Shrek 2
© James C. Hess
In ancient myth and lore there are tales of beings, made of several creatures, joined together into a single form with perhaps the most intriguing but, equally, disturbing one the chimaera: The mixing of the lion, the goat, the snake.
I recall the first time I saw a carved representation of this being and wondered, as I gazed upon it, what it really was.
More than a few years have passed but now, I think, I know what it was, what it is: The film or movie sequel.
No, this remark is not intended as a theological or spiritual non sequitur. (Please do not send me flamming and vitriolic missives to this effect.) Give it some consideration and thought, and I believe you will agree when it comes to what it is I suggest herein: The film or movie sequel, superficially, is the best of many things. But look past the obvious, that which first appeals, and see what is really there: Not the best there is to offer, but the second best, the also-ran. The scraps, the chattel, the leftovers otherwise tossed away to rot on the popular culture slagheap.
Perhaps it is too much to expect a sequel to the wonderful "Shrek" to equal the original. After all, as the saying goes: Lightning rarely strikes twice in the same place. Yet, it is not too much to expect a quality, wonderful, lively, entertaining, and sufficent effort in the form of a sequel .
Which may go to explain why "Shrek 2" works: Yes, it is mostly leftovers from the original movie. Yes, it is predictable, in its own way. Yes, the plot is predictable and plods along to the ending. But, in its own way it is also original: A chimaera of new dimensions.
In the first flick, for example, Shrek killed a dragon. In the second flick he meets his in-laws. What's to say they are not one and the same, but presented from different perspectives?
But I digress: Once more we meet Shrek (voiced again by Mike Myers). This time, however, Shrek seems almost on the verge of being respectable and gentrified: The poster child (albeit green) for middle-class life. Oh, well: A good woman will do that to you. His once-upon-a-time status as the outsider, the loner in the swamp has undergone dramatic changes, owing much to his romance with Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz). Fortunately, her influence on him is limited: Laughs are plenty when it comes to his table manners and graces when he dines with her parents, King Harold (John Cleese) and Queen Lillian (Julie Andrews), and when he attempts to deal with a certain donkey named Donkey (Eddie Murphy).
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