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| Just as funny, sweet and engaging as the first film starring the big galoot. |
| (Claudia Puig, USA Today) Sure, the animation work is great, but it's the actors and their subtle, complex vocal performances that make us care about these fairy-tale characters. Shrek 2 is all about fantasy, but its characters are rousingly, affectingly real - not to mention real, real funny. |
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| (Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post) |
| Like the first movie this is unassailable family entertainment, with a gentle fairy tale for kids and a raft of mildly satirical pop-culture references for parents. |
| (J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader) One of the funniest movies I've seen in years. But I'm far from sure that it's a kids' movie anymore, even though, like its predecessor, it's a thoroughly sugared-up reading of the book, by veteran New Yorker cartoonist William Steig, on which both films are based. |
| (Ella Taylor, LA Weekly) I wasn't prepared for the slap-happy brilliance of Shrek 2, which should ideally be seen twice - once with kids, once savored at something like a midnight show. |
| (David Edelstein, Slate) Lightning strikes twice, but not as brilliantly as before, in Shrek 2. The welcome sequel to the monster 2001 Oscar winner about an ogre's unlikely romance with a beautiful princess successfully recycles many of the qualities that made the first one an instant animated classic and worldwide smash. |
| (Todd McCarthy, Variety) There's an old-Hollywood feel to the movie's solid showmanship and unabashed sophistication. These days it's feature-length 'toons, sporting the newest-fangled technology, that take kids and adults alike back to the movies' good old days. |
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| (Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal) |
| It has the charm, irony and saucy wit of the original, plus two supporting characters - a suave, egocentric feline and a cheerfully conniving fairy godmother - who are funnier than anyone in Shrek. |
| (Lawrence Toppman, Charlotte Observer) The Shrek franchise is alive and well - Model 2 is zippier, sleeker, with ever-improving graphics, vast commercial potential and the same sly ability to reach out and hook the whole family. |
| (Rick Groen, Toronto Globe and Mail) Shrek 2 delivers more fun than there is slime in a green ogre's swamp. Much of that is thanks to Antonio Banderas, who runs away with Shrek 2 on little cat feet. |
| (Jami Bernard, New York Daily News) So gorgeously animated and so thoroughly entertaining for all ages that only an ogre would complain it's not quite as fresh as the original. |
| (Lou Lumenick, New York Post) Shrek 2 is a dream, a sequel as exhilarating and riotously funny as 2001's top-grossing original. |
| (Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer) Shrek 2 may be computer-generated, but its innate heart and glorious sense of mischief make it one of the best and most humane movies of the summer. |
| (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone) This Shrek is both funnier and warmer than its predecessor; it's better-looking, too, no longer as clunky and junky as video-game graphics. |
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| (Robert Wilonsky, Dallas Observer) |
| The real humor comes, once again from Murphy, whose Donkey is so genuinely funny and clever that he very nearly steals the film. Except that it's stolen by Banderas as a rogue Puss In Boots. |
| (Paula Nechak, Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Reunites one of the best voice casts ever for an animated film to create a shrewd entertainment that again successfully aims its jokes at various age groups. |
| (Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter) Its cleverness and its good heart enable it to overcome a slow start, which is how all good fairy tales end. |
| (Kenneth Turan, LA Times) The picture is clever and vivacious - at times, like the first Shrek, it seems a bit taken with its own precociousness. But its moments of sheer inventiveness can still catch you off-guard, and some of them are wittily poetic. |
| (Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com) This wonderfully animated movie is a little more softly pitched than its predecessor, but it still has plenty of rollicking spin on the ball. |
| (Richard Shickel, Time) What works best in Shrek 2 are the smaller roles, the pile-driving pop-culture jokes, and the moments of weird, early-Mad-magazine comic invention. |
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| (Ty Burr, Boston Globe) |
| The humor is so satisfying in its moment-to-moment pleasures that it's almost unsportsmanlike to criticize the bigger picture. |
| (Peter Debruge, Premiere) With its appealing blend of animated comedy, romance, and adventure, Shrek 2 follows the formula of its predecessor while maintaining enough originality not to come across as a direct copy. |
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| (James Berardinelli, Reelviews) |
| Everything’s at such a high standard that it’s easy to get blase about Shrek and it’s only when the memory of Brother Bear hits you with a dull squelch that you appreciate how great it is. |
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| (Peter Bradshaw, Guardian) |
| The fairy tale for our multi-cultural, pluralistic times. Its credo can be summed up as: whether you’re black or green, ogre or geek, people will love you for who you are inside - and isn’t that the most fantastic fairy tale of all? |
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| (Cosmo Landesman, Sunday Times) |
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