Although the first ‘Shrek’ movie is practically perfect, DreamWorks was not far behind with its second part, which will soon be unavailable on Netflix. ‘Shrek 2’ will leave the platform on March 31 and it is an unbeatable moment to claim it as one of the best animated sequels in history.
In a kingdom far, far away…
In case there’s anyone left in the room who still doesn’t know about the adventures of the green ogre: ‘Shrek 2’ is the continuation of the first film and tells us how Shrek and Fiona live happily after their wedding but must face a mishap more complicated than a dragon: visiting his in-laws.
‘Shrek 2’ repeats with Andrew Adamson as director and adds Kelly Asbury (‘Spirit, the indomitable steed’) and Conrad Vernon (‘The Addams Family’). The script is in charge of Joe Stillman (‘Gulliver’s Travels’), J. David Stem and David N. Weiss (both screenwriters of the film ‘Jimmy Neutron, the boy inventor’), based on the characters from the short story by William Steig.
The first part of ‘Shrek’ marked a milestone in the history of animation and swept the box office, even becoming the first film in history to win the Oscar for Best Animated Film. With this background, it was to be expected that it would have a sequel sooner rather than later.
The sequel came three years later and grossed even more (935.2 million dollars), thus consolidating a million-dollar franchise whose subsequent continuations have been much less successful (not counting, obviously, the fantastic ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’).
With this second film, DreamWorks risked and won: It strengthened the best virtues of its predecessor and in turn moved the story forward in another direction, making it continue to retain its spark but without leaving a rehash aftertaste.
The humor of the tape is more unleashed than in the previous one and he does not cut a hair in shooting one joke after another, with references to other fairy tales and some gags oriented more to the adult public. It is said soon but each and every one of them works like a shot, they are intelligent and are very well integrated into the narrative.
Besides, it is one of those films that has managed to become popular culturewith scenes as hilarious and iconic as the arrival in Far Far Away, the “family dinner”, the villain bar or the attack of the giant gingerbread man to the rhythm of ‘Holding out for a hero’.
When we thought that Shrek, Donkey and Fiona were the perfect trio of protagonists, we didn’t know that it could still be improved. The secondaries of this continuation are all hits: Puss in Boots, Prince Charming, the Fairy Godmother, Fiona’s parents… What’s more, he knew how to give Pinocchio and company much more play, who barely had a couple of jokes in the first one.
The Soundtrack is still wonderful and so is the voice cast.with Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Díaz, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese and Jennifer Saunders in the original version (and without detracting from the version dubbed into Spanish).
The key to this adventure is that the characters have a new conflict and still have something to tell, something that was lost in the third and fourth. Both risked everything on the charisma of their characters but it was insufficient because their stories no longer gave more of themselves.
Maybe ‘Shrek 2’ is not as round as the first ‘Shrek’ but for very little Of course, It’s just as fun and it’s one of those movies worth watching every so often., because it always manages to make you smile and the story works like clockwork. It’s okay if ‘Shrek 5’ never arrives because the saga has already peaked with its first two installments.
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