Based on a children's book by William Steig, "Shrek" is about a cranky, offensive, green ogre (voiced by Mike Myers, using a Scottish burr) whose solitude in a mucky swamp is shattered by pesky fairy-tale characters.

There's Cinderella, a big, bad Wolf, Sleeping Beauty, Geppetto, Pinocchio, Snow White and her 7 dwarves, plus the 3 bears, 3 homeless pigs and 3 blind mice (wearing shades) - all banished from their fairy tale Kingdom of Duloc by tiny, evil Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow), a diabolical villain who threatens a cookie with crumbling, talks with a Magic Mirror-on-the-Wall, and threatens a Gingerbread Man, who has a great two-word comeback line.

Furious, Shrek confronts Farquaad, who agrees to revoke his edict if the irascible ogre will save the foxy Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from a fierce dragon and bring her back to be his bride. However, feisty Fiona has her own ideas, particularly about who is and who isn't Prince Charming. (Her Kung Fu encounter with some of pompous Robin Hood's Merry Men recalls Diaz's "Charlie's Angels" character.)

So much for the fractured fairy tale plot, which is broadly punctuated with burps, farts and double-entendres.

Dreamworks exec Jeffrey Katzenberg, who once helmed Disney, takes aim and fires satirical salvos at the Mouse House and its theme parks, along with tweaking "The Matrix" and "Babe."

The sharp, colorful PDI/DreamWorks animation has come a long way since "Prince of Egypt" and "Antz." Great credit should go to supervising animator Raman Hui. For example, in drawing Shrek's face, animators are able to convey the subtle, underlying emotions which are not expressed in his dialogue. To do this, the Shrek's skull is formed in the computer and then covered with anatomical replicas of the actual muscles of the face. The skin is then layered over and programmed to respond to the manipulations of the muscles, just as a human face would. That's how they're able to create smiles, laugh lines, wrinkles, and other forms of expression. This software program was used for the four central characters in the story, including Donkey, Fiona and Farquaad.

For body structure, the animators developed new software called a "Shaper." This is a layering process that deforms the surface from the inside out. Thus, when you modify the inner layer, the exterior shape automatically changes. According to the press notes, this uses the same principle that causes your arm muscle to flex when you bend your arm. Using the Shaper, for example, animators are able to get costumes to sway and move as the characters wearing them sway and move.

During production, there were rumors that Princess Fiona was "too realistic," and, indeed, animators did "dial her back," so that she would fit in the film's stylistic fairy tale world.

The contemporary pop music score is extremely effective, particularly "All Star" and "I'm a Believer," performed by Smash Mouth; "On the Road Again," "Try a Little Tenderness," and "Friends," all performed by Eddie Murphy; and "Bad Reputation," performed by Joan Jett.

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Shrek" is a funny, fresh, irreverent 9 - and the message, of course, is that there's something wonderful in all of us. So, as the swinging finale affirms, "I'm a Believer."

Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8