Le Noël Shrektaculaire de l'Âne

I don't like Christmas specials, but this is Shrek we are talking about, so I had to see it. But after watching I realized I really didn't have to. It's not boring only because it's 5 minutes long, so it has no time to bore you. Not even mediocre.

4,5/10

The gang is having their Christmas party and Donkey is singing. Others follow in turn with their own renditions of familiar Christmas songs. While it's fun to have the gang around, there isn't any plot. It's essentially sing-along time. It's harder to get the jokes when it's in song form. It's too short to be a musical with so many songs. This won't be a classic but it's fine for a short.

Dreamworks Animation show that you can flog a jiving donkey as we have Yuletide Shrek spin off with a 6 minute cartoon short.

Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and other Shrek characters sing Christmas tunes with a version of Jingle Bells, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year and Jingle Bell Rock all with the usual Shrek trimmings.

Puss in Boots sings Feliz Navidad although he titles it as Fleas Navidad.

Dreamworks brings Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas, Cameron Diaz and other regulars together. The animation is good and it zips along well to keep everyone in the festive spirit.

Donkey's Caroling Christmas-Tacular (2010)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This spin off from the SHREK series isn't going to win any awards but kids should find it entertaining. At just six-minutes there's really not too much going on outside what the title offers. Donkey (voice of Eddie Murphy) has a group of friends over to sing Christmas tunes and we get re-worked version of songs like Jingle Bells, The Most Wonderful Time of the Year and Jingle Bell Rock. Again, I'm sure children are going to love seeing their favorite characters back in this short, although I think adults might not be quite as entertained. I say that because while the re-worked songs here are cute enough, I think the film would have been much better had the original versions been sung. In fact, I'm sure many children are already familiar with the classic originals so even they might have had more fun with them. With that said, the animation is fairly good and there's no question that quite a bit of imagination went into the production. The re-worked songs on their own are quite imaginative as well.

There's little to be said about 'Donkey's Caroling Christmas-tacular', as it is merely a swift celebration of the 'Shrek' universe. Unlike the films, which have an emotional tie for Shrek's character, this short is lacking a sense of story progression, which is a small shame in some way because 'Christmas-tacular' marks a return to eccentric, unrelenting humour in the manner of the original film and the first sequel; that is, a constant barrage of visual and verbal puns that the producers behind the third and fourth movies could not quite replicate, despite their best efforts.

Every one is catered for with screen time shared equally between Shrek's ever-popular family and friends, the joy of which is found in discovering the festive season through the perspective of a flea-ridden cat, or a living party snack. It is characterisation like this that contributes to the endearing nature of the series.

'Christmas-tacular' doesn't quite hit a home run like 'Shrek the Halls' before it, as that short successfully intertwined a simple plot that added the necessary weight to contain the sheer madness that punctuates nearly every moment of this franchise. However, Donkey's festivities are a great way to kick-start your own Christmas season.

8/10