Shrek 2 Actually Holds Up Much Better Than the Original Movie

If you grew up in the late ’90s and early 2000s, odds are that Shrek was a huge part of your childhood. DreamWorks’ breakout hit took the world by storm in 2001, offering a fresh and edgier alternative to those bored by Disney’s then-familiar fairy tale structure and supplying an entire generation with instantly iconic moments that have been memed to death ever since. It was the first film to ever win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature (the award didn’t exist before then) and even got an Adapted Screenplay nomination.

Its immediate sequel, Shrek 2, is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a brief theatrical re-release. As unlikely as it seems today, it received more polarizing reviews than the original at the time. Yet time has proved to be on its side, and two decades later, it’s clear that not only is Shrek 2 both a perfect animated sequel and a perfect comedy sequel, but it’s actually aged better than its predecessor.

Shrek 2 Is Sharper and More Consistent

It can’t be overstated how fresh Shrek felt in 2001. While prior animated films had dabbled in using celebrity voice actors and pop culture references in their humor, Shrek was filled with it. The film also proved a refreshing departure from the familiar fairy tale structure. The hero was the ugly ogre who’d usually be painted as the villain, the handsome prince was the villain, and the deadly fire-breathing dragon was a female. It’s no accident that virtually every animated film for years followed the offbeat template Shrek set. On top of that, it boasts a comedic tour-de-force voiceover performance from Eddie Murphy as Donkey, which arguably deserved an Oscar nomination.

And yet, as much as most of it holds up, Shrek admittedly feels a bit old-fashioned two decades later. Much of the humor feels admittedly fueled by bitterness towards Disney (DreamWorks Animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg famously left the company on bad terms), and it’s easy to imagine some viewers turned off by the film’s gleeful profaneness. Additionally, the genre deconstruction it prided itself on feels safe; while the first half of the movie is brilliant in its subversion of fairy tale tropes, once Princess Fiona is revealed to be an ogre, the story falls into the sorts of clichés and predictable plot beats it previously made fun of.

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Thankfully, this isn’t the case with Shrek 2, where the genre satire cuts deeper. The Fairy Godmother is the film’s villain, trying to manipulate Princess Fiona into leaving Shrek and marrying Prince Charming (her son, a lovably pathetic mama’s boy), and her role in the story gives a sharp rebuke to the idea of what’s seen as conventionally beautiful. The film takes its “ogre is the hero” setup to a hilarious endpoint, as the story involves Shrek finally meeting Fiona’s parents, less than enthused about the fact that he’s an ogre. It becomes a hilarious riff on Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

Most importantly, the film is simply funnier than the original. While the first film had countless winning gags, it admittedly ran out of steam in its final third. Shrek 2, on the other hand, remains consistently hilarious from beginning to end, with gags that fly by at a breakneck pace. The pop culture references cut deeper and thus have aged much better (the Mission: Impossible riff is particularly hilarious), while the tone of the humor feels less overtly nasty than in the first film, more akin to a loving nudge than a cynical jab.

Shrek 2 Features Fantastic New Characters

Another element that keeps Shrek 2 from feeling like a rehash of the original is the stacked supporting cast. Admittedly, outside the villainous Lord Farquaad and the lovable Gingy, the ensemble was a bit light the first time around, but that’s not the case here. The Fairy Godmother makes for a delightfully nasty villain; her son Prince Charming is endearingly brainless, and Fiona’s parents (voiced by screen legends John Cleese and Julie Andrews) have the delightful dynamic of a long-married couple that contrasts perfectly with their newly-wed daughter and her husband.

But none of these characters hold a candle to, hands down, the MVP of Shrek 2 and possibly the entire franchise, Puss in Boots. There’s a reason the feline Zorro expy has gotten two solo films of his own; Antonio Banderas plays the role to absolute perfection, with comedic timing and an acidic wit that gives a nice contrast to Eddie Murphy’s fast-talking, boisterous Donkey. He gets a particularly delightful character arc, in which he’s initially hired to kill Shrek for money, but after the ogre spares his life, he proves himself to be an honorable rogue, paying his gratitude by helping our heroes on their journey. And the running gag involving his sad kitten eyes (often deployed with tactical precision to get enemy henchmen to lower their guard) will never not be laugh-out-loud funny.

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However, what elevates Shrek 2 is its surprising emotional depth. The first film had a positive message about staying true to oneself and not judging a book by its cover, but the uplift clashed a bit with the overtly snarky humor. Since the humor in Shrek 2 feels more loving overall, it blends much better with a similarly positive message. It wisely refuses to rehash Shrek and Fiona’s romantic arc from the original, instead progressing their relationship believably, as Shrek worries that the fact that her parents might never truly accept him could drive them apart. While this drives him to try and change himself for Fiona’s sake, she ultimately helps him accept that nothing will change her love for him. Some might even find themselves getting a bit misty-eyed near the end.

The Defining Shrek Chapter in the Franchise

It’s no secret that the third and fourth installments of the series didn’t come anywhere close to living up to the high standard that Shrek 2 set, but it was arguably impossible. This was the rare comedy sequel that actively refused to rehash its predecessor but instead advanced the story and characters, and it refined the elements that didn’t entirely work the first time around. Shrek 2 is nothing less than the franchise’s formula zeroed in to utter comedic perfection, more than enough to surpass the high standards set by the original Shrek film. Both Shrek and Shrek 2 are streaming now on Peacock.