Shrek the Third - Blu-ray Review

Since there isn’t anything as Green-Ray, Shrek just has to go Blu for his third outing. Since he only went high def on HD DVD it’s about time for the Blu-ray since HD DVD is no more.

Shrek (Mike Myers) finds that he’s the king when Fiona’s (Cameron Diaz) father King Harold (John Cleese) croaks (cough, cough). You’d think that he’d adopt the Mel Brooks attitude that “it’s good to be the king” but Shrek tires of the royal duties and is looking for a way out of it.

He discovers that Fiona has a distant cousin called Arthur (Justin Timberlake) who can assume the throne. So he and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) and Donkey (Eddie Murphy) set off to track down Arthur. Fiona stays behind with Queen Lillian (Julie Andrews), but shouts to Shrek that she’s pregnant as he sails away. Talk about a goodbye! Meanwhile, Prince Charming (Rupret Everett) is out to take over the kingdom and has recruited a group of fairytale villains for the job. Shrek finds Arthur and discovers that he’s not exactly the stuff for royalty either. Back in Far, Far Away, Fiona and a group of fairytale princesses have to fend off the villains. Shrek still has to convince Arthur to assume the throne and get back home before Charming makes Far, Far Away his kingdom. It’s a bit of a shame that the Shrek making its Blu-ray debut is the third sequel. I jokingly said in my DVD review that it might’ve been called Shrek the Turd, but that is probably too harsh since the sequel isn’t horrible but isn’t the best of the lot either. I would’ve much rather had Shrek 2 on Blu than this one, but we’ve all got our crosses to bear. I think that the third sequel seems to try a bit too hard and only comes up wanting. It’s hard to be stacked up against the superior second, which is even better than the first film in my humble opinion.

Shrek the Third made its high definition debut in 2007, but that was on HD DVD and since HD DVD is no more it’s finally making it to Blu-ray. The title does make a stunning visual on the format, but again it only makes me wish it were the second sequel. Shrek the Third is presented in a 1080p high definition transfer (1.85:1). All special features are high definition unless noted. The best feature has been ported over from the HD DVD and that is an “Animator’s Corner” visual picture-in-picture commentary. The film also has a trivia track and the ability to customize the menus to your favorite character. The World of Shrek is also a function available when you play the film that details all the critters in Shrek’s world. “Shrek’s Guide to Parenthood” has the various other characters in the film offering parenting advice, the 11 minute ‘Meet the Cast’ looks at the voice cast (standard definition), the 26 minute “Lost Scenes” has the animators pitching scenes that didn’t make it into the film, the 10 minute “Tech of Shrek” talks about the changes in technology since the first film, the 2 minute “Big Green Goofs” has some computer rendering errors, the 30 second “Donkey Dance” has, well, Donkey dancing, and the Dreamworks Video Jukebox has clips of other films. The Dreamworks Kids section contains some games. Shrek the Third is good to have on Blu-ray finally, but it really didn’t live up to expectations as far as the story went. I guess it might take a fourth sequel showing up in theaters for them to decide to cash in by putting the other two films on Blu-ray.

Until then the only high def you’re going to get is the worst, though occasionally entertaining, of the three. Shrek the Third [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon. Visit the DVD database for more information.