Shrek appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Shrek provided a terrific visual experience.
Sharpness seemed solid. Virtually no softness emerged, so overall definition appeared excellent.
No signs of jagged edges, moiré effects or edge haloes appeared. The movie also came totally free of any source flaws.
The fairytale setting of Shrek offered a nicely bright and varied palette, and the disc reproduced the colors well. From the cartoonier tones to more natural and lifelike hues, the colors always came across as vivid and lively, with a nice boost in range from HDR.
Black levels also seemed deep and rich, while shadow detail looked appropriately heavy but not overly dense. HDR added punch to whites and contrast. I felt completely happy with this excellent image.
Downconverted to DTS-HD MA 7.1, Shrek provided a DTS X soundfield with a fairly forward emphasis. The front spectrum offered nice separation and presence for the music. Effects displayed reasonably good atmosphere, but they usually didn’t go much beyond that.
I heard good movement across the front, such as the guy in the Farquaad costume who ran from Shrek and Donkey. A few other instances provided positive directionality and engagement.
The surround channels offered reasonable involvement as well, especially in the movie’s action sequences. These didn’t create a stellar sonic environment, but they brought the scenes to life.
Audio quality was solid. Dialogue consistently appeared natural and distinct, as I heard no concerns related to intelligibility or edginess. Music provided pretty good dynamics and depth as well.
Effects were clean and accurate and these elements offered decent low-end punch. Nothing here dazzled but the track worked fine for the movie overall.
How the 4K UHD compare to the most recent Blu-ray from 2016? The DTS X audio seemed more involving and dynamic than the prior track.
Visuals also boasted obvious improvements, as the picture looked better defined and offered superior blacks and colors. Even though the image came from a 2K source, the UHD made it look better.
For those with the necessary TV equipment, matters complicate due to the existence of a 3D version of Shrek. If that group includes you, should you go 3D or 4K?
I’d opt for 4K. The 3D presentation offered a good sense of depth, but the quality boost from the 4K made it the winner. The 4K looked significantly better than its 3D counterpart and the stereo visuals didn’t add enough impact to overcome that deficit.
As we head to extras, the 4K UHD starts with an audio commentary from producer Aron Warner and directors Vicky Jenson and Andrew Adamson. All three were recorded together for this running, screen-specific piece. Overall, I like the track, though it can be fairly erratic.
The first half of the commentary offers the strongest information. The three participants provide a wealth of solid information about the film.
They cover animation problems and details as well as story development to alterations made along the way. They seem peppy and involved in the process as they add lots of useful tidbits in an engaging and entertaining manner.
Unfortunately, the commentary starts to run out of steam about halfway through the film. After the 45-minute mark, valuable remarks pop up less frequently, and the participants spend more of their time simply watching and enjoying the movie.
A lot of their statements relate to their appreciation of the film, and Jenson especially comes across like a cheerleader at times. The second half of the commentary still provides some good details, and even during the less informative spots, it remains reasonably entertaining. However, you’ll encounter the most compelling data during the movie’s first half.
Shrek’s Interactive Journey I acts as a form of still gallery. It lets you choose from five movie locations and see concept art created for those spots. It’s not the most intuitive way to view these images, but I like the content.
Three Deleted Scenes run a total of eight minutes, one second. We see “Fiona’s Prologue” (2:54), “The Deal” (2:41), and “Fiona Gets Them Lost” (2:26). These come to us as “storyboard pitches”; this means we see storyboards while an animator voice-acts them for us.
I think the first two are interesting but nothing special; the movie doesn’t suffer for their omission. On the other hand, “Lost” is a lot of fun. I don’t know how well it would have integrated with the film, but I like it and wish it had been completed. In any case, I like this look at the unused footage.
Two featurettes appear. Spotlight on Donkey runs 11 minutes, 37 seconds and delivers comments from Warner, Adamson, Jenson, Katzenberg, Myers, Murphy, Bielenberg, director Mike Mitchell, producer Teresa Cheng, and actors Antonio Banderas, and Walt Dohrn.
“Spotlight” looks at the character’s development and design as well as Murphys’s casting and performance. The program gives us a decent but somewhat fluffy look at Donkey.
Next comes Secrets of Shrek, a three-minute, 50-second piece that identifies cameos and movie details that otherwise might go unnoticed. It’s a fun little bonus.
We also get two music videos. We find “I’m a Believer” from Smash Mouth and “Best Years Of Our Lives” from Baha Men.
The first one combines a lip-synch performance by the band with a minor plot in which lead singer Steve Harwell pursues his dream girl. Shrek clips are integrated in a clever and smooth manner, and it’s a decent little video with a funny ending.
The Baha Men clip is much less interesting. It combines an annoying lip-synched performance alongside some dancing babes with the standard movie snippets.
The song itself’s a bland and inane piece of dreck. Ugh!
We also find “What’s Up Duloc?” (3:56) from Shrek: The Musical. It doesn’t make me want to see the show.
A Karaoke Swamp Party provides a two-minute, 51-second reel that shows the Shrek characters as they belt out some pop songs. It becomes a fun addition.
On the included Blu-ray copy, we get the same features found on the 4K with a couple of others. The Animators’ Corner offers picture-in-picture elements that show behind the scenes footage, storyboards, and interviews.
We hear from Adamson, Warner, Jenson, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg, visual effects supervisor Ken Bielenberg, production designer James Hegedus, supervising animator Raman Hui, art director Guillaume Aretos, actors Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, John Lithgow, and Cameron Diaz.and other crewmembers.
Why don’t I credit them? Because the stupid Blu-ray doesn’t do so!
It never lists any names. If I didn’t recognize a participant or figure out their names via context, I couldn’t identify them.
“Corner” covers story/character topics, cast, performances and inspirations, music and visual design, animation and technical areas, and some general issues. “Corner” acts as a nice complement to the commentary, as it discusses a good array of areas. It manages to fill most of the film – only a few gaps here! – and provides an enjoyable picture-in-picture track.
For material from other films, we can move to the DreamWorks Animation Video Jukebox. This allows you to watch clips from Bee Movie, How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar and Over the Hedge.
This lets us hear some musical numbers from the films. It feels like advertising to me, honestly, as it serves little real purpose.
The disc opens with ads for Megamind and Kung Fu Panda 2. These also appear under Previews along with clips for The Penguins of Madagascar, the Kung Fu Panda World game, and Shrek: The Musical. No trailer for Shrek shows up here.
A “bonus Blu-ray” comes with a few additional features. Under Shrek’s Short Films, we get three clips: “Shrek In the Swamp Karaoke Party” (2:51), “Far Far Away Idol” (9:00), and “Puss in Boots: The Three Diablos” (13:06).
“Karaoke” simply repeats the segment already found on the other two discs, so its presence here makes no sense. Far Far Away Idol is a piece of animation originally created for the Shrek 2 DVD.
Here see various characters sing appropriate pop tunes for a judging panel of Shrek, Fiona, and Simon Cowell. It’s cute and enjoyable.
Previously found on the Puss in Boots release, “Diablos” gives us a Puss adventure that brings back Antonio Banderas as the lead. “Diablos” becomes a fairly amusing tale.
Within Shrek’s Halloween Favorites, we locate four more segments: “The Ghost of Lord Farquaad” (12:34), “Scared Shrekless” (25:30), “Thriller Night” (6:08), and “The Pig Who Cried Werewolf” (6:49).
In “Ghost”, goons kidnap Fiona (Cameron Diaz), which leads Shrek (Mike Myers) and Donkey (Eddie Murphy) on a chase – and a confrontation with a phantom Farquaad (John Lithgow). Originally created for the “Shrek 4D” theme park attraction, “Ghost” doesn’t work quite as well outside of that setting.
This becomes especially given the absence of 3D, as the short opts for so many “in your face” effects that it tends to look a bit goofy without 3D. It does have bring us some minor comedy, and it’s nice to have on home video as an archival piece, so it doesn’t replace the original attraction but it’s cool in its own way.
During “Scared”, Shrek, Donkey and the others tell scary stories to win the title of “King of Halloween”. All three of its mini-sequences offer entertainment, though Gingy’s tale of romantic woe works best. Shrek’s Exorcist parody comes a close second and helps make this a fun trilogy.
“Thriller Night” shows Donkey (here voiced by Dean Edwards) as he leads Shrek (here done by Michael Gough) and the gang on their version of the Michael Jackson classic.
More than 40 years after its release, “Thriller” may be the most parodied music video of all-time. Does Shrek bring anything fresh to it?
Not really. It’s cute to see the Shrek crew do the “Thriller” shtick but the short lacks real inspiration.
Lastly, “Cried” shows that Heimlich the Pig (Sean Bishop) gets a reputation as an alarmist, so no one believes him when he claims that the new wolf next door (Aron Warner) is up to no good.
While it uses “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” as obvious inspiration, the short also works in Rear Window to good effect. Nothing here seems quite as amusing as the tales of “Shrekless”, but it gives us a decent Hitchcock parody.
Three more elements appear under Shrek’s Holiday Favorites. Here we locate “Shrek the Halls” (28:02), “Donkey’s Caroling Christmas-tacular” (6:39) and “Shrek’s Yule Log” (30:19).
Via “Halls”, Shrek (again voiced by Mike Myers) doesn’t care about the holiday, but Fiona wants a happy Yule so he does his best to deliver a warm family Christmas.
Of course, this doesn’t go according to schedule. Donkey (back to Eddie Murphy) interjects himself into Shrek’s plans and sends things in a different direction.
While Shrek crafts a quiet evening with Fiona and their babies, Donkey brings all their pals over for a more raucous festival. Hijinks ensue.
“Shrek the Halls” doesn’t dazzle in any way, but then again, it doesn’t really attempt to do so. Despite the presence of its big stars, it provides a rather modest tale that throws out enough laughs and charm to be worthwhile.
Via “Caroling”, Donkey hosts a big party for all his pals. Much singing ensues, though with twists such as “Fleas Navidad”.
“Caroling” is little more than an excuse for a lot of bad puns and wacky vocals from the Shrek regulars. As always, it’s nice to hear from the original actors, and the short moves well to create a reasonably entertaining piece.
Finally, at the start of “Yule Log”, we see Shrek set up the titular wood, and occasionally characters like Donkey and Puss pop into the image to make comments. It mostly remains a view of a CG fireplace, though, so don’t expect much from it.
The bonus disc concludes with five episodes from a TV series called The Adventures of Puss in Boots. We find “Hidden” (23:04), “Sphinx” (23:04), “Brothers” (23:04), “Duchess” (23:04) and “Adventure” (23:02).
Adventures ran for six seasons from 2015 to 2018. Here we find the first five programs from S1.
Eric Bauza substitutes for Antonio Banderas as the title character, and Jayma Mays plays Dulcinea, Puss’s primary romantic interest. Both acted as the series’ only true mainstays, though other actors showed up for most of the six seasons.
Based on the opening five shows, Adventures offered reasonable entertainment. The animation doesn’t live up to cinematic standards, but it seems fine for TV work.
Bauza delivers a more than competent imitation of Antonio Banderas, and the supporting cast comes with talent. Nothing here dazzles but Adventures probably amuses more than it should.
After multiple viewings of Shrek, I still can’t understand the fuss the film received. While it has some reasonably clever moments, I feel it seems lackluster. The 4K UHD provides excellent visuals, generally good audio and a long set of supplements. This remains a mildly fun movie and a very good 4K UHD presentation.
