Merrick again...

…with a look at a way-in-advance-of-release test screening of SHREK THE THIRD.

The film comes out next Summer, so it’s really super-mega-giganto-important (why am I using so many damn hyphens in this article?) to remember that many changes can/might/will be made to film between this edit & the final version to be released on May 18, 2007. That’s a lot of time for the filmmakers to rejigger & tweak; it’ll be interesting to see how the final version compares to this still-in-development (more hyphens?!) edit.

Here’s Bluto‘s look at the film. Interestingly, he says it relies less on jokes than its predecessors...concentrating more on story and character development. He says this works to varying degrees of success - but Bluto gives the filmmakers a lot of credit for considering a different approach.

Hey Harry- I live here in Sacramento and am an avid reader of AICN.

But, I’ve never had the opportunity to send anything worth while…until now. This past Sat. afternoon I was about to buy tickets to see Borat for the second time when this strange dude came out of nowhere and asked me and my buddy if we wanted to see a screening of an upcoming animated movie coming out next year. (It was kind of weird because he didn't seem to be approaching anyone else.) Since I am a huge fan of animation - my favorite being IRON GIANT, we took him up on his offer. The only catch though was that we had to stay afterwards and give feedback.

No one in the theater seemed to know what movie we were about to screen until a guy came out and announced we were going to watch Shrek 3!!! (The opening title sequence actually read "Shrek The Third”.) The audience immediately burst into excitement. The announcer also mentioned that the movie was only about 40% animated. The rest was filled in with storyboards and unfinished animation. Pretty cool since I’ve never seen a film in such an early stage of production.

This is my first review so I’m not gonna go into too many plot details. That wouldn’t be cool. The bottom line is that this is a funny sequel that still needs work before its release to reach the level of the first two Shreks- both of which I really enjoyed.

You may remember that the second movie ended with King Harold turning into a frog and Prince Charming getting booted out of Far Far Away. SHREK 3 begins with the frog king on his death bed. Before he croaks, he informs a mortified Shrek that the ogre must take over the throne (very funny scene). That is unless he can track down Fiona's cousin Artie who is the only other blood relative who can rightly inherit the kingdom.

Shrek wants nothing to do with the kingdom and sets off to find Artie with Donkey and Puss In Boots. I got such a kick out of seeing those two characters again - I'll just say they don't disappoint. The two of them got some of the biggest laughs from the audience! Most of the other side kicks are back as well. Meanwhile Prince Charming plots to overthrow the throne and take over Far Far Away by recruiting all these fairy-tale villains who hang at the Poison Apple Pub. That’s all I’m gonna give away for now.

The movie could use more jokes like the first two films had. It seemed like it tried to focus too much on the story and was much more character and story driven than the first two. In my opinion they need to cut down on Artie's character time and blast out with more action and comedy during that section of the movie.

That said I had a good time overal and most of the audience seemed to enjoy it as well. What I will give the filmmakers credit for is going after a different type of storyline rather than a rehashing of the same old tired themes.

The film isn't opening for a while so hopefully they can make this movie go from good to great. Right now it's a good sequel but not as fun as the first two Shrek movies.