Shrek 2 (2004)

In an animated movie marathon with the kids, this one finds a way to hold on.

Now proud to be green, "Shrek" and "Fiona" return to his forest home for years of games of happy families. Their return doesn't start well, though, when they open the door and discover that "Donkey" has already arrived and made himself at home! They are newlyweds. They just want to be alone. How thick can that critter be? Then to make matters worse, a royal herald arrives to invite them all to the castle for a state banquet to celebrate their recent nuptials. Thing is, neither parent knows that "Fiona" has now gone the turned into an ogre! Unsurprisingly, the King and Queen don't quite take this in their stride and after some initially polite protocol it's pretty much open warfare. Meantime, the pretty hapless "Prince Charming" still has a bit of a crush on the princess and so connives with the not so benign "Fairy Godmother" to upset their apple-cart of domestic bliss. Now there's no getting away from it for me, I am not a fan of Eddie Murphy in just about any of his guises, and here his interpretation of the annoying donkey does just that - and after about ten minutes of the relentless (unfunny) prattle, I'd have happily paid for him to go to a sanctuary, ideally on the moon. The rest of this is quite entertaining though, with loads of mischief and calamity ensuing as this family has to learn that it's not all about appearances. Judge folks on their actions and who they are and maybe you'll discover that being big and rough round the edges is no bad thing. The suave and debonaire "Puss In Boots" steals the thing for me and I did enjoy the idea of the anti-fairy wreaking mischief and not so much cheesy joy. There's plenty in the script for the grown ups as well as for the kids and I thought this almost as good as the first one (2001). Good fun.