Shrek The Third...is it kids stuff?

I made yesterday a cinema night and it was funny how all films showing at my favourite complex were all sequels. Once a movie makes it big at the box office, the film makers tendency is to extract as much money as possible from the series or trilogy proposed. I was in a fairytale mood (if one can figure out what that is) so my choice and my date’s fell on Shrek the Tired, sorry I meant the Third. I settled in my seat, enjoying the good sight lines and the excited anticipation of the children, when a little voice behind me said, “Have to turn off the mobile now, it's gonna start" to the guy next to her, who being my age was probably her dad.”The child, a girl, couldn’t have been more than seven. Even in this era, seven is too early for biting wit. Then, as the movie began, I realized that this girl represents what DreamWorks Animation, the producer of this most lucrative of franchise animated features, envisions its audience to be. Tiny, but now too wise then our generation’s seven years old, who live far from the fairytale emotion of enchantment, so it’s really the case of getting two birds with just one stone? And that is the case of spinning so much money not with the movies alone?
There’s also a mystery here. Did the girl’s parents read to her from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen? Has she seen “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” or any of the other pathetically beautiful Disney animated features, with their butterflies and wondrous glades and shimmering harp tunes? DreamWorks must assume that she has, and has no tender feelings for them, because the “Shrek” movies are filled with parodies of the old, honeyed Disney style. The adults may get more of the jokes than the children do, but the kids are being fed nonstop satirical weirdness, in which past and present and gothic dungeons are all jumbled together. The “Shrek” phenomenon is one of those seeming oddities in our culture, children being entertained with farce before they’ve been ravished by astonishment. Maybe seven isn’t too early for irony after all. Anyhow back to the film because I have the tendency of going to different places whenever I think to myself
So does the latest money making machine from those clever guys at DreamWorks live up to the first two Shrek films? In one word, no. Like Spiderman and Pirates of the Caribbean, three definitely isn’t the magic number for Mike Myers’ friendly green ogre and whoever made up the phrase "the third time is the charm" clearly wasn't referring to "Shrek the Third."
The movie suffers from a classic case of “sequelitis”, characterised by a lack of freshness, over-cluttered cast and worst of all," there's a surprising amount of crude digestive humour (including a series of vomiting and blurting gags humour that I believe even kids will find harder to swallow than their post cinema in this case probably a Shrek Burger from an unhealthy and stupid fast food joint.
Like the first two films in the highly successful animated franchise, this rather popular fantasy parody simply repeats the same jokes — once, twice, three times ... or more. As a result of that, both the movie and the series now feel a little tired and uninspired. But don’t let that stop you from going to see it is still one of the few feel good type of movies.
Is it worth the hassle for an ogre to gain the whole world and loses his soul? Everyone's favourite grumpy green giant has gotten unnecessary soft since last we saw him. His fairytale world used to stand up for the outcast and the guys on the wrong side of that "happily ever after" equation who didn't have the socially acceptable qualities to get into the royal ball.
Shrek's first two adventures were symphonies of laughter, amusement and they kept reminding us how necessary it is to colour outside the lines sometimes. But the staggering success has drained away much of the intended revolutionary spirit, leaving something missing in this new particular challenge.
Shrek the Third features some amusing moments and that charmingly storybook universe is still more or less intact, but without any taboos to shatter, it simply has nowhere worthwhile to go and the plot falls flat as a pancake. Even the throwaway jokes have lost their punch, with weak chuckles replacing what used to be full belly laughs.
A few moments of genuine rebellion remains (the Frog King's funerary march is "Live and Let Die") and the characters still retain a little of their old charm, without that ferocious ability to challenge us to things known so well already and thus makes us realize early, the next character’s move, ahead of time. It happens to everyone as they get older, I suppose. We settle into our routines, count our growing blessings, and end up having anything new to have or create.
In this sequel, gone are the days when the world hated and feared Shrek. Now, his problems are the responsibilities of ruling the kingdom left to him by his father in law on his bed of death and the ugly predictable ghost of parenthood.
Fatherhood! work-related stress? Shrek never bought into that theory, and that is the thing why we loved him so much. Now, all this has been replaced since he sits on the other side of the scale. The message of the first two movies was that you have to be yourself, an idea that came off, in this context, as the kind of mass marketed individualism that induces teenagers to buy jeans that look fit for homeless people
Embrace the joys of family! Teach the younger generation how to lead! Buy into the very myth he never helped to set straight, and show everyone who believes in you that it's time to shut up and get back to normality! Instead, it's Charming the supposed villain who plays the role of rebel, rounding up all the freaks and misfits at the Poison Apple Inn for an assault on the walls of traditionalism. As his army of wicked witches, haunted trees, and fairy-tale comes crashing through the streets of Far, Far Away,
Shrek the Third actually asks us to go against them, while the guy who should be leading the charge lines up to put them back in their place... that is when he's not stressing about diapers and midnight feedings,.
With its shifts in such a dreadful angle, the film's energy deflates like a balloon. Shrek the Third retains the sumptuous computer animated visuals of its predecessors, but the accompanying humour feels decidedly uninspired.
Shrek is a magical creature, after all, and had all the stuff to resist that kind of fall. It breaks the heart to realize that even he can't stand against the power of commercialism, and that the spell Shrek the Third casts over himself will likely never be broken. A very undeserving end, for such a great hero. Rest in peace, you big green gentle giant: you used to be so cool.

Some goofs:
• When the villains are rehearsing for the show, Charming is wearing pink leg warmers (date made me notice the leg warmers). When he leaves the rehearsal and walks into his dressing room, the leg warmers are gone.
• When the women escape and prepare to "take care of business", we clearly see when Snow White rips off her sleeves that she has a heart shaped tattoo with "Dopey" written on it on her right shoulder. Later, when she summons the critters to attack the tree guards, her right shoulder is bare.
• When Charming proposes a toast in the bar; all of the villains suddenly have drinks in their hands when they didn't previously.