In our local paper, this film was not given a very high rating. I’m not sure why. It was better, IMHO, than Shrek 2, though perhaps not than Shrek.

The film starts out when Fiona’s dad, the Frog King of Far Far Away (the place that looks like Hollywood) croaks, leaving Shrek and Fiona in charge of the kingdom. Daddy does mention, just before the end, that there’s another candidate, apparently a young cousin named Arthur. Shrek, who wants to run a kingdom about as much as he wants hemorrhoids, sets out in search of Arthur, to turn the kingdom over to him.

Meanwhile a third, self-declared candidate, the snotty and ambitious Prince Charming, son of the late Fairy Godmother, gathers all the malcontents in the kingdom — the Wicked Witch, the Cyclops, Captain Hook, numerous others — and takes over the kingdom, imprisoning Fiona and a group of her lady friends. Shrek, returning with a recalcitrant young Arthur Pendragon after several adventures, is imprisoned more easily than one might expect after his tourney in the first movie, and is scheduled to be executed by Prince Charming in a dramatic presentation intended to leave him in sole charge of the kingdom. Between young Arthur, the ladies, Shrek, and the usual cast of friends (including Pinocchio and the Gingerbread Man) this doesn’t happen.

There are two interesting subplots, one of which worked for me and one of which didn’t. Shrek, discovering that Fiona is pregnant, moans and groans about the fact that ogres aren’t cut out to be fathers; but gradually, and after his interaction with young Arthur, whose father simply abandoned him, he comes to accept this fate as inevitable and ultimately valuable to him and Fiona.

In the other subplot, Merlin changes the minds of Puss in Boots and Donkey into the others’ bodies, thus leaving them a bit uncomfortable. I don’t think enough was done with this part.

I enjoyed the film and, again, think it superior to Shrek 2, which may have been overlong — this one is not.