Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Anyone tune in to see the original SHREK last night on NBC? I haven’t watched a theatrical film on broadcast TV since the advent of video. I just can’t stomach what they do to films. But NBC’s big hook last night was the tease that they’d be showing footage from this summer’s SHREK 2. I went to a special presentation of the story reel for the sequel at Dreamworks last year, and they pretty much laid the entire movie out for us. If you liked the first one, chances are you’ll enjoy this one as well. There were some very clever things we saw, and I’m curious to get a look at the finished film as soon as it’s ready.
In the meantime, check this out:
Harry,
This is the first time I've ever written in, but I had to let the world know I saw Shrek 2 on Sunday night (Feb. 8th). I went searching through your web site to see if anyone else had done a preview of it yet and was surprised to see no one had.
The preview was at the Harkins Arrowhead 18 in Peoria, AZ at 6PM. Security was extremely tight with metal detectors and bag searches for any recording devices. No one knew what we were seeing until just before the movie started and we were all seated. He said we were "one of the first" audiences to see the movie.
My wife and I disagree on what percentages he gave, but I remember him saying the movie was 65% completely animated, 20% animated (no textures or special effects) and 15% storyboarded. Regardless of what he said, those percentages are pretty close. It was a bit strange seeing a movie disjointed like that with the switching in and out of full animation to storyboards, but it was very entertaining.
As for the actual movie, the rundown is pretty simple: Princess Fiona has been invited back to "Far, Far Away" by her parents to see her new husband. It had been assumed by them she had married Prince Charming, the son of the Faerie Godmother. The Faerie Godmother has something on the King to twist him into trying to get rid of Shrek, so the King hires Puss in Boots to take him out. However, after a brief tussle, Boots befriends Shrek and joins him and Donkey.
Shrek has decided to try to make himself better looking because he finds Fiona's diary where she dreams of meeting the traditional Prince. He manages to steal a potion of Happily Ever After (I think that's what it's called) and turns into an attractive human. Donkey also turns into something else, but I don't want to ruin that surpise. :-)
I really enjoyed this movie. I wasn't particularly impressed with the first one, but I wondered if that was higher expectations with everyone I know hyping it up as they did. I think it will definately be a big summer hit, although I can't recommend it to parents with small children due to some of the adult humor (the kind that doesn't go over their heads). The animation and graphic quality was great except for most of the human faces. It seemes really difficult to get that right for these types of movies.
You can refer to me as M.C. Hampster.
This was a very brief reaction. Anyone else go to this screening? If so, write us and let us know what you thought!
"Moriarty" out.
