I am not sure who started the genre of spoofs on fairy tales, or even when it happened. Kids today may sincerely believe that “Shrek” was somehow an original idea, but people of my generation are likely to remember Jay Ward’s “Fractured Fairy Tales”, one of “Rocky the Flying Squirrel’s” companion features. Science-fiction and fantasy fans a bit older than I am may have a vague memory of some of Robert Bloch’s early stories about a New Yorker named Lefty Feep and the strange characters he encountered (“Lefty Feep and the Sleepytime Girl”, for instance). And one may suppose, without immediately being able to prove it, that even Bloch’s parodies had their inspirations …

Shrek 2 was made largely … hmm, because the original was so interesting and deserving of a sequel? No, apparently because the original made so much money and was therefore deserving of a sequel. Anyway, here we have a couple of newlyweds, ogres Fiona and Shrek, who suddenly receive a royal command to visit the bride’s parents in their very own distant kingdom of Far Far Away. The two immediately set out on a nine-hundred-mile coach trip to the kingdom (no doubt Donkey’s constant query “Are we almost there yet?” is intended to be boring to the viewer), where the parents and others are surprised to find out that Fiona’s new husband is not the incredibly handsome and personable Prince Charming who was supposed to awaken her with a kiss. Most surprised by this is Fairy Godmother, the Ken Lay of fairyland, who is the mother of Prince Charming and was counting on their marriage to give her a significant “in” with the royal family. Naturally, she sets out to break up the marriage, or, more properly, correct it. Fiona’s father the king himself is somewhat on her side, though to some extent this is because of blackmail (she knows something about his background that does not become obvious until, at the end of the movie, the king finally croaks).

The film was fun (at least as much as the first film), and I can safely say that it does not fall into the trap of being significantly inferior to its predecessor (see e.g. Robocop 2 and Jurassic Park 2). On the other hand, it is not literature for the ages. Far too many of its laughs are based on topical references that will mean little or nothing a generation from now. Will our descendants of the year 2100 have the vaguest idea what Beverly Hills store inspired the sign “Versarchery” in a similar window in Far Far Away? I wonder how many of the younger kids who saw Puss In Boots carve the sign of the ‘P’ on a tree with his sword remembered that the Voice of Puss (Antonio Banderas) played Zorro in The Mask of Zorro half a decade ago. And even teen-agers may fail to recognize the giant gingerbread man storming the castle as being inspired by the Sta-Pufft Marshmallow Man of Ghostbusters.

Well, literature for the ages or no, I guess the future can take care of itself. Those of us alive today can watch and enjoy this film.