Shrek Forever After

There is no happy ending for the "Shrek" franchise.

The new "Shrek Forever After" — the fourth about a lovable ogre and his adventures in the land called Far Far Away — shows that this series has gone one movie too far. Not even the addition (which is, in many ways, a subtraction) of 3-D can keep the film from looking and feeling faded, with none of the spark and energy of the first two "Shreks." Or even the third, which was tired and should have given ample warning that time was passing the franchise by.

In "Shrek Forever After," the big green ogre (voiced again by Mike Myers) is having a midlife crisis. He's weighed down by his fame and his family life. Most importantly, at least to Shrek, he doesn't scare anyone anymore. "I used to be an ogre," he tells wife Fiona (Cameron Diaz). "Now I'm a jolly green joke."

Finally, at a birthday party for his triplets, where he is repeatedly asked to "do the roar," Shrek has had enough. He cuts a deal with Rumpelstiltskin (voiced by newcomer Walt Dohrn, an animator-writer who doesn't do evil very well) to relive his old life for just one day. Of course — Rumpelstiltskin being Rumpelstiltskin — there is a catch, and Shrek finds himself in a land of Far Far Away where Rumpelstiltskin rules, Fiona is the leader of the ogre resistance, Donkey (Eddie Murphy) doesn't know him, and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) is one fat cat.

So Shrek must make everything right —
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which essentially is doing everything he did in the first movie one more time.

It's fairly clear early on that the director (Mike Mitchell of "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo") and the writers (Josh Klausner and Darren Lemke) have got nothing. There is precious little that's faintly fresh or original in the storytelling, which borrows heavily from "Groundhog Day," "It's a Wonderful Life" and two or three dozen other films set in alternative universes.

Sure, they squeeze in all the basics (nearly everybody gets a pop song to sing, and there are lots of flatulence jokes), but the dialogue lacks any sparkle, and the jokes fall so flat that it's hard to summon up even a small chuckle. One notable exception: Banderas brings so much zip to his voice work on Puss in Boots that his scenes really pop, briefly bringing the film to life and reminding us just how good the earlier "Shrek" movies could be.

As for the 3-D, "Shrek Forever After" is another cautionary tale about overusing the technology. The 2-D animation work in the earlier films was splendid. Even the third, where the writing started to falter, had a rich and beautifully detailed look.

But the 3-D actually drains the life from the animation. There's none of the depth that the Pixar animators were able to bring to "Up" (still a classic of how to use 3-D correctly); some scenes seem constructed solely to show off the 3-D effect, only drag down what there is of the story.

I must admit that, at the screening I attended, the kids in the audience laughed, cheered for Shrek and ooh-ed and ahh-ed at the 3-D tricks.

But the genius of the early "Shrek" movies was that they worked on two levels, and were fun for both kids and adults. " If parents are dragged by their kids to "Shrek Forever After," they will be looking at their watches well before the end.