After challenging an evil dragon, rescuing a beautiful princess and saving your in-laws' kingdom, what's an ogre to do? Well, if you're Shrek, you suddenly wind up a domesticated family man. Instead of scaring villagers away like he used to, a reluctant Shrek now agrees to autograph pitch forks. What's happened to this ogre's roar? Longing for the days when he felt like a "real ogre," Shrek is duped into signing a pact with the smooth-talking dealmaker, Rumpelstiltskin. Shrek suddenly finds himself in a twisted, alternate version of Far Far Away, where ogres are hunted, Rumpelstiltskin is king and Shrek and Fiona have never met. Now, it's up to Shrek to undo all he's done in the hopes of saving his friends, restoring his world and reclaiming his one True Love.

Shrek Forever After felt like two films as the first portion of the film deals with the mess that the third film left and the rest of the film feels like an effort to remove themselves as far away as possible from that film. So that being said the first portion of the film was actually quite dull and lifeless and once the film moved to its alternate reality it actually recaptured some of the magic from the first two films of the series. So you end up liking the film but wish they didn’t have to spend so much time cleaning up the mess the third film left.

I think the character of Shrek has come as far as it is ever going to go and is no longer really that interesting or worth even seeing anymore. But what makes the film is that we get an alternate look at other characters like Fiona that are vast improvements over there previous selves. The new and improved Fiona has accepted her Ogre self and is using it to its full potential as she hunts and fights the evil world that has been turned upside down because of Shrek. It makes the character of Fiona so much fun and makes the movie so much more enjoyable.

Many of the other alternate characters like Donkey and Puss in Boots were just kind of trite and not that interesting although the alternate Gingy did make me smile and crack up a number of times. But what Shrek Forever After does is change its entire story and allow us to meet and delve into the characters that had become so stale in a new and wonderful twist on the story. With the exception of Shrek it is like we are meeting these characters for the first time all over again as they all act differently and that makes for a fun and entertaining story.

What more can be said about the cast that already hasn’t been said. We have grown so accustomed to the cast that they just feel at home and perfect by this point. So what actually makes the movie and makes it so much fun is new characters like Rumpelstiltskin who is almost mad and almost stupidly evil. Rumpelstiltskin makes the film so much fun as a character and as a fact that he makes us once again come to know and meet all the characters over. Shrek Forever After if it is the final installment of the series improves where the series left off and would be a good way to go out, entertaining once more.

Grade: B