News from Far Far Away

I've been to the movies yesterday - a lot sooner than before, this time it has just been about a month since "Pirates of the Caribbean", last time it was a lot longer - and seen "Shrek the Third". (And I'm already planning the next trip to the movies - on the 12th of July when "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" starts. By the way, Lucius Malfoy is to be found twice on the large advertising that's been positioned in the movie theatre of my hometown. Life can be so nice...)

But back to Shrek. I've been a big fan of the other two movies, so I wanted to see this one as early as possible. I haven't been disappointed at all. The movie had everything I expected: a lot of humour, shrewd characters, an interesting story and more allusions to other movies, stories and so on than ever before (including the whole story of King Arthur, who turns out to be the looser Arty at a medieval high-school - and don't ask me about Merlin, I couldn't go on writing, because I'd be on the floor laughing my head off).

My favourite ogre has a big problem (well, three, actually): his father-in-law has just died and so he's to become the new king of Far Far Away. But with his dying breath his father-in-law also spoke of the next in line behind Shrek and Fiona, the only other suitor to the throne: Arthur Pendragon. While Shrek is on a mission to find Arthur, he has to deal with two more problems: becoming a father and having the infamous Prince Charming taking over his kingdom. Charming is easier to deal with, on the whole, because ogres aren't really known for their parenting skills.

Charming has managed to talk the other villains into helping him to conquer Far Far Away. But even though he can hold the kingdom (after all, he's got an army of bandits, pirates, witches and other evil beings behind him), that's not enough for him, he wants to kill Shrek once and for all. And with Fiona and the other fairy tale princesses (apart from Rapunzel) imprisoned, he thinks he's well prepared for the great show in which he will kill Shrek. But the fairy tale princesses aren't as helpless as they might seem - and Fiona's mother can literally push her head through a wall ... or two.

I'm not going to write much more about the story, because otherwise it would be pointless to go and see the movie. And I'd recommend it, even for those of you without children. Shrek isn't just for kids, there are many layers to the story (oops, back to the first movie and "ogres have layers") and a lot of it is only funny for an adult, because kids won't understand it.