Shrek's life seems to be going pretty well. He and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) are happily married and currently managing the kingdom since Fiona's father, Harold the Frog King (John Cleese), is sick. Harold's last wish is for Shrek (Mike Meyers) and Fiona to take over the throne or search for Fiona's long-lost cousin, Arthur Pendragon (Justin Timberlake) and have him take the crown. Shrek jumps at the chance to not take on the responsibility of controlling Far Far Away and heads out to look for Artie. As Shrek, Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) head out to find the young man, Fiona shouts to Shrek that she is pregnant. This revelation puts Shrek in a real funk since he doesn't believe he can be a good father.
The group find Arthur, a weakling little kid in high school, and try to bring him back. But a shipwreck leaves them stranded on an island with Artie's old magic teacher, Merlin (Eric Idle). Meanwhile, back at Far Far Away, Prince Charming has led a revolt with all of the bad guys from the fairy tales and taken over the kingdom.
Like the other two movies, this one is full of multi-level humor so while both adults and kids will laugh, they will be for very different reasons. One of my favorite parts of this movie is when the princesses (including Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella) storm the castle with their various powers; it's just good fun.
The HD DVD version of Shrek the Third comes with a few features that the DVD version doesn't have. One of these is not your typical commentary, but a Picture-In-Picture mode where the inset image is of the storyboard art called Animator's Corner. This disc also comes with the various features found on the normal DVD as well. For instance, Lost Scenes shows briefings at Dreamworks where the crew go through storyboards that didn't make it into the movie, while Big Green Goofs is another gag-reel of rendering problems or times when the result just wasn't quite right - it seems like most of the issues here were in the hair department.
The feature that was of real interest to me was "The Tech of Shrek" documentary that talked about how the technology had advanced over the years and how much more control the animators have over everything from hair and clothes to lighting, fire and the magic effects.
From a technical standpoint, this trilogy started back in 2001 and since then, CG technology has improved in leaps and bounds, partially because of the Shrek movies. While each film has managed to make astounding improvements in the visual capabilities in one form or another, the series has still been able to keep its very distinctive style. In the last movie, the wet-fur look was really showcased (and even that effect is improved here) and in this one, hair in general is wonderful looking, especially on the horses. It's just all great.
Shrek the Third does a great job rounding off the trilogy and, while maybe not quite as good as the previous movies, though it is right behind the first two films in my opinion, is great for any existing fan of the movies. I have to say, if you are waffling between the HD and standard DVD versions of this film, this format is definitely worth looking at.
