There had to be a “Shrek the Third.”
The 2001 CG fairy tale satire was a massive hit that put DreamWorks animation on a par with Disney, sold 50 million DVDs and won the first animated feature Academy Award.
Its 2004 sequel made even more money: $441 million, which puts it behind only “Titanic” and the original “Star Wars” on the list of domestic box-office champs.
But those two pictures also tapped out most well-known fairy tale material, touched all the pop-culture reference bases (songs, stores, other movies, “American Idol”) they could bear, introduced more than enough sidekicks and did the Larry-King-voices-an-ugly-stepsister thing.
So what can they do this third time around that isn’t just about cashing in with a movie every kid will want to see and all of their parents know they can tolerate? Beyond just giving Larry King a new sister voiced by Regis Philbin, that is.
Maybe logical character development is enough.
“In the first one, Shrek had to learn to love himself in order to be loved,” explains Mike Myers, the voice behind the stinky green title ogre.
“In the second one, he had to learn to love himself in order to marry and start his own family. In this third one, opening Thursday, Shrek has to learn to love himself enough to believe that an ogre could possibly be a father or the king of a country.
“And I feel, anyway, that the third one honors the first and second ones.
There is a heft, if you will, to him, except he has this one more rite of passage to go before he can fully be responsible for another human being.” That’s nice for Shrek. But what about Fiona, the princess turned ogre-wife who now has to persuade her reluctant husband to accept the crown of her deceased father’s kingdom, Far Far Away? “The biggest stride in her evolution as a person was in the first film,” says Cameron Diaz, who reportedly earns eight figures for letting digital artists frumpify her splendid-looking self.
“She was in the tower, following the story, doing what she thought she was expected to do, being a princess. But once she became the ogre, once she accepted herself for who she truly was, that’s when she was most empowered.
“From then on, she’s been sort of the rock, the anchor that holds all these kooky characters in this tribe called ‘Shrek’ steady. I feel like she’s sort of the straight man in the story.” OK, not much new happening there. Even when Fiona leads a bunch of heroine pals such as Sleeping Beauty and Snow White against an army of bad guys led by Rupert Everett’s Prince Charming, we remember that she’s got those flying kung fu moves from the first “Shrek.” Diaz is thrilled, though, that this time the fighting damsels make a new thematic point.
“I love that the message that’s delivered through the princesses turns the whole fairy tale idea of waiting to be rescued on its ear,” she says.
“And it’s a message that’s for boys and girls alike. You just can’t sit and wait around for somebody to do something for you. You have to go out and make it happen for yourself.” At least Fiona has some friends this time, while Shrek’s off with his buddies Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas), trying to persuade his wife’s dweeby teenage cousin Artie (Justin Timberlake) to take the Far Away throne.
But these are all fairly predictable story elements, and probably about as wild as you can expect things to get on such a well-known, money-making enterprise.
“I feel a custodial pressure,” Myers admits. “Because 1 and 2 were happily, and gratefully, so well-received, on the third one you want to just say to people, ‘Thank you for coming to 1 and 2, and we’re going to honor you by making the third the best movie it could possibly be.’ ” But there is a slight difference, Myers notes.
“The third one is slightly deeper than the first and second ones. That was my concession to change.” Chris Miller, an artist and voice actor on previous “Shrek” outings who moved up to direct “The Third,” explains the cautious, thought-out manner in which the sequels are created.
“We go, ‘What’s organic to the character’s development, what’s the next natural step?’ And then, ‘What’s funny about that? What’s real, what’s heartfelt?’ And then it’s, ‘What is that world like, and what are parts of that world that we haven’t explored?’ ” What would the filmmakers say is this installment’s most impressive technical advancement? “The biggest breakthrough is taking the world and the characters to another level of believability,” Miller states.
“Giving the animators the tools to take these amazing actors’ voices and bring out even more of what they give us in the characters.
“But we didn’t want to do something that was going be like, ‘Oh, I don’t recognize this as anything to do with the “Shrek” world.’ So we wanted to stay within that and just take it up a notch. Some of the stuff is subtle.
Two pieces of clothing moving against each other is something we couldn’t do before. We did hair before, but now it’s more natural. A lot of facial expressiveness is improved.” The emotive complexity is remarkable. And yeah, the clothes and hair are nice.
But all that’s about as exciting as getting apple slices with your Happy Meal. It says something about “Shrek the Third” that the biggest news regarding it so far has nothing to do with the movie, but that McDonald’s has agreed to only use the big fat ogre and his friends to promote its healthier food products.
Perhaps they just don’t have to do too much that’s new and different for “Shrek the Third.” After all, “Spider-Man 3” was criticized for running on vapors from the series’ previous installments, and it just opened to record-breaking box-office numbers. The cartoon comes out between that blockbuster three-peat and May 25’s highly anticipated third “Pirates of the Caribbean” romp, “At World’s End.” And the new Pirates,” rather than just being another sequel, has the extra added want-to-see factor of wrapping up the story begun in last year’s monster hit “Dead Man’s Chest.” The “Third” team isn’t too worried that there may only room for two Part 3s in the marketplace, though.
“It’s hard not to think about it because everybody brings it up to us all the time,” Miller admits. “But I think ‘Spider-Man’ doing as well as it did bodes incredibly well for us. It made people really want to go to the movies right now and have a good time. That’s what they’re going to get from us and that’s what they’re going to get from ‘Pirates,’ I’m sure, as well. We hope for the best.
“But honestly, the most important thing for us to do is, from the very start, hunker down and make a film that we like and think is entertaining and fun, and try not to worry about the expectations.” Whether those are met or not, the franchise will continue. A “Shrek the Halls” Christmas television special is already on ABC’s year-end schedule. And story lines for a fourth feature are currently in the batting-around stages.
For some reason, the suggestion that Shrek and Fiona get divorced next time seems to come up a lot. Aron Warner, a producer on all three “Shrek” movies, cracks, “It’s fascinating what people gravitate toward.”
