The first episode of Shrek ended with the classic phrase, "They lived beautifully long unto death", or for the Ogre and the Ogress, "And they lived ugly unto a cruel death", and it was up to the writers to graft a new story onto this cinematic ending that could be used for the next episode. They came up with a simple story of what happens when Shrek and his companion have to visit Fiona's parents, who have promised Fiona to Prince Charming, who is so beautiful his eyes cross. Mixed in with this are Puss in Boots, Pinocchio, the famous gingerbread man: "Pour me the icing" (See Part One) and his big brother, and even more fairy tale creatures both familiar and unknown to us. Even Sleeping Beauty. This story is quite simple, but interwoven with various jokes, for example in the Czech version, "This bush looks like Halina Pawlovska", or "We are not Srstka and Kubišová, we will have him castrated", and so the film is not only for children, there are three songs, but also for adults. Everyone will find a piece of their favourite humour. It uses a lot of quotes from various famous movies like Mission: Impossible, Desperado, Zoroo and more...
Photo © 2004 DreamWorks Pictures
From the very beginning of the film, even within the five minutes that it is freely downloadable on the internet, you can see that the computer technology of creating movies and computer characters has advanced since the first episode, the characters have better facial expressions, better body proportions, better body shapes. They even have some things that couldn't have been created in the development of the first installment, such as the human characters' pubes, the hair on Shrek's chest, and other details that enhance the film.
Photo © 2004 DreamWorks Pictures
I had the opportunity to see the film in the Czech version, so I couldn't enjoy the original voices of Cameron Diaz, Mike Myers (Shrek), Eddie Murphy (Donkey), , John Cleese (Fiona's father), Julie Andrews (Fiona's mother) and Antonio Banderas, so Czech voices took their place. The Czech actors threw themselves into dubbing and the dubbing was surprisingly good, but I was mainly disappointed that compared to the first episode I had the opportunity to see on TV, the same actors did not dub, so it was a problem to get used to the dubbers. But it did take some getting used to, and it didn't do the film any shame. Rather, the dubbing of the first episode on Czech television was of poor quality. Unfortunately, it is perhaps a rule in CT that they take animated films off the shelves, and turn the jewels of the world animation world, Shrek, Princess Mononoke, into a complete "Mudbound" with only dubbing, and with the limitation of the musical component that makes the film a film.
Photo © 2004 DreamWorks Pictures
Speaking of music, Harry Gregson-Williams, composed some of the basic themes. The vast majority of the musical sections, even some of the songs, were taken from other composers such as David Bowle, Kathleen Brennan and other music writers. It's just that the entire musical component wasn't about one author, and so the music was not monotonous, but of high quality, the theme changes, and you can see that the authors tried their best.
Let's not forget the end of the film, which ends like the previous episode, with a song, pretty cool performed by a cat in boots and a donkey. And I'd recommend not leaving before the end of the film, the donkey's partner and her offspring also appear.
Original release of this article December 25, 2023 – Kritiky.cz
