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Page 14 - Shelton-Mason County Journal — Thursday, July 20, 2023
ReView: ‘Shrek’ should feel more dated than it is
continued from page 13
Louis Sachar wrote the
screenplay, based on his own
1998 young adult novel.
For as much as modern
young adult novels are in—
clined to try and front-load en-
tire epic sagas of backstories
into becoming the next multi—
media franchises to dominate
the pop culture landscape,
Sachar weaves a rich historic
tapestry out of a forbidden
frontier romance, a defiant
female outlaw, a literal buried
treasure chest and the worst
family curse this side of the
House of Atreus, without ever
borrowing from ancient Greek,
Roman or even Norse myths,
and without resorting to a
dystopian future whose highly
regimented social structures
recall adolescent cliques.
Which is not to say that
“Holes” doesn’t speak the lan—
guage of aggressively crude,
hot-tempered teen and tween
boys, who brawl and posture
for dominance among them-
selves, but ultimately show
solidarity against the cruelty
of their adult captors.
As much as Sachar sets
a gold standard for fictional
world—building, “Holes” also
relies on an insanely qualified
cast, all ol‘whom clearly un»
' derstood what a multifaceted
gem of a story they were work—
ing with, from Henry Winkler
as Stanley’s hapless inven—
tor dad, and Eartha Kitt as
Book by William film and James Lupine,
Music and lyrics by William Finn “M
Kids play basketball Friday at Kneeland Park prior to the
showing of the 1995 movie “Jumanji.” Journal photo by
Gordon Weeks
a vengeful old—world fortune—
teller, to Patricia Arquette
and Dulé Hill as ill-fated Old
West pioneers, and the sin-
ister trio of Jon Voight, Tim
Blake Nelson and Sigourney
Weaver as the sketchy crew
who runs the detention camp,
with mysterious ulterior mo-
tives and a reckless disregard
for the kids in their care.
Let the layers of this one
unfold like a flower, because
whatever your age, it’s worth
your while.
Which brings us to “Shrek,”
whose in—yoin--lace gross-out
antics are well-suited to the
tastes ol‘younger audiences,
while its more adult innuendo
is just barely obscured by the
fig leaf of going over a lot of
kids" heads.
JUNE 30 — JULY 30 — STATE THEATER
Hilarious, heartbreaking, and utterly unique, Falsettos revolves around the
life of
a charming, intelligent, neurotic gay man named Marvin, his wife, lover,
about-
to—be—Bar—Mitzvahed son, their psychiatrist, and the lesbians next
door. It’s a
hilarious and achineg poignant look at the infinite possibilities that
make up a
modern family... and a beautiful reminder that love can tell a million
stories.
HARLE
www.harlequinproductionsmrg
What’s ironic about all the
ways in which “Shrek” codes
as an anti-Disney screed —-
from its shameless appropria-
tion of multiple famous fairy
tales, to its send-ups of the
Disney theme parks’ militant
cleanliness and traditional
“It’s a, Small World” chorus,
all the way up to the unflatter—
ing resemblance between the
villain Lord Farquaad (voiced
by John Lithgow) and former
Disney CEO Michael Eisner
is that Disney as we know
it now arguably wouldn’t exist
without “Shrek.”
Well before Disney ac—
quired Marvel in 2009,
“Shrek” beat the Marvel Cin—
ematic Universe to the punch,
by borrowing from the most
recognizable public domain
My .
U l N
fairy tales, which Disney has
made its bread and butter,
and shoving them all into the
same setting.
Perhaps more importantly,
“Shrek” presaged the tone of
the MCU, by having its fairy
tale characters comment on
their own genre tropes as ir-
reverently as Marvel’s on-
screen superheroes have done
in the MCU, especially in the
wake of “Guardians of the
Galaxy.”
For this and a number of
other reasons, “Shrek” should
feel more dated than it does.
And yet.
Although the CGI anima—
tion did a yeoman’s job of cap-
turing the facial expressions
of Lithgow as Farquaad, Cam~
eron Diaz as Princess Fiona,
Eddie Murphy as Donkey and
Mike Myers as Shrek, in ways
that allowed the real-life ac-
tors’ personalities and per-
formances to shine through
the data-processing, the more
human the characters were
meant to be, the more flat
their physical movements
came across.
And just in case you’d for-
gotten this movie was made
during the turn of the mil-
lennium, between the late
1990s and the early 2000s, the
“Shrek” soundtrack includes
Smash Mouth’s “All Star” and
John Gale’s version of Leonard
Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” along
with hip, contemporary ref—
erences to “Riverdance,” the
macarena and Carrie-Anne
Moss’ midair “bullet time”
spin-kick as Trinity in “The
Matrix.”
As much I might talk
smack, it still works, because
not only are all the actors ide-
ally suited to their roles and
firing on all cylinders, but it’s
also just undeniably, viscer—
ally appealing to see the char-
acters in a trope-bound genre,
like fairy tales, choosing to
pitch the traditional script for
what “should” happen straight
out the window, especially
when the one character who
demands order and obedience
gets done away with in a de-
liberately undignified manner
(minor spoilers).
However much Mike My—
ers might have fallen out of
favor since “Shrek,” his mock—
Scottish accent actually works
here. You’ll feel for his filthy
ogre, because like he says, he’s
like an onion. He’s got layers.
Following the “Barben-
heimer” blitz next week, you
can expect reviews for the re-
maining “Movies in the Park,”
which are:
I Aug. 4: “The Mighty
Ducks” from 1992, starring
Emilio Estevez and Jess
Ackland.
I Aug. ll: “Space Jam”
from 1996, starring Michael
Jordan and Bugs Bunny.
I Aug. 18: “Back to the Fu-
ture” from 1985, starring Mi-
chael J. Fox and Christopher
Lloyd.