Shrek the Third (2007)

The King decided that he didn't much fancy this third outing, so conveniently died and left the kingdom to his daughter "Fiona" and her husband "Shrek". Thing is, he'd much rather just stay at home and leave the governing to someone else. "I know", thinks he - let's go and find the legendary "Prince Artie" and see if we can't get him to take the job instead. Off he, "Donkey" and "Puss in Boots" set on their quest, but they don't bargain on the scheming "Prince Charming" who has designs on the throne for himself. It's this latter gent who has cleverly assembled an army straight from the Brothers Grimm to do his fighting, charming and seducing for him. Can our intrepid trio manage to thwart his cunning plan, find the missing prince and get back before "Fiona" has her baby? I actually quite enjoyed this rather derivative adventure, possibly because the annoying donkey takes much lesser a role as their search plays to many other fantasies, a bit of Arthurian myth and has plenty of action to keep it moving along for ninety minutes. It was always going to be more difficult to keep the character fresh after six years, and the writing here isn't quite as witty as we've seen before, but the underlying characters are still quite engaging and the hero/anti-hero storyline did rise a smile from time to time. Maybe Dreamworks ought to take the hint, though, and call it quits now?