascot for the hot-rod set. Given Pixar's carefully cultivated — and, for the most part, justified — reputation as a modestly maverick outfit, it would be nice to think that a decal of Rat Fink adorns the computers of at least a couple of the film's many, many animators. But both in its ingratiating vibe and bland execution, "Cars" is nothing if not totally, disappointingly new-age Disney, the story of a little cherry-red race car, Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson), who can win the race of life only after he learns the value of friendship and the curvy appeal of Porsche Carrera (Bonnie Hunt).

Right off we know we're not in Kansas anymore or, for that matter, Monstropolis, home to the critters from "Monsters, Inc." or suburban Metroville, where the superheroic family in "The Incredibles" lives. The film opens at an enormous speedway, where some dozen candy-colored race cars, including Lightning McQueen, are whooshing around a track as thousands upon thousands of similarly polychromic jalopies cheer, wave flags and do the wave.

Welcome to Weirdsville, Cartoonland, where automobiles race — and rule — in a world that, save for a thicket of tall pines and an occasional scrubby bush, is freakishly absent any organic matter. Here, even the bugs singeing their wings on the porch light look like itty-bitty Volkswagen beetles.

That sounds like a slap and a tickle, and for a while it's both. As written by Mr. Lasseter, who shares screenwriting credit with Dan Fogelman, Joe Ranft, Kiel Murray, Phil Lorin and (whew) Jorgen Klubien, the film hinges on a premise older than the 1951 Hudson Hornet named Doc (Paul Newman), who gives the story its requisite geezer wisdom. After taking a wrong turn on his way to a race, McQueen lands in Radiator Springs, a town that time and the freeway forgot. There, on a derelict lick of asphalt, he meets a pileup of metal and ethnic clichés, including a tow truck with a deep-fried accent (Larry the Cable Guy as Mater) and a lowrider that apparently hopped in from East L.A. (Cheech Marin as Ramone).

This ethnic and cultural profiling is pretty much par for the animated film course, hence Jenifer Lewis, as a two-tone 1950's ride with big fins called Flo, provides the only identifiable "black" voice. Less wince-inducing are Luigi (Tony Shalhoub), a banana-yellow Italian-accented Fiat that runs the local tire store; Sarge (Paul Dooley), a World War II jeep as memorable and colorful as dung; and Fillmore (George Carlin), a VW bus who extols the virtues of organic fuel, mutters about conspiracies and raises the Stars and Stripes to the guitar squeals of Jimi Hendrix.

Given the film's regrettably retro attitude toward all things automotive (not a hybrid in sight!), it's no surprise that Fillmore, this desert outpost's most credible resident, is also its designated kook.

An animated fable about happy cars might have made sense before gas hit three bucks a gallon, but even an earlier sticker date couldn't shake the story's underlying creepiness, which comes down to the fact that there's nothing alive here: nada, zip. In this respect, the film can't help but bring to mind James Cameron's dystopic masterpiece, "The Terminator," which hinges on the violent war of the machine world on its human masters. To watch McQueen and the other cars motor along the film's highways and byways without running into or over a single creature is to realize that, in his cheerful way, Mr. Lasseter has done Mr. Cameron one better: instead of blowing the living world into smithereens, these machines have just gassed it with carbon monoxide.

Rendering plausible human forms remains one of 3D animation's biggest hurdles, something that Pixar directors like Andrew Stanton ("Finding Nemo") have readily admitted. As if realizing that they can't (yet) compete with nature, Pixar filmmakers tend to avoid the human form or create caricatures that, by virtue of their very exaggeration (think of the middle-age spread bedeviling Mr. Incredible's wife), are wonderfully lifelike.

With his machine world, however, Mr. Lasseter appears to have tried to do an end run around the vexing problem of the human body with cars that might as well have come out of a Chevron advertisement. Even stranger, the film turns Detroit's paving over of America into an occasion for some nostalgic historical revisionism. Surreal isn't the word.

Over the last two decades Pixar has invigorated American mainstream animation with charming stories and sterling technique, reaching a company best with the consecutively released "Monsters, Inc.," "Finding Nemo" and "The Incredibles." The age of Pixar may not be as golden as that of 1930's and 40's Disney, but it's an estimable run, especially since each new Pixar feature has reached deeper and higher in thematic and aesthetic preoccupations.

Like classic Disney, Pixar films are invariably traditionalist, with stories of familial and social retrenchment, but they're also witty and playful, fresh in both graphic and written line. One clunker won't shut down or even threaten the factory line, but here's hoping that as this onetime scrapper becomes increasingly entrenched and establishment, it keeps its geeks-and-freaks flag flying.

Synopsis:
Talking cars rediscover the quirky originality of middle America in this inventive animated film from the folks at Pixar (TOY STORY, FINDING NEMO). Owen Wilson does the voice of arrogant rookie... Talking cars rediscover the quirky originality of middle America in this inventive animated film from the folks at Pixar (TOY STORY, FINDING NEMO). Owen Wilson does the voice of arrogant rookie racecar Lightning McQueen, who winds up stranded in the small desert town of Radiator Springs on his way west to a big showdown. Sentenced to community service after literally tearing up the road in a high-speed chase, at first all Lightning can think of is getting back to the world of corporate sponsorship and merchandising tie-ins he loves so well. Eventually, however, the eccentric residents of Radiator Springs begin to grow on him, especially the attractive lady Porsche lawyer (Bonnie Hunt) and a rusty old tow-truck (Larry the Cable Guy). There's also a hippie Volkswagen (George Carlin), a low-riding T-bird (Cheech Martin) and Paul Newman as the gruff, curmudgeonly Doc Hudson, the town judge who harbors his own checkered-flag past. The story may not be new, but Pixar's precision-engineered animation brilliantly illuminates the town and its surrounding cactus-studded vistas down to the minutest detail, and director/writer John Lasseter keeps the film's satiric wit and generous heart in perfect alignment. Adults in the audience should appreciate the film's celebration of old-school American eccentricity, and the kids will dig all the thunderous grit and high-octane wheel burning. Randy Newman composed the score; James Taylor sings one of the songs.

Starring: Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Michael Keaton, George Carlin, Larry the Cable Guy, Bob Costas, Cheech Marin, Bonnie Hunt, Paul Dooley, Guido Quaroni, Michael Wallis, Darrell Waltrip Director: John Lasseter Producer: Darla Anderson Screenwriter: Kiel Murray, John Lasseter, Phil Lorin, Dan Fogelman Composer: Randy Newman Studio: Buena Vista Pictures

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The Lion King ( 1994 )

Rated: G

Runtime: 90 mins
Genre: Childrens
Theatrical Release:Jun 24, 1994 Wide
Review :
The circle of life, as described in and borne out by "The Lion King," is a cycle of evolution. Birth, growth, maturity, decline: nothing is immune to change, not even Disney animation.

Taking its place in the great arc of neo-Disney classics that began with "The Little Mermaid," "The Lion King" is as visually enchanting as its pedigree suggests. But it also departs from the spontaneity of its predecessors and reveals more calculation. More so than the exuberant movie miracles that came before it, this latest animated juggernaut has the feeling of a clever, predictable product. To its great advantage, it has been contrived with a spirited, animal-loving prettiness no child will resist.

Let's put this in perspective: nobody beats Disney when it comes to manufacturing such products with brilliance, precision and loving care. And films that lure the lunch-box set never lack for blatantly commercial elements. Still, the wizardry of "Beauty and the Beast" managed to seem blissfully formula-free, while "The Lion King" has more noticeably derivative moments. Strangely enough, the fact that this film has an original story makes it less daring than Disney films based on well-known fairy tales.

"The Lion King," which opens today for a limited run at Radio City Music Hall before expanding into wide release on June 24, is about Simba, a cub who endures certain rites of passage before becoming ruler of his kingdom. Describing the classic hero's journey in baby-Joseph Campbell fashion, the screenplay (by Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts and Linda Woolverton) adds a touch of Shakespeare for good measure.

In addition to his noble father, Mufasa (with the voice of James Earl Jones), Simba is also influenced by his delectably wicked uncle, Scar (Jeremy Irons). Scar arranges Mufasa's disturbing on-screen death in a manner that both banishes Simba to the wilderness and raises questions about whether this film really warranted a G rating. (In addition to the trampling of Mufasa by a herd of computer-generated wildebeests, there is also a violent fight at the end of the story.)

This tale, with its emphasis on myth making and machismo, has no heroine, unlike its immediate predecessors. Nor does it rely as effectively on music, although songs by Elton John and Tim Rice are interjected into the action at regular intervals. ("Can You Feel the Love Tonight," an obligatory romantic ballad that accompanies the grown-up Simba's romp with a lioness friend named Nala, has been shoehorned into the film for particularly gratuitous reasons.)

Instead, its seriousness is leavened with various sure-fire forms of comic relief, humor of the sort that is a true Disney specialty. "The Lion King" counts on the wittiest group of voices Disney has yet assembled -- also including Nathan Lane, Whoopi Goldberg, Matthew Broderick and Rowan Atkinson, the mixed-up minister from "Four Weddings and a Funeral" -- to advance its story.

And once again, Disney's animators (under the direction of Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff) display their anthropomorphic genius. All of the film's secondary characters are clever and colorful, with Mr. Lane's wisecracking meerkat, Timon, and Mr. Atkinson's worried hornbill, Zazu, as special standouts. Together with a vibrant palette and grandly scenic African landscapes, these elements give the best of "The Lion King" a bright, energetic appeal.

For the grown-ups, there is Mr. Irons, who has been as devilishly well-captured by Disney's graphic artists (Scar's supervising animator: Andreas Deja) as Robin Williams was in "Aladdin." Bored, wicked and royally sarcastic, Mr. Irons's Scar slithers through the story in grandiose high style, with a green-eyed malevolence that is one of film's chief delights. "Oh, and just between us, you might want to work on that little roar of yours, hmm?" he purrs to Simba, while purporting to be a mentor to his young nephew. Scar, who also gives a reprise of Mr. Irons's best-known line from "Reversal of Fortune," may not be much of a father figure, but he's certainly great fun.

That's not the case with the solemn Mufasa, who is given the job of articulating the film's very 1990's heroic ethos. The message boils down to something like "Find Your Inner King," and Mufasa is sometimes positioned against a starry sky to emphasize his noble stature.

"Look inside yourself, Simba," he says mystically at one juncture. "You are more than what you have become. You must take your place in the circle of life." At least this is soothingly vague, unlike Mufasa's early announcement that his son will be king of "everything the light touches" within his field of vision. When it comes to its characters' regal heritage, the film manages to sound simultaneously caring, sensitive and power-mad.

Later on, straying from his life of privilege, the golden boy Simba is waylaid by three hoodlum hyenas (Ms. Goldberg, Cheech Marin and Jim Cummings) in a burned-out region that is this story's version of an inner city. At times like this, the subtext definitely gets dicey; "The Lion King" is in all ways on safer ground with the lush, sweeping landscapes that provide most of its backdrop. Among its most visually stunning sequences are the opening musical episode, dazzlingly introducing all the denizens of the animal kingdom, and a comic number in which young Simba is taught, among other things, how to survive on a diet of brilliantly colorful bugs.

The film's musical numbers are a peculiar hybrid of Mr. John's bouncy, irrepressible pop sensibility and Mr. Rice's fastidious, remarkably joyless lyrics. These songs are very different from the earlier films' Alan Mencken-Howard Ashman numbers, but they are used in strenuously similar ways. The Oscar-ready love ballad and the big, gala production number, once so fresh, have become Disney staples by now.

Sometimes the derivativeness is just plain irritating, as with the cute, lilting "I Just Can't Wait to Be King," which sounds as if Michael Jackson were singing "Under the Sea." Pop music doesn't get any safer than that; nor does it get any more familiar. The soundtrack of "The Lion King" also includes a version sung by Mr. John, free of those encumbrances and delivered as a nice, clean jolt of rock-and-roll. A song, like anything else, works best when it has a style all its own.

Synopsis :
Synopsis: Wild Africa is the setting for this animated tale of a young lion cub whose evil uncle usurps his father's crown and lets hyenas overrun the kingdom (borrowing elements of both Hamlet and Richard... Wild Africa is the setting for this animated tale of a young lion cub whose evil uncle usurps his father's crown and lets hyenas overrun the kingdom (borrowing elements of both Hamlet and Richard III). Dodging danger and befriending some oddball characters, the cub wanders until the day he's ready to return. Songs by Elton John and featuring the voices of Whoopie Goldberg, Cheech Marin, James Earl Jones, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane and Jeremy Irons. Academy Award Nominations: 4, including 3 for Best Original Song. Academy Awards: 2, including Best Original Score and Best Original Song (Elton John and Tim Rice: "Can You Feel the Love Tonight").

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Guillaume, Cheech Marin, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Ernie Sabella, Jim Cummings, Madge Sinclair, Moira Kelly, Nathan Lane Director: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff Composer: Hans Zimmer Screenwriter: Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts Studio: Buena Vista Internationa

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Finding Nemo (2003)

Rated: G

Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Genre: Childrens
Theatrical Release:May 30, 2003 Wide
Box Office: $339,666,356
Review :
Among the finned creatures who wriggle and dart through Disney/Pixar's sparkling aquatic fable, ''Finding Nemo,'' the most comically inspired is a great white shark named Bruce (the voice of Barry Humphries), who glides through the ocean flanked by two menacing sidekicks, Anchor (Eric Bana), a hammerhead, and Chum (Bruce Spence), a mako.

An ominous hulk, with eyes like gleaming bullets and a savage jack-o'-lantern grin, Bruce has adopted a 12-step program to curb his insatiable appetite for other fish. ''Fish are friends, not food,'' goes the mantra he repeats in an unctuously imperious drawl whenever he's tempted to gobble up a passing morsel.

But sharks will be sharks, and Bruce's resolution is awfully shaky. In the movie's scariest scene, the drifting scent of blood drives him into a ravenous frenzy in which his eyes turn black and he lunges after Marlin (Albert Brooks), the meek little orange-and-white clown fish he has been regaling with his recovery spiel. Their hair-raising life-or-death chase takes them around a sunken submarine and through a minefield.

Bruce is only the most fearsome of the predators encountered by Marlin, a nervous, overprotective father who sets out over the great, wide ocean to find his lost son Nemo (Alexander Gould). Before his journey is over, he finds himself trapped in the mouth of a blue whale with only moments to spare before it takes a big, lethal gulp, and pursued by a flock of sea gulls that are almost as menacing as the birds in Alfred Hitchcock's avian nightmare.

Nemo, a squeaky-voiced youngster who was born with one fin smaller than the other, disappears on his first day of school after defying his father with a daredevil stunt. Leaving the security of the Great Barrier Reef where he and his dad live comfortably inside a sea anemone, he swims out to inspect a distant boat and is scooped up in a scuba diver's net.

Although Marlin swims to the rescue, he is repelled by the blast of the boat's propeller. The boy eventually lands inside the aquarium of a dentist in Sydney, Australia, where his tank companions are so bored they have picked up the technical argot of dentistry from observing their keeper. In setting out to find Nemo, Marlin has only a single clue as to his whereabouts: the address of the fishing boat.
In its broadest outlines, ''Finding Nemo,'' which opens nationwide today, is an upbeat, sentimental fable about a fearful father and a rebellious son who recklessly breaks away. Each has to learn to trust and respect the other, but to arrive at a better understanding both must endure any number of harrowing trials.

At home, Marlin, a well-meaning worrywart, addresses his son in the nagging whine of a nervous milquetoast. Initially he seems the least likely candidate to risk his life to save anyone. But once he takes to the open water, he is unstoppably courageous and resourceful in his quest to find the boy.

Along the way he teams up with Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), an inveterately cheery blue tang with a severe case of short-term memory loss that causes many complications. The character, who speaks in daffy non sequiturs but knows enough to tutor Marlin in the funny language of whales, is the movie's comic center. And Ms. DeGeneres infuses what could have been a one-note role with an irresistible enthusiasm and playfulness.

The adventures they share include near-entrapment in a school of deadly jellyfish and a joy ride on the East Australian Current with a green sea turtle named Crush (Andrew Stanton) who, despite being 150 years old, has the adventurous spirit and vocabulary of a 16-year-old surfer dude.

High on the movie's list of accomplishments is its creation of an undersea wonderland whose opalescent colors and shifting light reflect the enchanted aura of dreamy aquatic photography. Whether the setting is a fish tank or an ocean current, the movie successfully sustains a watery ambience, not an easy thing to do given water's semitransparency.

''Finding Nemo'' doesn't pretend that its undersea environment is a happier alterative to the world above. Under its comforting narrative arc, it presents a stark vision of the sea world as a treacherous jungle that, for all its beauty and excitement, is an extremely dangerous place to live. The movie jumps right into the darker side of life in a scene in which Marlin and his wife, Coral (Elizabeth Perkins), marvel at the more than 400 eggs that are about to yield a brood of children, only to have their future snatched away with the unwelcome appearance of a barracuda. In one furious snap, the intruder devours Coral and all but one of the eggs, leaving only Marlin and the single egg that becomes Nemo.

Once Nemo has landed in the aquarium, the story cuts back and forth between the father, desperately searching for his son, and Nemo making friends with his tankmates and plotting an improbable escape. The tank's unofficial leader, Gill (Willem Dafoe), is a black-and-white-striped Moorish idol, who like Nemo is a former ocean dweller longing to return to the sea.

The escape plan becomes a race against time once Nemo learns he is to be given as a present to the dentist's 8-year-old niece, Darla, a savage little monster who has been known to take a baggie containing a fish and shake it violently. Darla's appearances are accompanied by snippets of the shrieking murder music from ''Psycho.''

Visual imagination and sophisticated wit raise ''Finding Nemo'' to a level just below the peaks of Pixar's ''Toy Story'' movies and ''Monsters, Inc.,'' which were created by many of the same hands. (Mr. Stanton, who plays Crush and was co-director of ''A Bug's Life,'' directs ''Nemo'' with Lee Unkrich.) As in the earlier Pixar movies, the animation achieves an astonishing synergy of voice, computer-animated image and dialogue. Facial expressions match vocal inflections with a precision that lends even the minor characters an almost surreal clarity.

The humor bubbling through ''Finding Nemo'' is so fresh, sure of itself and devoid of the cutesy, saccharine condescension that drips through so many family comedies that you have to wonder what it is about the Pixar technology that inspires the creators to be so endlessly inventive. The capacity of computer-animation to evoke a three-dimensional sense of detail obviously has something to do with it. But the enterprise still wouldn't amount to much without the formidable storytelling talents driving it.

Synopsis:
Co-helmed by WALL-E director Andrew Stanton, FINDING NEMO follows Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks), an overprotective clown fish father, as he desperately searches the farthest reaches of the sea... Co-helmed by WALL-E director Andrew Stanton, FINDING NEMO follows Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks), an overprotective clown fish father, as he desperately searches the farthest reaches of the sea for his missing son Nemo. Marlin's journey leads him beyond the Great Barrier Reef into deeper and darker waters, where he meets Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a forgetful yet optimistic blue tang, and a number of not-so-friendly--and often very hungry--aquatic creatures. Meanwhile, little Nemo finds himself in a dentist's fish tank in Syndey, Australia, along with other underwater captives, including Gill (Willem Dafoe), the group's scarred Moorish idol leader. As Nemo works with his new friends on a plan to escape their tank, Marlin and Dory swim closer, but they'll need more than just fins to get into the dentist's office. This fifth computer-animated outing by Pixar continues the company's remarkable winning streak that began with TOY STORY. Like other Pixar films, FINDING NEMO features a story with heart--this time, a father-and-son tale--and thoroughly charming leads--in this case, Marlin, Nemo, and Dory. And, of course, there's an army of fascinating supporting characters, including Bruce (Barry Humphries), a great white shark on a no-fish diet; Crush (director/screenwriter Stanton), a surfer-dude sea turtle; Peach (Allison Janney), a stuck-to-the-aquarium starfish; and Nigel (Geoffrey Rush), a bold pelican. However, what truly distinguishes NEMO from even its CGI cousins is its stunning depiction of aquatic life, from the colorful creatures on a coral reef to a blue whale on the vast expanse of the open ocean. By combining the aesthetic of a National Geographic marine life documentary with clever jokes and Hitchcock references, NEMO succeeds in its bid to up the ante for animated films yet again. And be sure to watch the credits or you just might miss something!

Starring: Albert Brooks, Alexander Gould, Ellen DeGeneres, Willem Dafoe, Allison Janney, Brad Garrett, Austin Pendleton, Stephen Root, Vicki Lewis, Joe Ranft, Geoffrey Rush, Barry Humphries, Eric Bana, Bruce Spence, Andrew Stanton, Nicholas Bird, Elizabeth Perkins, Erik Per Sullivan, Erica Beck, Bill Hunter, John Ratzenberger Director: Andrew Stanton Screenwriter: Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson, David Reynolds Story: Andrew Stanton Composer: Thomas Newman Studio: Buena Vista Pictures

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Shrek 2 ( 2004 )

Rated: PG for some crude humor, a brief substance reference and some suggestive content

Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:May 19, 2004 Wide
Box Office: $436,471,036
Review :
Like most sequels ''Shrek 2,'' which opens nationwide tomorrow, tries to compensate for potential lost novelty by taking everything people liked about the original and adding more.

The prickly main characters, who since the first ''Shrek'' opened in 2001 have become cuddly plush toys, have returned: the grumpy title character (the voice of Mike Myers); his ogre princess bride, Fiona (Cameron Diaz); and of course the splendidly annoying Donkey (Eddie Murphy). The lessons that DreamWorks derived (and distorted) from William Steig's sublimely dyspeptic picture book are reiterated: be yourself; love yourself for who you are. For myself I accept ''Shrek 2'' for what it is -- a slick and playful entertainment that remains carefully inoffensive beneath its veneer of bad manners -- but I don't really love it.

The filmmakers have added a passel of new supporting characters, movie star voices and satiric targets. Whereas ''Shrek'' mocked the world of Disney (the former realm of the DreamWorks honcho Jeffrey Katzenberg), the sequel, directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon, widens its scope to Hollywood as a whole, here done up in medieval 3-D cartoon drag as a place called Far Far Away.

It seems that Fiona is the estranged princess of this land of high-end boutiques whose names seem more like sly product placements than actual jokes. She decides to reconcile with her parents (Julie Andrews and John Cleese) and to introduce them to her new husband. (Their first family meal is a bit like ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,'' but with an ogre.) Donkey of course tags along, now that his relationship with Dragon has hit the skids, and they are soon mixed up with a wily super-agentlike Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders), whose spoiled and loutish frat-boy son, Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), was once betrothed to Fiona.
To get Shrek out of the picture, the King hires Puss in Boots, a swashbuckling hit-cat with the voice of Antonio Banderas. Once the honorable cat comes over to Shrek's side, Donkey complains that there's room for only one annoying talking animal sidekick. And he does have a point, though Mr. Banderas's campy suavity and Puss's convincingly animated fur add some new looks and rhythms to the formula.

While this ''Shrek'' revives the raucous spirit and winking allusiveness of its predecessor, some elements of the animation have advanced noticeably. The settings, especially the interiors of castle rooms and dim taverns, are lighted more realistically than in ''Shrek,'' and the flesh and fur, in their various hues, have a more lifelike texture. All of this gives the picture more visual warmth and richness, but in comparison to the most recent Pixar movies it still looks cold and stiff. The human characters in particular look like cheap knockoffs of the toys in the ''Toy Story'' movies.

In terms of its attitude toward the audience, DreamWorks 3-D animation is in some ways the opposite of Pixar, choosing to divide its viewers by age rather than uniting them. The music (including Butterfly Boucher's cover of David Bowie's ''Changes'' and a rendition by Mr. Banderas and Mr. Murphy of ''Livin' la Vida Loca''), the in-jokes and the occasional touches of bawdiness are intended to placate insecure adults while the bright colors and jaunty storytelling enchant their children and teach them to be themselves, like all the other kids with Shrek dolls and ears.

This kind of strategy is hardly uncommon in pop culture these days, and ''Shrek 2'' executes it with wit and aplomb. The script, by Mr. Adamson, Joe Stillman, J. David Stem and David N. Weiss, has jokes that grown-ups and precocious kids will congratulate themselves for getting, and plenty of broader humor (which actually works better). The movie's goal is to enchant children with an old-fashioned fairy tale while simultaneously mocking and subverting its fairy-tale and nursery-rhyme premises. This is sometimes enjoyable and genuinely imaginative (appearances by the Gingerbread Man, who looks like Mr. Bill of ''Saturday Night Live,'' and the Three Blind Mice are especially clever), but it also leaves a sour, cynical aftertaste.

Mr. Steig's ''Shrek'' is a celebration of ugliness that also happens to be one of the most beautiful children's books ever written, with respect both to its pictures and its prose. Of course it is unfair to compare that slim volume to the franchise it has spawned, which is a phenomenon in its own right. Certainly ''Shrek 2'' offers rambunctious fun, but there is also something dishonest about its blending of mockery and sentimentality. It lacks both the courage to be truly ugly and the heart to be genuinely beautiful.

Synopsis:
The natural order of fairy tales is interrupted in the sequel to the Academy Award®-winning blockbuster "Shrek." "Shrek 2" sends Shrek, Donkey and Princess Fiona on a whirlwind of new adventures... The natural order of fairy tales is interrupted in the sequel to the Academy Award®-winning blockbuster "Shrek." "Shrek 2" sends Shrek, Donkey and Princess Fiona on a whirlwind of new adventures with more fairy-tale favorites to lampoon along the way. After battling a fire-breathing dragon and the evil Lord Farquaad to win the hand of Princess Fiona, Shrek now faces his greatest challenge: the in-laws. Shrek and Princess Fiona return from their honeymoon to find an invitation to visit Fiona’s parents, the King and Queen of the Kingdom of Far, Far Away. With Donkey along for the ride, the newlyweds set off. All of the citizens of Far, Far Away turn out to greet their returning Princess, and her parents happily anticipate the homecoming of their daughter and her new Prince. But no one could have prepared them for the sight of their new son-in-law, not to mention how much their little girl had…well…changed. Little did Shrek and Fiona know that their marriage had foiled all of her father’s plans for her future…and his own. Now the King must enlist the help of a powerful Fairy Godmother, the handsome Prince Charming and that famed ogre killer Puss In Boots to put right his version of "happily ever after." "Shrek 2" brings back the voices of Mike Myers as Shrek, Eddie Murphy as Donkey and Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona. Joining the all-star voice cast are: Academy Award® winner Julie Andrews ("Mary Poppins") and Oscar® nominee John Cleese ("A Fish Called Wanda") as Fiona’s royal parents, Queen Lillian and King Harold; Antonio Banderas ("Spy Kids") as Puss In Boots; Rupert Everett ("My Best Friend’s Wedding") as Prince Charming; and Jennifer Saunders ("Absolutely Fabulous") as the Fairy Godmother. The computer-animated comedy is directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon, and produced by Aron Warner, John H. Williams and David Lipman.

Starring: Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Antonio Banderas, Rupert Everett, Jennifer Saunders Director: Conrad Vernon, Kelly Asbury, Andrew Adamson Screenwriter: Andrew Adamson, J. David Stem, David N. Weiss, Joe Stillman Producer: Aron Warner, John H. Williams, David Lipman Studio: DreamWorks Distribution LLC

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Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Rated: PG for sequences of martial arts action.
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Theatrical Release:Jun 6, 2008 Wide
Box Office: $215,395,021
Review :
At once fuzzy-wuzzy and industrial strength, the tacky-sounding “Kung Fu Panda” is high concept with a heart. Even better, this animated feature from DreamWorks is so consistently diverting and visually arresting that it succeeds in transcending its storybook clichés. The tale has the consistency of baby pablum — it’s nutritious and easy on the gums — but there’s enough beauty and pictorial wit here from opening to end credits, enough feeling for the art and for the freedom of animation, that you may not care.

The panda of the title is Po, a generously proportioned mound of roly-poly black-and-white fun voiced with gratifying restraint by Jack Black. You know the next turn in the road as well as any Disney-and-Pixar-weaned 7-year-old: Po is different, Po has a dream, Po has to struggle and so forth. Po also has a loving father, naturally (and no mother, predictably), a loosey-necked goosey, Mr. Ping (James Hong), who runs a noodle shop that he hopes his son will take over one day. Po’s unlikely passion for kung fu intervenes, leading him out of the noodle shop and into the metaphoric hot pot, whereupon he kicks, grunts and groans toward his destiny amid the usual clutter of colorful sidekicks and one nasty foe (Ian McShane, grrr).

For an ostensible outsider, Po conforms very much to familiar animated-movie type. Like Nemo and the rest of his cartoon brethren, he needs to embark on the hero’s journey, which he does with help from a miscellany of pals voiced by the usual A- and B-listers. Among those nudging and guiding Po is Master Oogway (Randall Duk Kim), an ancient turtle with a mellifluous voice and long, liquid neck who, um, invented kung fu and now serves as the spiritual adviser (Yoda) to an elite squad, including a kung fu master, the mustachioed red panda Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), and his students, the Furious Five: Tigress (Angelina Jolie), Viper (Lucy Liu), Monkey (Jackie Chan), Crane (David Cross) and Mantis (Seth Rogen).

The screenplay by Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger is ho-hum without being insulting, a grab bag of gentle jokes, sage lectures, helpful lessons and kicky fights. There is none of the self-conscious knowing that characterizes the Pixar factory, which makes the whole thing seem either winningly innocent or terribly cynical, depending on your mood and worldview. I’ll go with innocent, at least on first viewing, because while “Kung Fu Panda” is certainly very safe, its underlying sweetness feels more genuine than not. The Ayn Randesque bottom line of Pixar’s “Incredibles” can be difficult to argue with — namely, if everybody is special, no one is — but the heroic outsider has his own durable appeal, particularly if he’s a great big bouncing ball of fat and fuzz.

That outsider is even more irresistible when nestled amid so much lovingly created animation, both computer generated and hand drawn. The main story, executed via 3-D animation (all done on computers) and directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne, fluidly integrates gorgeous, impressionistic flourishes with the kind of hyper-real details one has come to expect from computer-generated imagery: photorealistically textured stone steps, for instance, and fur so invitingly tactile you want to run your fingers through it. One of the pleasures of “Kung Fu Panda” is that instead of trying to mimic the entirety of the world as it exists, it uses the touch of the real. The character designs may be anatomically correct, but they’re cartoons from whisker to tail.

In the end, what charms the most about “Kung Fu Panda” is that it doesn’t feel as if it’s trying to be a live-action film. It’s an animation through and through, starting with the stunningly beautiful opening dream sequence, a graphically bold hand-drawn interlude rendered by James Baxter that looks like an animated woodblock print with slashes of black and swaths of oxblood red. This opener is so striking and so visually different from most mainstream American animations that it takes a while to settle into the more visually familiar look of the rest of the movie. And while nothing that comes afterward really compares to it, a volley of arrows that falls down like red rain and a delicate swirl of pink petals come delightfully close.

Synopsis:
"Kung Fu Panda" features Jack Black as Po the Panda, a lowly waiter in a noodle restaurant, who is a kung fu fanatic but whose shape doesn't exactly lend itself to kung fu fighting. In fact, Po's... "Kung Fu Panda" features Jack Black as Po the Panda, a lowly waiter in a noodle restaurant, who is a kung fu fanatic but whose shape doesn't exactly lend itself to kung fu fighting. In fact, Po's defining characteristic appears to be that he is the laziest of all the animals in ancient China. That's a problem because powerful enemies are at the gates, and all hopes have been pinned on a prophesy naming Po as the "Chosen One" to save the day. A group of martial arts masters are going to need a black belt in patience if they are going to turn this slacker panda into a kung fu fighter before it's too late. -- © DreamWorks

Starring: Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Jackie Chan, Lucy Liu, Ian McShane, David Cross, Seth Rogen, Michael Clarke Duncan, James Hong, Randall Duk Kim, Dan Fogler Director: Mark Osborne, John Stevenson Screenwriter: Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger Story: Ethan Reiff, Cyrus Voris Producer: Melissa Cobb Composer: Hans Zimmer Studio: DreamWorks Distribution LLC

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Shrek the Third (2007)

Rated: PG for some crude humor, suggestive content and swashbuckling action
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins 43 secs
Genre: Childrens
Theatrical Release:May 18, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $320,706,665
Review :
For all I know, there may be an endless supply of “Shrek” sequels in the pipeline. That DreamWorks ogre’s skin is the color of money after all. But there is nonetheless a feeling of finality about “Shrek the Third,” a sense that the tale has at last reached a state of completion.

In the first movie Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) met and wooed his lady love, Fiona (Cameron Diaz); in the second he got to know the in-laws. The current installment finds him faced with impending fatherhood and something of a career crisis. Will he take over his father-in-law’s business or remain true to his vocation of bellowing and smashing things?
Unless the Shrek team wants to follow its hero into the dangerous swamps of mid-life, thus shifting his literary pedigree away from William Steig and in the direction of John Updike or Philip Roth, it may want to leave him in a condition of more-or-less happily ever after. Which is only to say that “Shrek the Third,” directed by Chris Miller and Raman Hui from a script with a half-dozen credited begetters, already feels less like a children’s movie than either of its predecessors. (This may be why I liked it better than the others. But then again, so did my kids.)

It isn’t that there’s anything inappropriate — no smoking or swearing and only the sex implied by Fiona’s pregnancy and the brood of Donkey-Dragon offspring — but rather that the movie’s liveliest humor and sharpest drama take root in decidedly grown-up situations. Shrek’s anxious, less-than-overjoyed reaction to the prospect of becoming a parent is not something most youngsters will relate to. (In one brilliantly executed sequence he has a nightmare of being besieged by hundreds of gurgling, saucer-eyed ogre babies.) And the depiction of Cinderella (Amy Sedaris), Rapunzel (Maya Rudolph) and Snow White (Amy Poehler) as bored, catty moms is likely to tickle fans of “Little Children,” a group that I hope doesn’t include any actual little children.

Whether these bits would seem as fresh or incisive if they were not embedded in a noisy cartoon remotely based on a beloved picture book is an open question. The strategy of the “Shrek” movies has always been to appeal to the easy, smirky cynicism of the parents while whetting their children’s appetite for crude humor and plush merchandise. “Shrek 2” pulled off the trick in a way that struck me as coarse and overdone, turning travestied fairy tales into the stuff of hackneyed Hollywood satire. But “Shrek the Third” seems at once more energetic and more relaxed, less desperate to prove its cleverness and therefore to some extent smarter.
It helps that the animation looks better than ever. Practice, along with advances in technology, has made the faces of the characters more expressive and their movements more graceful. The drawn-out death of Fiona’s father, a royal frog voiced by John Cleese, is a minor tour de force of pathos and slapstick, and there are some angry trees that do justice to the venerable cinematic tradition of angry trees. Another high point is when Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) gets wet.

As for plot, there are several, and also the usual complement of celebrity voices and peppy pop songs. The death of the king leaves Shrek as the reluctant heir to the throne, and the ogre sails off to find a replacement in the person of Artie, a prep-school bully magnet with the voice of Justin Timberlake. Meanwhile the disgraced Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), exiled to a career in dinner theater, organizes a rebellion of fairy-tale villains. Eric Idle plays Merlin as a hippy druid, and Larry King and Regis Philbin do fine work as ugly stepsisters. And of course Eddie Murphy is the indispensable Donkey.

If I sound a bit disenchanted, that may be because disenchantment has been the point of the “Shrek” movies all along. Expressing a sometimes explicit animus against the Disney versions of well-known European folk tales, the franchise set out from the start to scramble the traditional polarities of good and evil, setting itself up as a more sophisticated, knowing brand of pop-culture magic. But those old stories — and those classic Disney movies — were almost more complicated than the parodies allowed. Their eerie subtexts and haunting ambiguities have always been more crucial to their power and appeal than the overt lessons they teach.

“Shrek,” “Shrek 2” and “Shrek the Third,” by contrast, are flat and simple, hectic and amusing without being especially thrilling or complex. Their naughty insouciance makes their inevitable lapses into sentimental moralism all the more glaring. In this movie we hear some speeches about how it’s important not to care about what other people think of you, and to be yourself above all. Yeah, fine, whatever. This doesn’t strike me as necessarily good advice, and in any case today’s wised-up kids don’t need life lessons from an ogre. But then again, the kids are not the ones who identify with Shrek as he makes his grouchy way through the life cycle.

Synopsis:
In the third installment of the wildly popular SHREK series of computer-animated movies, everyone's favorite hygienically challenged green ogre (voiced by Mike Myers) faces both parental and royal... In the third installment of the wildly popular SHREK series of computer-animated movies, everyone's favorite hygienically challenged green ogre (voiced by Mike Myers) faces both parental and royal responsibility when his wife, Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz), finds out that she is pregnant and that her father, King Harold (John Cleese), is on his death bed. The shock of these revelations leads Shrek on a journey with his loyal companions Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) to seek out another heir to the throne--an awkward young boy named Artie Pendragon (Justin Timberlake). Waiting in the wings is the scheming Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), who sees the perfect opportunity to make his own bid for power and rallies a villainous crew to attack the castle. Taking over the reins from director Andrew Adamson, Raman Hui and Chris Miller fill the land of Far, Far Away with even more fairy-tale characters in SHREK THE THIRD. Although this takes away from Shrek's own screen time, it introduces the highly amusing Princess Squad--which includes Snow White (Amy Poehler) and Cinderella (Amy Sedaris)--and the bullying Lancelot (John Krasinski), among others. And, as always, this SHREK outing features many pop-culture references, even managing to nod to two horror films (THE EXORCIST and ROSEMARY'S BABY) in a single shot. The movie also allows for more hilarious interplay between Donkey and Puss in Boots, resulting in a comedic adventure tale that, while over-populated, is still undeniably entertaining.

Starring: Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, Justin Timberlake, Regis Philbin, Cheri Oteri, Eric Idle, Maya Rudolph, Amy Sedaris, Conrad Vernon, Aron Warner
Director: Raman Hui, Chris Miller

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