More alternative fairytale mayhem with everyone's favourite ogre
POOR OLD SHREK. Happily married with three gurgling (well, burping from tops and bottoms) Shreklets, an exuberant best buddy, Donkey, and heroic status among the townsfolk who now run Star Tour bus rides past his home. Whatever happened to the good old days when everyone would run a mile from the grouchy green ogre: now he can’t even visit the outhouse without a throng of sightseers trying to get a picture! Looks like our hero is having something of a mid-life crisis: wouldn’t it be great, he thinks, if he could revert to his former existence, even if only for a day? Well, as a wise sage once said: “Be careful what you wish for.” Striking a bargain with scoundrel Rumpelstiltskin, Shrek gets more than he bargained for when – in an It’s A Wonderful Life-esque twist – he gets a glimpse of what life would have been like if he had never rescued Princess Fiona from her tower prison. Instead, feisty Fiona managed to free herself, becoming a crusading feminist in the process and, as a warrior princess, Boudica style, is ready to lead an ogre uprising. But will she fall for Shrek all over again to break the spell? There's tons of humour, including Antonia Bandera revisiting his role as the cat who has let himself go, as well as poignant moments and a cracking soundtrack in this worthy finale. Shrek Forever After 3D, Cert PG, is at cinemas nationwide; www.shrek.com
