From a tale of knightly jousting set to the tune of rock music we come to the tale of an Ogre who would be a knight in a non-standard fairy tale. First, let me say that "Shrek" has really good animation. It looked like the whole movie is animated with the best computer animation I've ever seen (and we'll see if Final Fantasy has better animation or not). Not just the characters, but trees and grass and plants all look almost real. They blow in the wind, indentations are left on the grass when characters walk across it, water and fire look realistic, it's quite a good job.

The story itself is a modern version of a classic fairy tale formula. We have Shrek (Mike Myers), a big green ugly Ogre feared by people and wanting to be left alone. Unfortunately, Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) of the neighboring land of Duloc is rounding up all of the fairy tale denizens and relocating them into Shrek's swamp. One of those creatures is The Donkey (Eddie Murphy), a talkative animal who just wants to be friends with Shrek.

Well, Shrek is definitely upset about having all these fairy tale creatures hanging around outside his home, so he goes out (along with Donkey) to meet with Lord Farquaad and get him to take these pests with him. Meanwhile, Lord Farquaad asks the Magic Mirror "isn't this the bestest kingdom of them all?" To which the Mirror replies "technically, you're not a king." "But I know how you can become a king," it adds quickly before Lord Farquaad has the mirror destroyed.

Lord Farquaad will have to marry a Princess. Given the choice of Cinderella, Snow White, or Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) he chooses the latter. Next he calls in all his knights, to compete for the priviledge of rescuing Princess Fiona from the clutches of an Evil Red Dragon. It is at this time that Shrek walks in. The knights attack him and he defeats them all (including one scene done in a "wrestling ring" complete with piledrivers and other moves. Well then, obviously Shrek should be one to rescue the Princess, and if he does so then Lord Farquaad will restore Shrek's swamp to its former beauty.

That's the basic set up. The Princess does have a secret, which the Mirror tries to tell Lord Farquaad but is interrupted. Of course she is dismayed to be rescued by an Ogre, as she was expecting a handsome knight, the true love of her life. But on the trip back to Duloc, Fiona learns that Shrek is quite the erudite and noble Ogre, while Shrek learns that Fiona has many skills. In the end will Fiona find happiness, will Shrek find happiness, and what about Donkey?

Donald said this is a great movie, and it is quite good. Much like Aladdin with Robbin Williams, it's a classic tale with a lot of contemporary jokes. Shannon said it had too many body jokes and that the Donkey is annoying, but I can't agree. There are some gross jokes and the Donkey is a major character, but it adds to the movie. When I went to see this movie (my alternate as Pearl Harbor was sold out) it was a packed room half filled with kids and we all had a good time watching the movie.

I really liked Princess Fiona, a tough woman who has definite opinions on what true, romantic love should be like. But it's my myopic biases that made the predictably Political Correct ending a bit of a disappointment for me. But it's still a good movie and well worth watching.