Conrad Vernon
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Watching the movie is like sitting next to an ADD patient with access to a remote control and a hundred premium cable channels; you could try to keep count as the images flicker by, but ultimately it's a pointless exercise as they're piled one on top of the other--as the From Here to Eternity joke just as quickly becomes a Little Mermaid punch line immediately gives way to a Lord of the Rings nod that rapidly evolves into a Spider-Man gag.
True, the pop- culture and movie in- jokes are more manic and come faster than in Shrek; and while the references to things like The Lord of the Rings and Ghostbusters aren’t entirely unexpected, who’d have imagined nods to From Here to Eternity or The Fabulous Baker Boys?
After a roll in the waves recalling Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr ’s sultry clinch in From Here to Eternity, they discover there’s trouble in paradise, and its name is in-laws.
Not even Eddie Murphy as Donkey can get off a good one, so you might spend this part of the movie reflecting on how computer animation makes humans look creepy and creepy things look human, or perhaps count the gratuitous movie references (From Here to Eternity and The Sound of Music, and many others, are tapped before we even get to the fart joke).
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Directed by Stanley Kubrick
influenced Monsters vs Aliens (2009)
Visuals Characters
Surrounding all this is the federal government in its usual chaos, with a President (Stephen Colbert, obviously) who thinks he can negotiate a truce with the music from Close Encounters of the Third Kind and a series of war room scenes that quite deliberately evoke Dr. Strangelove.
Yet, despite the presence of a War Room and a Buck Turgidson-type (named General W.R. Monger, and voiced by Jack Bauer), there's not a hint of Dr. Strangelove to be found.
Of course there are nods to everything pop culture has held dear for the last 60 years, from Star Trek to Dr. Strangelove to the illicit thrill we get from disaster movies that destroy beloved landmarks.
Some of it works quite well, particularly the Dr. Strangelove-inspired scenes in the war room where the U.S. President (Stephen Colbert) is in constant danger of starting nuclear war because the big red launch button looks exactly like the button that produces a cappuccino.
With its Meet the Parents vibe and its twisted take on classic fairy tale standards, Shrek 2 is always entertaining and often hilarious.
Over their first evening meal en famille— either Guess Who’s Coming to Dinneror Meet the Parents, depending on when you grew up — King Harold (voiced by a querulous John Cleese ) and Queen Lillian ( Julie Andrews , reprising her regal dignity in The Princess Diaries) try to overcome their shock at their daughter’s altered appearance and her new husband’s table manners.
"Shrek 2" is "Meet the Parents" for computer-animated ogres, and once again the cat gets the biggest laughs--in this case a swashbuckling, saucer-eyed Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas, sending up his Zorro character).
King-in-Law and Queen-in-Law host the newlyweds, but the result is an awkward bit of rejection with more nuance than anything in Meet the Parents.
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Directed by Stanley Kramer
influenced Shrek 2 (2004)
Plot Themes
Co-writer/co-director Adamson has said it was inspired by "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," and there is something of the plodding nature of that film in this one's initial exposition.
Concocting a magical potion -- part "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" and part popular culture with sprinkles of pixel dust -- Pacific Data Images/DreamWorks has created one of the year's most entertaining movies.
Over their first evening meal en famille— either Guess Who’s Coming to Dinneror Meet the Parents, depending on when you grew up — King Harold (voiced by a querulous John Cleese ) and Queen Lillian ( Julie Andrews , reprising her regal dignity in The Princess Diaries) try to overcome their shock at their daughter’s altered appearance and her new husband’s table manners.
No less than the butt-ugly, digitally animated version of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner , Shrek 2 continues its predecessor’s facile race and gender thematics while stubbornly playing to the rabble in the pit.
Hotel Transylvania (2012)
Directed by Genndy Tartakovsky
influenced The Addams Family (2019)
Themes Visuals
Clearly aimed at the same audience that have lapped up the trio of similarly themed Hotel Transylvania movies (although that series has far more common in the Addams' TV rival The Munsters ), Sausage Party duo Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon's take is a darkly sweet allegory about being who you are.
Adam Sandler has pulled it off three times as Count Dadula in the “Hotel Transylvania” series.
The standard of the animation, however, is less than lush, and doesn't sit well in comparison with most recent studio releases, such as the similar Hotel Transylvania franchise.
But this movie somehow looks even harsher and less detailed than the similarly conceived Hotel Transylvania series; there’s not much texture here, not much visual complexity.
The first film's main problem is also present in the sequel, though - a feeling of warmed over borrowings from "The Princess Bride" joined this time with echoes of Pixar's "Monsters, Inc." Farquaad's Disneyland kingdom is replaced with the Hollywood styled Far Far Away with its stretch-carriages and hillside sign (not to mention Barney's Old York, Gap Queen and Old Navery).
…and often nothing more than a couple of seconds long, as when Puss-in Boots does a quick version of the iconic Flashdance image of Jennifer Beals being doused with water.
This time, attentive viewers will catch unflattering glimpses of Ariel (The Little Mermaid) and the duo of Lumiere and Cogsworth (Beauty and the Beast).
In the honeymoon montage that begins the film, there are references to "From Here To Eternity," "The Lord of The Rings," and "The Little Mermaid" -- more importantly, at least two of those three gags get a laugh.
We get a glimpse at Thing’s secret foot fetish, while there are nods to Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island .
Considering he’s done other amiable voice work in the past (Monsters vs. Aliens, Horton Hears a Who, Kung Fu Panda) it’s not a left field decision, but just like working with Mottola, it does come with a lot of precarious preconceptions.
“Shrek 2” reminds me of how “Toy Story 2” was an equal match for its predecessor.
But unlike "Toy Story 2," which surpassed its predecessor in every way, "Shrek 2" is an ogre when it comes to gaining momentum.
It is stuffed full of movie and TV references, from COPS and Flashdance to E! Entertainment and Mission Impossible.
The cumulative effect of all this name-dropping, however, is that Shrek 2 comes across like an egotistical know-it-all flaunting an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture, with random, easily recognizable asides about Ghostbusters, Mission: Impossible and Justin Timberlake (Diaz’s current boyfriend, no less!)
As in the original film, the story writers have fun spoofing films like "The Lord of the Rings," "Spider-Man," "From Here to Eternity" and, most successfully, "Mission Impossible."
It’s because of the whole rise of kiddie monster culture, which was kicked into overdrive by Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993), followed by such creature-feature black comedies as Burton’s “Corpse Bride” (2005), the bravura “Coraline” (2009), the “Hotel Transylvania” films, and TV cartoons like “Vampirina” (which I watch religiously with my 6-year-old daughter).
The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild (2022)
Directed by John C. Donkin
influenced by Shrek 2 (2004)
Characters
To further that analogy, “Buck Wild” attempts to be like “Puss in Boots” (2011), a spinoff of Antonio Banderas’ beloved character from “Shrek 2” (2004).
Still, like last years Finding Nemo , Shrek 2 manages to be warm and clever at the same time, opting for inspired sight-gags and perfect, rib-tickling voice-casting to make a sweet and sincere little story about family feel fresh and engaging.
That movie featured very little in the way of action, and what action it had was far less fluid and exhilerating than Finding Nemo 's ocean current or Monsters, Inc. 's trapdoor chase.
"Shrek 2" doesn't have the groundbreaking quality of Pixar projects such as "Finding Nemo," yet it's vivid and crisp, especially when it comes to rendering human characters.
Think Ellen DeGeneres in Finding Nemo .
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026)
Directed by Jane Schoenbrun
influenced by Shrek 2 (2004)
Music
Do not miss this masterpiece that, among countless other accomplishments, ensures Shrek 2 is no longer the only movie featuring an iconic scene set to a Counting Crows ditty.
This past August, Greg Tiernan, who directed a long series of Thomas the Tank Engine videos, and Conrad Vernon, who made several popular DreamWorks animated features including Shrek 2, co-helmed the R-rated comedy Sausage Party .
The rest of Shrek 2 is an exuberant bounce through more action-movie send-ups (from King Kong to The Matrix) and irreverent sight gags than you could possibly catch in a single sitting, culminating in a final good-humored poke at the Oscars, hosted by a Joan Rivers whose grinning mug looks only marginally more claymated than her worked-over face in real life.
The rival talking animal banter reminds me of the confrontations between Chris Rock and Joe Pesci in Lethal Weapon 4 (I’m not sure if that’s the best example).
DreamWorks Animation's How to Train Your Dragon is a beautiful, original coming-of-age story that is easily the studio's best entry since Shrek 2 (yes, better than Kung Fu Panda ) and could possibly be considered even better than any of the films featuring the ugly green guy.