MONSTER SMASH

Can't a poor ogre live happily ever after in peace? Not in the real world, writes Donald Clarke

It could be argued that fairy tales are the one genre of fiction whose characters - always promised, let us remember, the option of living their lives happily ever after - should never have to endure the rigours of the sequel. The conclusions of such myths generally leave the principals bolted down in domestic permanence (Mr and Mrs Charming happy in their gingerbread starter home) where they will never again have to encounter wolves, witches or whatever other horrors the forest puts in the way of the unwed.

Well, Shrek, Dreamworks' delightfully funny animated feature, took in such a haul at the box-office in 2001 that its titular hero and his bride Fiona (once a princess, now, like him, an ogre) were never going to be allowed to grow old in peace.

Shrek 2, which has already hoovered up more loot than its predecessor, is a lively, busy piece of work, packed full of delightful jokes and amusing plot turns. Unlike Pixar's Toy Story 2, however, it does not feature any great leaps forward in either plot or animation. What we have is, for the most part, more of the same.

Mr and Mrs Shrek (and, though they resist, Eddie Murphy's irrepressible Donkey) travel to the Kingdom of Far Far Away, a crazy parody of Hollywood, to spend time with King Harold and Queen Lillian, who are still unaware quite how green and bumpy their daughter Fiona has become. The film then develops into a fantastic version of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner as Harold (voiced tetchily by John Cleese) alternates between hostility and patronising condescension while Lillian (an unmistakeable Julie Andrews) seeks to impose order.

Hovering (literally) in the background is Jennifer Saunders's evil Fairy Godmother, who seeks to rearrange matters so that her son, the sleek, arrogant Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), can take Shrek's place. A potion is administered and the newlyweds become beautiful - collateral damage turns Donkey into a mighty stallion - thus causing all sorts of merry confusion.

Whereas Shrek had an elegant shape to it, the sequel is really just a series of comic turns followed by a thrown-together finale. That said, barely a minute goes by without the opportunity for a big, hearty laugh. The funniest scenes involve Puss in Boots, a hilariously vainglorious assassin, voiced brilliantly by Antonio Banderas, whose secret weapon is an ability to adopt the sickeningly cute aspect of a greeting-card kitten.

But we really could have done without the tiresome references to contemporary movies. It is difficult to tell why restaging that scene where Frodo reaches upwards for the Ring is even supposed to be funny. At any rate, it isn't, and nor are the outbreaks of sly product placement (which, by the by, rather deaden the impact of the film's satirical representation of the Fairy Godmother as a demonic industrialist). Still, it is worth reflecting how far we have come from the days when the prospect of a family movie filled parents with dread. Would you have heard a Nick Cave song in The Fox and the Hound or That Darn Cat? You can catch one here.