(Review originally written at 25 December 2007)

It was sort of surprising to see that this movie fairly much had the same visual quality as all of the other 'normal' Shrek movies. Quite surprising for a 30 minutes made for TV Christmas special. In that regard the fans of the Shrek movies will most likely also not be disappointed with this movie.

The movie of course also features lots of the typical Shrek-humor and comical moments. Also of course great that all of the actors from the Shrek movies lend their voices to this special. Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, they are all here.

But it are mostly the secondary characters that make this movie fun to watch. Characters such as the Gingerbread Man and Pinocchio provide the movie with its most fun moments.

Just too bad about the simple and cheesy story. The Shrek movies were all obviously aimed toward the sort of 'older kids' and more mature audience while this story is obviously aimed toward much younger children. It's just too simplistic and candy sweet all. The story mostly doesn't work out due to the fact that you'll find yourself mostly on Shrek's side rather than Fiona's, which was not what the makers intended. I can only say that the movie gets amusing when some of the character sort of give their own interpretation of their Christmas story and experiences but other than that the story doesn't really deserve much credit. It's just too obvious all. The movie tries to shove down the Christmas message trough our throats. It feels forced and not like the sweet little fun charming movie that it really could had been.

Now instead the movie has basically little to offer or at least no more than any other Christmas TV/movie special, which doesn't take anything away from the quality or the fact that this still remains a perfectly watchable short movie.

6/10

(Review originally written at 3 September 2007)

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

For the first part the movie isn't really going anywhere. It however then soon becomes obvious that this movie is turning into a romantic comedy. It however also means that the movie starts to become more and more predictable, since everything is done very formulaic. Even though its a romantic comedy, the romantic aspects of the movie don't really play the central role in the movie. For big parts in the movie the Mark Ruffalo character isn't even features, which doesn't exactly help to make the love-story believable. There also isn't that much chemistry between Mark Ruffalo and Gwyneth Paltrow. I found it hard to believe that a girl like Paltrow would ever fall for a guy like Ruffalo. In the beginning he still seems like a cool guy but later on he suddenly for some reason turns into a complete- and boring dorky sort of person.

The movie doesn't ever flow well. For too long the movie basically lies still when it isn't heading toward one clear direction and the characters and situations aren't interesting and strong enough to keep your interest. It's the reason why the movie feels messy, since it makes it seem that the makers and actors had no idea what direction to head to with this movie.

It's also one of those comedies that isn't really a comedy at all, meaning that it has no laughs in it or great comical situations. The dialog also restrain the actors and situations from being funny. Basically the only comical highlight of the movie is the small Mike Myers role. You know something is very wrong with a comedy when the highlight of the movie is a extended cameo from a well known comedy actor. Gwyneth Paltrow is a great actress but she doesn't suit this genre. Basically in my opinion she's far too good and therefor also too serious and makes it hard to buy her in a comedy.

This movie seems to have done a world record attempt at putting as many songs as possible into one movie, without having a suiting soundtrack of its own and a record attempt putting as many and as short as possible short skirts into one movie. '60's movies don't even have this many- and short skirts in it. Not to sound like a feminist or anything but I found it to be pretty offensive toward women. Also can't believe Gwyneth Paltrow, who is an highly respected actress, agreed to this!

Like I said before, the acting is good from Gwyneth Paltrow but not really right for a comedy type of movie. Christina Applegate is great in her role but for some reason her role isn't really that big, even though he character plays a big part in the movie its story. The older she gets, the better her acting skills. She shows that she's a great and capable comedy actress, without ever having to fall back to her best known and breakthrough big comedy role in the hit-series "Married with Children". Basically the same goes for Kelly Preston, who also gets featured far too little in the movie. Besides Mike Myers, also Rob Lowe makes a small appearance. But why? Perhaps it was Mike Myers doing? He seems to serve no purpose in the movie, even though I was preparing myself for a big role from him in this movie, after he made his first (and only) appearance. His character seemed to be relevant but in the end it served no purpose at all and it was nothing more than just a cameo. Also other well known actors have a small cameo in this movie, such as George Kennedy, whose cameo is obviously referring to his 'Airport' movies past.

The ending is far too abrupt. They just kiss up and everything is OK? We're just supposed to assume that they'll live happily ever after, though not much in this movie indicates that they really will. Yes, I know these sort of movies are supposed to end with a fluffy and sappy ending but it's just not a satisfying and relieving enough closure for the movie.

Really, can't think of much reason why you should ever watch this movie.

4/10