User reviews

Shrek The Third is another entertaining romp through the erstwhile Hollywood of Far Far Away with a few laughs for adults and a few more for kids. Like all of the films in this series, it has a big and good heart, and occasionally pays homage to or pokes fun at modern films. Unlike the previous films, however, Shrek III is not a source of non-stop hilarity, and contains a little more thematic content.

Shrek finds himself inheriting his father-in-law's crown and learns that Fiona is pregnant. Predictably, both of these eventualities play pretty dissonantly on the big green guy's insecurities, and he goes a-questing to locate the next-in-line of succession - a young, dejected, high school kid. Meanwhile, charming has developed even more of an attitude problem, and is putting together a whole battalion of people with grudges.

One of the themes of the first two Shrek films was 'don't judge a book by its cover'. Shrek III takes the theme a little farther and puts a different spin on it. The lesson learned here is "don't judge yourself superficially." And it works. My rating of six is based solely on the entertainment value of the film. This film is not quite as well-paced and well-directed as the previous two films, and Charming is simply not the heavy-weight heavy that his mom was. Nevertheless, it's still worth a look, and still carries positive messages entertainingly.

I enjoyed Shrek the Third, but I found a lot of it very disappointing as well. The plot is very contrived, and has been done better many times before. The script, has a number of very bright spots, but is dull in comparison to two very good predecessors. It just goes to show how sequels are nearly always inferior to the original. In fact, the only sequels that surpass their original is Toy Story 2, Home Alone 2 and Garfield 2. There is a very funny scene with Donkey and Puss in Boots having a sort of body swap, and Donkey doing that priceless innocent eye look. But that is pretty much it, though girls may delight in Fiona and all the fairytale princesses having some sort of princess reunion. The animation is mostly well done, and the voice talents are very good indeed, especially Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas. However, the film, which showed a lot of promise, is undermined by a contrived storyline and an uneven script. All in all, enjoyable, but it could have been much better. 6.5/10 Bethany Cox.

The movie did not really hold the attention of my two younger kids. Even for me, the funny experience of watching both Shrek 1 and 2 was not really very evident with this installment. I remember in Shrek 2, I was laughing out loud with each passing pop culture reference and innuendo being bantered around. However, that was not so here.

I was not too amused with the Disney princesses characters. Shrek's "baby nightmare scene" was well-executed. Justin Timberlake did well in voicing his "grovelling at Merlin's feet" scene. Overall, this movie was not that bad, but it needed to be much better to be worthy to stand on the same level as the first two Shrek films.

I couldn't wait to see Shrek the Third, especially since I have such a great love for the second Shrek, I'm just in love with Puss in Boots. But, the trailer looked great and the stories have worked so far, my mom and I saw the premier show today and while the movie has great laughs, there seemed to be something lacking in the Shrek world. I think the characters didn't seem to click as well as they did in the first two. Shrek the Third has the return of the whole cast, including the new heir to the thrown, Arthur.

Shrek and Fiona have a problem, Fiona's father, the frog King of Far Far Away, has passed away and now it's up to Shrek to take the crown. But Shrek is too scared to step up and looks to the next man in line, well, actually a teenage, Arthur. Shrek, Puss, and Donkey go to find Artie, but there is one more problem going on, Prince Charming wants his kingdom of Far Far Away back like it was promised to him and he will go through anything to get it back. Fionna and the other princesses are kidnapped while Shrek's life is in danger and they must all pull together to save him in time for Arthur to take over the kingdom.

Shrek the Third has great jokes, terrific animation, and lovable characters, especially the character, Merlin, he was just a terrific spoof. But the characters seemed to be lacking the same chemistry as they did in the first two films. I would recommend Shrek the Third, it's a good movie for the family and for a summer movie, because I do guarantee a fun time. I don't know if everyone will agree, but so far I know a few people know that there is something lacking from the world of Shrek.

7/10

When his new father-in-law, King Harold falls ill, Shrek is looked at as the heir to the land of Far Far Away. Not one to give up his beloved swamp, Shrek recruits his friends Donkey and Puss in Boots to install the rebellious Artie as the new king. Princess Fiona, however, rallies a band of royal girlfriends to fend off a coup d'etat by the jilted Prince Charming.

I have to admit, I really wasn't as hyped to see this film than Shrek 2. The trailer was okay, the plot sounds less interesting, and many critics didn't like this film. Yeah, this film is full of energetic characters and some visually dazzling scenes, but it's not as funny, entertaining, or as great as the last two films.

If you've seen the trailer, that's probably all the good jokes that they got in the film. I expected to laugh as much as I did at Shrek 2, since this film is more for the adults than the kids to enjoy. It's a sad fact that more of the jokes comes from secondary characters than the main ones. The action scenes were good, not great, but the story just doesn't interest me.

And the Shrek and Fiona spark isn't as much there as it were in the previous two films. Now here's the good: I liked the secondary characters. They are all funny. This is the most visual Shrek film, having colorful scenes pop out.

This film seems to rely more on the slapstick humor to cover up the weak plot, seemed to not be filled with originality. I didn't mind that. There are some pretty good jokes and some good action scenes. Don't watch this film expecting a great film like the first two, although I wanted this to be a worthy sequel.

This movie gets a lot of hate. It definitely pales in comparison next to the other 3 though.

The message of the movie isnt very frofound and it was stuffed with tons of characters. Also Prince Charming was an uninspired villain. We already saw him in Shrek 2 a bunch.

However, i didn't dislike this movie. I thought it was pretty funny at parts. Especially the nightmare part. Overall, it's not as bad as people say.

A movie too many, a laugh too few. This installment of Shrek is so unlike the first two in terms of energy and humor that its almost like one of those cheesy made-for-TV or straight-to-video versions that the studios make just to cash in on the popularity of a title.

The movie slogs through a story about Shrek and Fiona having to replace the deceased frog king unless they can find another heir. Shrek's time at the "high school" is so tortured that you can almost smell the coffee the writers had to brew to get through the brainstorming sessions.

Not good, I'm sorry to say. The first two were so clever that this ends up seeming...well...crappy by comparison.

Part of success is knowing when to stop.

I have just been pleasantly surprised by Shrek 3. Trying to ignore all the hype around it, I tried to watch it (on DVD) as the second sequel to one of my favourite films, nothing more. Although it comes nowhere near the quality of the first film, it does try to recreate its pleasant pacing and isn't overstuffed with easy film/commercial/real life-reference jokes (I'm looking at you, Shrek 2). And if one pops up, than it got more laughs out of me than Far Far Away ever did in Shrek 2. The Medieval high School was just hilarious, especially the mix-up between today's teen slang and Middle English. As an English student, it really appealed to me.

I really liked the dialogue between the characters like in Shrek 1, it's something I kind of missed in Shrek 2, where the characters just jumped from one crazy situation to the next with a few one-liners her and there. What I did miss, was the bickering between Puss and Donkey. Both characters do in fact get way too little screen time, and that's a big mistake since both characters were the highlights of Shrek 2. Somewhere near the end they do get in a situation that brings back some of the comedy gold of Shrek 2, but it's too little and too late.

All the old characters get to do something funny, but in the end they are all just great to see as old friends you know from the past. It's nice to see Donkey, Puss and Shrek get along so well with each other, but there's nothing more they can do to fill another film. We know the characters, and they have all found a place in the world they live in. I have gotten all I wanted out of the overall storyline, I'm happy with the way things are for the characters now, and I don't mind that the third journey had to replace the "insert joke every few seconds"-mentality of Shrek 2 with a bit more storytelling. There were still plenty of big laughs left, I can tell you.

Ultimately, Shrek 2 was funnier, but I think I like Shrek 3 better. I felt that this adventure was more meaningful for all the characters, and I know that this is the part where a lot of critics thought it wasn't necessary. But if you ask me, Shrek 3 was unnecessary. But since they really had to make a Shrek 3, I think they did well to make the adventure a bit more meaningful and make it really count in the end. It's only too bad that the message is the same of the previous two films, we get it already.

The only thing I really didn't like was one of the major characters they used to tell us again that you must accept yourself and others as they are. Artie was a really un-Shrek character. His speeches were dull and Justin Timberlake does nothing to make the character more likable. Of course, he has little to work with. I liked Justin timberlake's part better as a poster in Shrek 2 with the text "Sir Justin". It was funnier than anything Artie said or did in Shrek 3. Let Shrek, Donkey or Puss do the talking, dude.

As far as I'm concerned, Shrek 3 was an unnecessary sequel that still worked for me with some good humour and the characters being as charming as ever. The story was more meaningful for the main characters. The end of this adventure, even though repeating the message of the previous films, provided me with satisfying closure on the story of the happy Shrek family. Too bad that another unnecessary sequel is coming, undoubtedly with even more hype and more dull characters like Artie. Sadly, the Shrek franchise seems to be the most inspired thing coming from Dreamworks Animations.

The story of Shrek the Third (2007) is not quite as good as the first or second films but the comical lines and visual comedy is still right up there with the first two movies.

Some of the new characters are not quite as enduring and memorable in Shrek 3 but they are quite likable and entertaining.

The animation in this 3rd installment of the film series is still awesome.

All I can really say is I enjoyed this 3rd film. And I do recommend it if you enjoyed Shrek and Shrek 2.

8.5/10

"Shrek the Third" was made in the same manner as the first two, as a combination of parodies to various fairy tales with references to pop culture. But even though it's a top-quality cartoon, it's not at the level of its predecessors. Animation and music are excellent, but there's less humor and it's less funny. While I was crying of laughter during first two movies, this time I sincerely laughed just a few times. Although, to be honest, I'm not sure if this is due to a weaker scenario or it's simply saturation, because sequels that stick to the recipe of the first film inevitably lack originality and the surprise factor. Movie is great, but it does not bring anything new.

7,5/10

So, I just caught the 10 pm show of Shrek 3 and I gotta say, as a fan of the first two I was not impressed. In fact, I was very disappointed. It literally was the same movie the third time, and instead of infusing it with tons of fun and pop culture references like the second Shrek did, it just relied on its plot and genre convention to further it. There was ONE funny moment. The Led Zeppelin reference was good and was funny, but as a whole, the movie was a phoned in experience. Again, what a disappointment. At least most of the stuff shown in the trailer was in the first fifteen minutes or so and you get fresh stuff from there on out. The sad thing is that this fresh stuff feels dull and rehashed even though you've never seen it before.

Terrible effort all the way around.

The first movie ever produced by Dreamworks, was the great action movie "The peacemaker" with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. The first animation pictures by Dreamworks were "The prince of Egypt" and "The road to El Dorado". The truth however is that it was the 2001-blockbuster "Shrek" that put Dreamworks on the map. It was a fabulous animation picture and one of the funniest ever made. The sequel had less jokes than the first one, but it turned out to be the ultimate feel-good movie and thus it was a fantastic movie altogether. Many wondered how far they could go with this franchise. As it turned out, there will be a fourth Shrek-movie in the near future and there's even a spin-off planned for one of its characters namely the Spanish Zorro-cat Puss in Boots. Needless to say: this franchise is doing extremely well. Even so: the third Shrek-film is by far the weakest one yet and this let-down is a bit unexpected.

"Shrek the Third" is by no means a bad movie. It's in fact the opposite. It's a good movie. The special effects of this film are absolutely stunning! They are better than those of the previous Shrek-movies. Now each and every character has its own unique clothing and they all have a very different kind of haircut too. There's more use of color and a much wider variety of facial expressions of each character. The amount of people in a single frame has also increased exponentially. The frequent use of daylight (or any other kind of light such as torches) and darkness are far more impressive and they also open up a whole new world for creating realistic shadows. New world are introduced as well and they all appear vastly superior. And we even get to see real magic by Merlin; the greatest wizard of all who can shoot light beams from his hands.

So visually, the Shrek-movies have only improved. Then what's with that slight feel of disappointment if everything seems so beautiful? Well, the problem is that they obviously were more focused on the looks than on the contents of this animation film. "Shrek the Third" is always quite amusing to watch and never any boring, but there simply aren't too many funny jokes to be had. Whilst the first film was literally crammed with hilarious moments, the third one will probably produce a few smiles on your face and an occasional laugh ... but that's about it! The overuse of long-winded monologues and conversations are the main reason as to why the third Shrek-film is no match for its previous installments. Then again: the newborn triplets of Shrek are without a doubt the cutest thing ever created in the history of animation. They look like real babies and all three of them are exceptionally adorable. Pity that we only saw so little of them in this movie. But I have a strong feeling that they will play an important part in the next one for sure.

The cast of "Shrek the Third" is only growing with each new chapter. By now: Mike Myers is playing on automatic pilot and the same could be said for Cameron Diaz and Eddy Murphy. They are all still quite funny but they add nothing new really. Antonio Banderas should also be categorized as such, but somehow I found his character a lot more amusing than the ones above. The same goes for Rupert Everett who stars again as Prince Charming. This character is also a joy to watch. A lot less funny but still okay are two new characters. The wizard Merlin makes a short yet rather comical appearance and is wonderfully voiced by British actor Eric Idle who's probably best known as a member of Monty Python. American singer/songwriter Justin Timberlake does the voice of Artie - the soon-to-be king of Far far away. This character is neither interesting nor funny, and that's a real pity.

Many fairy tale creatures return such as Pinocchio, the three pigs and of course the Gingerbread man. New ones are added such as Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping beauty. The constant quarrel between the ladies does provide a couple of good jokes. But unfortunately: not all jokes work out well. And this is not how things used to be in the world of Shrek. Perhaps the fourth movie will find a perfect balance again between awesome computer graphics and an endless diversity of funny jokes.

In short: "Shrek the Third" is not only the third in number, but also in quality. It's a good animation movie but the cracks are clearly beginning to show. If the next movie isn't hilarious like Shrek 1 or refreshing like Shrek 2, they ought to pull the plug.

Another adventure with Shrek and the gang with more additional characters, easy wstching, probably the weakest of the three so far, but still enjoyable and always great artists on the sound track

As far as sequels go, this is very good. As far as Shrek films go, this is also very good. Like all the others, this one is entertaining, funny and exciting. Despite the plot being slightly unoriginal, this film's plot is very well-planned and fast-paced.

Compared to the second one, the old characters in this "Shrek" film are exceedingly good. Shrek is often a lovely happy old ogre and a lot nicer and more gentle than in any of the other films. Donkey is still an amusing donkey - luckily not too annoying! Princess Fiona (always an ogre) in this film has a strong, quite eager and often relaxed personality, which very much suits her. Unfortunately, Puss in Boots doesn't have the chance to do nearly as well as he did the second film, but still has the same good personality (possibly a little more Spanish!).

The new characters are very well done. The wizard (voiced by Eric Idle) is an incredibly amusing character with a funnily worried personality. Artie is a nice guy, although when provoked can produce quite a temper. Overall he is a good character.

While King Harold (now a frog) is ill, Shrek is taking responsiblities of running the kingdom and feels he is DEFINITELY not cut out to be a king. Just before the poor frog comes to his place in heaven, he tells Shrek that besides him, the only heir is a wee boy called Arthur. Is he cut out to be king..?

Enjoy "Shrek the Third"! :-)

7 and a half out of ten.

There is good things and bad things about this movie, but I'd say that to its credit the main problem with it was unavoidable---it's the third in a series, and the main idea has been used twice already, is familiar to everyone, and the freshness of it is gone. For some franchises, the pain starts already in the second (Men in Black comes to mind, or Analyze That), when really nothing is added to an original (and initially surprising) premise, and it is merely milked for what it's worth, with usually sad results.

I don't think that was the case with Shrek 2, and neither is it with The Third---the writers still find enough interesting and original ideas to weave into the story, they use the old characters to good effect and add interesting new characters to provide some novelty. The dialog is up to the (high) standards of its two predecessors, and the animation is stunning.

All in all, even though it won't set new standards for animated features like the original Shrek might have, Shrek the Third is an entertaining movie that delivers what it promises---a good time with the titular hero and his friends (and family), nothing more, but also nothing less.

Shrek The Third is a fantastic movie with a very well developed storyline,a very impressive voice cast and brilliant characters.It is without a doubt my least favourite of all the Shrek movies,the story just isn't as good and more that the jokes miss more often this time around,but its still a great animated movie for the whole family to enjoy,and like the other two there are plenty of jokes for younger and older members of the family to laugh at.If your a fan of the first two Shrek's,you will definitely be disappointed by Shrek the Third,but you will will still laugh and enjoy very much.

After the death of Fionas father,Harold,he wants Shrek to take his place as king of Far Far Away,but Shrek wants to return to his old swamp along with a pregnant Fiona,so Shrek,Donkey and Puss In Boots go to go in search of Fionas cousin Arthur (voiced by Justin Timberlake),but a Prince Charming seeking revenge gets in the way.

The second Shrek film to me was one of the most formulated, only made to make money sequels I've ever seen. The original film was terrific, but number two screamed "lets fill the pockets of Dreamworks SKG." Number three was obviously made with one purpose in mind; making money, however, the film is a pleasant surprise.

The negative reviews of Shrek the Third have been abound, from the papers to IMDb. I personally enjoyed the film and found the animation to be stunning. The layers on the human faces were superb and the animation was throughly fluid.

The film has a lot of subtle jokes and innuendo for adults. If you're like me and couldn't stand the second movie, you might throughly enjoy Shrek the Third.

I had high expectations for this movie. When I saw Shrek 2, I was pleasantly surprised. Few sequels are as good as the original, but Shrek 2 was.

Shrek the third did not continue this trend. While there were sill plenty of funny moments, it was nowhere near as amusing or original as the first two. They could have done so much more with this movie if they had tried. At the end, I felt sort of cheated.

However, Shek the third isn't a bad movie in itself, only when compared to the others. I would still recommend going to see it. Unlike most, I liked Artie's character, even if he did talk too much (I'm not even a Justin Timberlake fan).