FilmBlather.com

"I'm sorry, the position of annoying talking animal has already been taken."

I raved about Shrek when it came out in 2001, calling it "a piece of loopy brilliance" and "maybe the first movie that truly feels at home" in the CGI animation medium. Full disclosure, though: the film's impact diminished for me with each subsequent viewing. After seeing it two more times, once in the theater and once on DVD, I no longer considered the film an accomplished piece of comedy, and only serviceable family entertainment (the animation remained impressive). The humor, at first so daring and fresh, now just seemed exceedingly smug and self-satisfied, and the anti-Disney chip Shrek bore on its shoulder became progressively more burdensome.

It's impossible to tell whether this will recur if and when I give Shrek 2 another go, but my first impression is comparable to, if more sober than, the one I was left with after its predecessor. This is a wonderful film -- fleet, energetic, and consistently on the ball. Its humor runs the proverbial gamut from pure, inexplicable weirdness, to low-brow fart jokes, to sneaky pop culture references, working in a random transvestite and several cheery musical numbers in the process. Oh, and also Puss in Boots.

Who's Puss in Boots, you ask? Goodness, are you ever in for a treat. Even if you have never seen Shrek -- if you've never seen a movie before in your life, for God's sake -- I urge you to check out the sequel if only to experience the force of nature that is Puss in Boots. Entering the franchise with the immortal line "Fear me... if you dare!" the formidable feline assassin voiced by Antonio Banderas (who has long been a criminally underrated comedian) is the most welcome addition to a franchise since the Emperor showed up and started throwing lightning bolts in Return of the Jedi.

Not to be overlooked, however, is the Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders), who arrives in a soap bubble and is dispatched after singing "I'm Holding Out for a Hero" as the backdrop to the film's spectacularly rousing climax. Reminding me for all the world of a (yet more) psychotic Rosie O'Donnell, the villainess (making the Fairy Godmother the bad guy was simple but brilliant) is one of the more peculiar characters in recent animation, and her son Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) is just perfectly snooty. They're both outraged that Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) ran off with an ogre instead of marrying Charming like she was damn well supposed to, and her parents (John Cleese and Julie Andrews) aren't too happy about it either. Having Shrek assassinated isn't out of the question. Enter Puss in Boots.

It's telling, I think, that Shrek and his sidekick Donkey (Eddie Murphy), though ostensibly the film's protagonists, are the least interesting entities here by a wide margin. Shrek himself is burdened with an obnoxious voice performance by Mike Myers, who seems incapable of doing anything other than milking that pseudo-Scottish accent for all it's worth (it's not worth much). And when Donkey tells Puss in Boots that "the position of annoying talking animal has already been taken," we think that yeah, that's about right. Sad thing is, this is by far the best role that Eddie Murphy can get these days. Up next: Daddy Day Camp.

Irrelevant. There is so much going on around Shrek and Donkey that I was perfectly content to accept them as the film's straightmen, to the extent that it is possible for a large, green, Scottish ogre and a talking ass to play that role. From Puss in Boots to "KNIGHTS" and the pepper grinder spray, to that amazing Bonnie Tyler-inspired finale, Shrek 2 seems to live up to the initial promise of the (thus far) remarkably successful franchise. Whether or not I will still believe this in a couple of months remains to be seen.