Shrek the Third 4K UHD Review

Fruity in the Loops

Prince Charming isn’t wrong. His methods, yes, but his cause? No. Charming (Rupert Everett) leads the charge against the Far, Far Away kingdom because of their overbearing wealth, to which none trickles down to the poor. He’s got a point.

Shrek the Third is clearly a sequel running on fumes, so much so that to find a story, the villains become sympathetic. The franchise’s core message remains, that of being your absolute self, said theme evident in Shrek (Michael Meyers) refusing to become a well-dressed king and Arthur (Justin Timberlake) not believing he’s destined to take the throne. Anxiety over fatherhood for Shrek and egotism for Charming do their part to add some substance to this otherwise empty animated feature.

Shrek the Third finds time for a few animated gags

Toy Story found its way to theaters in 1995. Apparently, by Shrek the Third in 2007, the animation medium already lost its way, covering the obvious faults with licensed music and egregiously overdone voice casting. Nearly every role features a celebrity behind it, even if it’s one or two lines.

Somewhere in the mix, Shrek the Third finds time for a few animated gags, even if the fairy tale world is hardly different from the prior two films. All the enthusiasm spent creating a place based on Mother Grimm is lost at this point, every story parodied, every character exhausted. Shrek the Third falls to the unwritten sitcom rule – when in a creative rut, add a baby. So it goes here, with no less than eight babies (of various species, anyway).

As snobbish as this sounds, Shrek the Third feels composed by a boardroom rather than creatives. It’s stupid to say Shrek was ever anything less than corporate licensing contracts, but Shrek the Third is led by co-directors Chris Miller and Raman Hui, the former a pre-visualization artist, the latter promoted from the animation team. That’s usually how these things go – notable directors leave because of shrinking creative possibilities, and someone is found from the internal team. That isn’t a knock on their talents, but in that position, they have less pull with the studio. That’s movie making politics, and the result is a Shrek the Third.

Video

Banding in the opening storm clouds isn’t a positive sign. More than likely, that’s a limitation of the original animation; there’s a lot of that here. Rendered at 2K originally, that much is clear. Resolution doesn’t bring any surprises when compared to the Blu-ray, marginally defining textures better, although that dissipates at a distance. Aliasing in hair and finer lines on costumes reveals the lacking fidelity. Shrek the Third lacks the precision needed to justify this release.

Not even the color makes an impression, on the flatter side, even Shrek’s greens; a pallid yellow tint limits the potential. For such a fantasy world, the lackluster vibrancy becomes a disappointment. Not even the contrast perks up, lightly accentuating illuminated sources against black levels equal to the Blu-ray. Merlin’s spells, certainly an opportunity to show peak brightness, level off to a middling high.

Audio

Updated to DTS:X, small gains made to the soundstage add some value to this presentation. Storms bring overhead thunder and capably surround the soundstage. Action drifts between speakers cleanly and occasionally, stereos separate the dialog away from the center.

Light punch in the low-end drops into the subwoofer convincingly, adding power to the music and dragon fire.

Extras

Same as the previous Blu-ray, which is exactly what’s included in the package (although almost everything is on the UHD, minus the games). That amounts to a handful of dated featurettes and some games for the kids. It’s unexciting at best.

The following six screen shots serve as samples for our subscription-exclusive set of 39 full resolution uncompressed 4K screen shots grabbed directly from the UHD: