Shrekkato da morire

Surprisingly hilarious Halloween special with the first episode, a brilliant Bride of Frankenstein parody, particularly outstanding.

After the average Christmas special the writers really upped the ante and came up with some gruesomely funny ideas and jokes, using the by now all too well-known Shrek characters remarkably well.

The result's an entertaining half-hour roller-coaster with only the middle section lagging.

Since the first two installments, Shrek has never been this funny. Aaaargh!!!

7 out of 10 haunted castles

Shrek challenges the cast of regulars -- with Eddie Murphy replaced by Dean Edwards as the voice of Donkey -- to a competition at telling scary stories for Hallowe'en. But for purposes of this TV special, they have to hold the competition in Lord Farquaad's ruined and spooky castle.

There are a couple of gags repeated from the feature movie, and Mike Myers doesn't seem to be using the exactly the same voice, but for a half-hour TV special, it's certainly amusing. The scariness of the stories seems to be muted for appropriateness of a TV audience. This seems a bit odd to me, considering some of the scatological gags of the original movie, but it's fun.

On Halloween, Shrek and several fairy tale characters go to the castle of Lord Farquaad, where they compete in telling scary stories. The last one remaining in the castle wins. This twenty-minute cartoon consists of three stories done as a homage to cult horrors. Gingerbread's story is inspired by the film "Bride of Frankenstein", Puss and Donkey squabble in their usual way through a parody of Hitchcock's "Psycho", and Shrek wins the night with scenes from the movie "The Exorcist" applied to Pinocchio. Imaginative, witty and technically well done. I enjoyed it very much.

8/10

Scared Shrekless is a very fun animation that plays out as a compilation of horror shorts (obviously not too scary with it being for kids) spoofing original thrillers. You have Psycho, starring Puss and Donkey with Prince Charming being Norman Bates and Night of the living dead featuring Gingerbread men, you get the idea.

It's a joy to see all the Shrek actors playing their parts with such enthusiasm and the animation is really great being colourful in parts and suitably spooky looking in others.

8/10: Great fun

Scared Shrekless (2010) is a short film in which Shrek's friends take it in turns telling him scary stories in an effort to frighten the big fella and prove that ogres can be terrified too. Leading the charge is Donkey (surprisingly not voiced by Eddie Murphy), who instigates the whole ordeal, and he's joined by Puss in Boots, Gingerbread Man, Pinocchio, The Three Little Pigs and The Big Bad Wolf. Only the first three get to actually tell a tale because Shrek himself chimes in with a story that just so happens to have the world's best pun as a title. The three stories are all enjoyable in their own right, as is the framing device. There are several entertaining, if ham-fisted, references to previous movies in the series, as well as to other films and to the fairytales that lend the franchise its characters. It's really fun, actually, and is varied enough to never feel stale. It's a pacy, well-animated affair that's much better than I was expecting it to be.