大象传媒

The summer of threequels continues with Shrek The Third, a serviceable CGI toon with enough wry humour to keep weary parents amused. This time, the big green ogre with the soft centre is threatened with the job of kingship, and embarks on a quest to find another heir to take his place on the throne of Far Far Away. He finds one in the form of geeky teenager Artie (Justin Timberlake), but he doesn't really fancy the job either.

It would be simple enough to dismiss Shrek The Third as nothing more than a soulless, corporate cash-cow, and of course, it is a soullless, corporate cash-cow, but that doesn't make the film itself less entertaining. What you get in this third instalment is more of the same - more ogre-ish grumpiness from Mike Myers, more of Eddie Murphy's wisecracking Donkey routine, more purring amorality from Antonio Banderas.

In fact, this is not so much a sequel as an upgrade - like Shrek II, but running on Windows Vista. The animation is flawless, though in truth, it has the same theme-park pallor as the previous Shrek flicks - there's never been an atmosphere in this hermetic world.

"GREAT ANIMATION AND GOOD JOKES"

The big theme this time is parenthood, best expressed by a freaky dream sequence in which our hero is overrrun with thousands of baby Shrekettes. Donkey's been getting busy with his lady dragon too - thankfully, we never discover quite how, but their winged mule offspring are thoroughly charming. In short, great animation and some good jokes (and with seven writers, they'd better be good) but it's all starting to feel very familiar.

Shrek The Third is out in UK cinemas on 29th June 2007