Rated PG (For some crude humor, a brief substance reference and some suggestive content)
Directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, and Conrad Vernon
Starring the voices of Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy
Shrek and Fiona are back, Donkey too. And the pressure to “deliver” is on, as most sequels fall short. Does Shrek 2 deliver? Does it live up to the reputation of the first film?
Audiences seem to think so. . . and so do the deep pockets of Dreamworks. In 2001 the first Shrek brought in over 42 million dollars on opening weekend, eventually grossing over 267 million. Shrek 2 brought in 108 million on opening weekend eventually grossing over 436 million dollars.
Shrek 2 brings us new characters, new adventures and . . . mostly new jokes. They couldn’t resist re-visiting the typical Michael Myers humor: farting, the double meaning of the word “ass,” and other crude humor and suggestive content.
The story is simple: Princess Fiona’s parents invite Shrek and Fiona for dinner, but her parents don’t expect two ogres. To make matters worse, Fiona’s fairy godmother has hidden plans for Fiona to marry her own son, Prince Charming. Shrek gets jealous, Fiona gets deceived, Donkey gets a make-over and the fun begins. Not to mention the hit new character, the notorious hit-man “Puss In Boots”(by far the favorite character of most audiences).
Shrek 2 is indeed creative. The story was original and the characters always bring laughs. The only dilemma is the stigma of the modern animated film. Back in the day, animation meant, “clean.” If the film was animated, you could pretty much count on the film being acceptable to kids. I know that some will disagree. Sure, snow white had an evil character that wanted to cut out her heart and put it in a box. Okay, given. But I didn’t see a lot of kids walking around wanting to cut people’s hearts out. Modern animation seems to contain more crude humor and imitative behavior. Guaranteed, kids walking out of the original Shrek were giggling and quoting his “I’m going to save my ass!” line.
Today, as parents, we need to be a little more prudent about screening the movies marketed to our kids. All of us can probably share stories about where we were burned by a movie that we “thought” was going to be a great kids film, but turned out to be quite the opposite. (Barbequed “Shark Tale” anyone?)
SHOULD LITTLE KIDS SEE IT?
It’s your call–reread the above two paragraphs. And in Shrek 2 they refer to Shrek’s “sexy tush,” they re-visit the old “ass” joke with donkey, and they joke about Pinocchio wearing ladies underwear and then give him a wedgy, exposing that he is indeed wearing a ladies thong.
Conversation Starter
Three Simple Questions (with Answers You May Be Looking for):
- What are some of the messages or themes you observed in this movie?
- How do you suppose we—as serious Christ-followers—should react to this movie?
- How can we move from healthy, Bible-based opinions about this movie to actually living out those opinions?
