Shrek - Oh du Shrekliche

I like Dreamworks animation just as much as I like Disney animation. This was very cute for the holidays. Silly, but sweet. Eddie Murphy has always been silly, but I like his movies. This one is definitely short because I saw it on the ABC network and there were lots of commercials. And I do agree with one of the other reviewers, that this could have been made into a much longer film. I gave it a solid 7 star rating because it was great! It has a good 'family' touch to it. It makes you wonder just what we consider a family. We have an immediate family (which I learned while I was in the military) and that's your spouse and children (or mother, father, sister and brother). And then we have our secondary family, which is everyone else related to you by blood. But I think family should be the entire universe of people. People all over the world, join hands, start a love train. Seriously, but watch this 21 minute short animation. You'll enjoy it.

For many months Shrek has been ignoring Donkey's excitable babbling about Christmas. However it is only at the very last minute that he learns that this is something special to Fiona and the kids too. Going out in a rush to get things organised, Shrek buys a "how to" book on the perfect Christmas and sets about giving Fiona the perfect family Christmas. Problem is, Donkey has a different understanding of the word "family" than Shrek....

I hadn't seen Shrek The Third when I watched this but when one reviewer mentioned this short film as being the reason they had nothing good left for the film, I thought it was worth twenty or so minutes. And indeed it was as it produced a perfect piece of animated fun for Christmas Eve. The story is about the meaning of Christmas and it has a great moral at the end on how it doesn't have to be perfect because no family is. This worked better for me than the usual sugar coated Christmas ideals that get served up each year but this was a side issue for me as really I was there for the laughs.

Fortunately these are present in spades with the film being consistently funny with a hatful of really good laugh-out-loud moments. The German pigs are a treat and the gingerbread man's horrific experience with Santa is a clever reference as well as being very funny while Donkey of course does his usual fast talking stuff. Shrek and Fiona are, as normal, handed slightly weaker material as they are at the core of the film and thus not able to just drop in for a funny line or strong scene, but they are still fun. My favourite moment was Puss losing himself playing with a bauble ("I have shamed myself") – that had me rolling. The voice work is roundly good and the laughs are reasonably evenly spread out for everyone to get a bite.

Overall then a very funny and warming Christmas animation that demonstrates the sort of touch and humour that made us all love Shrek in the first place.

This little 22 minute marvel accomplishes what Shrek the Third could not: it is consistently funny and works well on its own. Shrek the Third was mildly amusing, while this is side-splittingly funny. It is also easy for most of the audience to relate to. Everyone has tried to create the perfect Christmas before, and everyone can relate to wanting to have an intimate Christmas with the immediate family. Some have commented that it bears a resemblance to the Star Wars Holiday Special, but I just don't see it. It breezes by without unnecessary musical numbers or "special guest appearances". All in all, an amusing little time-waster, and I hope that future editions of Shrek the Third on DVD come packaged with this as a bonus.

This Shrek the Halls holiday special can be both frantic and funny and enjoyable and maybe a little exasperating all at the same time and will probably be another classic to be enjoyed for years to come for adults and children and their families in subsequent Decembers to come. Eddie Murphy's Donkey still has that endearingly irritating quality that makes him often the funniest character in this franchise. Mike Myers's Shrek still has that exasperated appeal we can identify with when Donkey almost goes too far in his constant cheeriness. Cameron Diaz' Fiona makes a nice balance for Shrek when he needs cheering up. Antonio Banderas' Puss in Boots is still at his suave and cute best. And the Gingerbread Man's frightening reaction to Santa Claus is a great touch of a twist in this wonderful parody of various animated Christmas specials over the years! So if you thought there weren't any more original holiday shows to be made, Shrek the Halls may slightly change your mind about that.

I have been a long-time Shrek fan. Since basically drooling over the trailer for the first Shrek movie since it was released on the net. It was groundbreaking, and absolutely hilarious that appealed to both children and adults. Shrek 2 came along, kept a lot of the same formula, and again in turn was a very good film. However with the coming of Shrek 3, I was very disappointed. My wife and I hardly laughed at all, and I found the film to be drawn out and boring for the most part.

***Enough of the lead-in*** With Shrek the Halls, comes redemption and hope for the franchise. Yes, this special was short, however in that short amount of time I laughed more than the entire full length of Shrek 3. This wasn't a cheesy made-for-TV video either, the animation is beautiful and the jokes were spot on (the entire Gingerbread man / Santa thing was great). I'm not going to spoil anything away, since there's really not much *to* spoil away, but just know it's fun for the whole family, and for something that you can watch in the comfort of your own home without having to pay for theater admission, how can you pass this up?