It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Shrek

Shrek Forever After - 8.2/10
"See-it-again" Value - 3





I'll never forget that the first movie that I ever saw multiple times while still in theaters was the first Shrek. Dreamworks has hit home with this franchise and has been able to expand and build upon this loveable green guy's story to give us three movies that people young and old have come to enjoy. That's why when the credits began to roll after the fourth installment of the series, I felt my stomach sink. I know that sounds cheesy but I've grown up with Shrek, Donkey, Fiona, and the gang.

Shrek Forever After takes place close to where Shrek the Third left off. Shrek is enjoying life as a father with the ogre of his dreams, Fiona, by his side. But, he soon finds everyday to be a monotonous routine and grows tired and irritated. People no longer fear him as an ogre, but rather as a tourist attraction...literally.
Shrek finds himself making a deal with the mischievious Rumpelstiltskin. He signs a magical contract that says if Shrek gives up a day, he can have a day to feel like an ogre again. He can pillage, destroy, scare, eat, and fart all he wants. Once the contract is signed, everything goes downhill. Shrek finds himself in a very different world where, essentially, all of the major plot happenings from the last three movies never occurred. Shrek soon finds that he was cheated and lied to. Rumpelstiltskin had found some loopholes and now its up to Shrek to fix everything and get his life back before its too late.

Let me start by saying that I still enjoy the first movie the most out of all them. Shrek 2 has always run a close second. But Shrek Forever After has joined the ranks of the second film, tying it for my second favorite of the four movies.

As we all know, the Shrek films have never been strictly about child audiences. Dreamworks' ability to intertwine clever and hidden adult humor into a world of innocence and "Happily-ever-afters" has never failed; this includes Shrek Forever After.

But what I found that was the most impressive about the film was that it taught a very important lesson, something that I believe films are lacking now days. I mean, sure, not every movie has to have a moral, but more of the children's movies should. We need to instill this sense of morality and right vs. wrong early; what better way to do so than to teach while the kids are enjoying themselves.


Shrek Forever After impressed me on every level. It had the great innocent jokes, as well as the ones that only an adult would catch. It had the return of all the characters we love. It was classic Shrek. Seeing as how the third film, Shrek the Third, seemed to have lost its touch a bit, the fourth movie comes and goes with a roar to end the quadrilogy.