In the movie, Mike Meyers (SNL, and the Austin Powers Series) plays Shrek, a huge green ogre who keeps to himself and lives alone in his swamp home constantly trying to be killed by angry villagers with pickforks, whom he often easily exterminates of. When the evil lord Farquaard played by John Lithgow (Third Rock from the Sun) forces fairy tale creatures off the royal lands, they take shelter in, of all places, Shrek's swamp. Shrek, so urgent to get the creatures off his home, meets a talking donkey named... Donkey played by Eddie Murphy (Dr. Dolittle, SNL), and they must go to the palace to make a deal with the lord. But the lord makes a deal with Shrek, instead. He must rescue a beautiful princess named Fiona played by Cameron Diaz (The Sweetest Thing, The Mask). Now shrek and Donkey must risk their necks, all for the sake of getting his home back once and for all.

This is a delightful film, I must say. I began watching this with a sort of cynicism, because, after years and years of watching Hollywood pull out pieces of animated crap, it's not too hard to weed out the bad and good movies. One thing that kept me watching this flick was the awesome soundtrack. Bands like Joan Jett and Smash Mouth grace the movie which made this very pleasant to watch. This gives us a very medieval scenery and feel while spoofing and satirizing modern conveniences. You should see how they spoof parking lots. It sounds irrelevant but just pay attention. All the actors and animated characters mesh well together providing a great time with this.

Mike Myers is excellent and very smooth in his role. Cameron Diaz is surprisingly funny, which is hard for hot girls like her. My favorite character of course was Eddie Murphy's Donkey. He was hilarious and often had me in tears. God Bless Funny people, eh? I loved the entire scenery of the movie, which was very soothing and easy on the eyes. I loved the way they twisted the fairytales and made them freakishly hilarious. This movie seemed to have a lot of pop culture references, which never seem to get old. This is a good movie from Dreamwork's and a all around romp for more mature kids. Warning, there's some foul language in this.

The problem with this movie is its too short. Running at only an hour and forty minutes, buying this is kind of a rip-off. The DVD features twelve hours of extra footage! If only they could have included an hour to this movie. I would have liked to more of Lord Farquaad. I thought he was very underused for such a funny and neurotic character. I also would have liked more of the adventure with Shrek and Donkey, this seemed to suffer the same fate as "The Emperors New Groove". I would have loved to see them bond more and interact, but it didn't offer much. Too bad.

A very good and weird animated comedy adventure with great acting by Meyers, Murphy, and Diaz. Kids will love the plot, parents will love the jokes.