The big green ogre Shrek (Mike Meyers) and his bubbly princess bride Fiona (Cameron Diaz) find themselves the rulers of Far Far Away when the latter's father (John Cleese) suddenly croaks. While the male side of the family grabs friends Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss (Antonio Banderas) to help find the country's real ruler Arthur (Justin Timberlake), the female member of this family does all she can to stop a coup engineered by former wannabe beau Charming (Rupert Everett). On top of it all, Fiona is pregnant, and Shrek isn't remotely sure he's ready for anyone to start calling him dad.

CRITIQUE

Shrek the Third was the second of the big Summer three-quels that came out earlier this year. Except for maybe the abysmal Rush Hour 3, it was also close to being the worst. Talk about a hard, long fall for a series that won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Film when it started back in 2001.

This movie is bad, at time really bad. The writers this time around can't seem to get anything right, and while the animation is as good as ever the comedy unfortunately borders on the anemic. Other then an inspired dream sequence and a great bit of warrior warbling from Snow White sitting through this sequel was a total drag, and by the time it was over I knew immediately that the fairy tale for this set of characters was definitely over.

THE VIDEO

It must be admitted, this HD DVD presentation of Shrek the Third looks terrific. While I don’t think the animation in this Dreamworks’ release is anything anyone should really be crowing about, it sure did look pretty darn spectacular on my Samsung LCD television. This really is what high def was made for.

THE AUDIO

Shrek the Third is presented in English (Dolby Digital Plus 5.1), French (Dolby Digital Plus 5.1) and Spanish (Dolby Digital Plus 5.1) audio with optional English, French or Spanish subtitles.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Most of the extras here are the same ones from the regular DVD release (go read that review if you want to know more), and while it goes without saying I hate the film it must be admitted that the HD specific special features kick one heck of a lot of butt.

The picture-in-picture interactive storyboards are incredible (I think I spent a good hour playing with them), while the ability to customize character menus is more fun than any 30-year-old woman should probably openly admit.

As for the web-enabled extras, both “The World of Shrek” and “Shrek’s Trivia Track” are far better than I thought they would be. Too bad the rest of the movie doesn’t live up to all this high-tech hoopla.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Really cool HD special features aside, All-in-all, this film is a total waste, for those wanting to spend their DVD dollars on something for the entire family Shrek the Third is a total waste of time. Here's my vote they spend those dollars someplace else.