With Film Number Four, the Shrek Franchise Is Ogre and Done With

It's easy to hate Shrek. It's a hugely successful franchise - spawning three sequels and a Broadway musical - that comes off a bit bloated compared to recent Pixar masterpieces such as Wall-E and Up.  However, when you find yourself cracking up at a gag involving the Three Little Pigs maybe cynicism should be checked at the door.

Shrek, once again voiced by the Scottish-accent-obsessed Mike Myers, finds himself in a mid-life crisis. The married-with-children routine, plus his celebrity status, has decimated his inner ogre to the point where the once fearful villagers are now asking him to sign their pitchforks. He longs to be able to roar with pride and mud bathe in privacy, even for a day. A desperate, redheaded troll offers to help. Can you guess his name?

Yup it's the crafty Rumpelstiltskin, who famously knows his way around a contract, and he offers to send Shrek back to a simpler time. The catch being Shrek has to hand over a day from his past.

Shrek finds himself back in a time before he met Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and where the land of Far Far Away is controlled by newly-dubbed King Rumpelstiltskin. Just like Goldilocks can't stop eating porridge, Rumpelstiltskin isn't satisfied unless he's screwing people over.  It doesn't take Shrek long to realize he got a raw deal.

The It's a Wonderful Life plot device suits the film's characters well, working not as a retread on the James Stewart classic but as a way to freshen up the cast of dusty characters. Shrek must realign with Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) to save the day and fall in love with Fiona all over again.

The 3D here is a missed opportunity - more gimmicky than immersive, which should add fuel to the burning anti-3D fire. Bringing us into Far Far Away the same way James Cameron brought us into Pandora would have made dealing with a pair of clunky glasses totally worth it.

Figuring out why these films are so successful isn't hard when you are in a packed theater.  Dreamworks has it down to a science at this point.  When Donkey cracks a joke the audience laughs, almost instinctually. I'm not sure whether it is impressive or scary, but I'm guessing it lies somewhere in between.

The adult humor that was sprinkled in the first Shrek film, such as Shrek that Lord Farquaad is "compensating for something" with his phallic tower, is lost here. Instead major laughs come from a pudgy child who orders Shrek to "do the roar!" and an ogre named Cookie (voiced by Hot Tub Time Machine's Craig Robinson).

Sadly, about an hour in predictability rears its ugly head.  Shrek Forever After lacks the originality that made the first film a triumph, but still manages to work as a satisfying bookend to the series.