Word: fiona
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...trying to decide how I’ll put food on the table in a few short months” to “stop wasting $3.50 on newsstand copies of Glamour magazine and then reading the horoscope.” But when the mystically challenged likes of astrologist Fiona Russell decided to add the thing about getting “hitched,” as she so tritely put it, she crossed the line...
...Babies like Fiona need all the help they can get: only one in three survive. The six-month-old arrived only a few days earlier and sits pressed at the back of her cage, staring blankly out, her huge eyes numb with fear, clutching herself tightly and rocking back and forth ceaselessly. But with luck and good mothering, she too will be transformed within weeks or months into one of the scampering, mischievous brats swinging effortlessly through the air in the playground next door...
...animators' art, because it has an amusing (and morally useful) tale to tell. Basically, we're talking that old standby, a quest story. The ogre (Mike Myers characterizes him vocally as a dour Scotsman) does a deal with the vertically challenged Farquaad (John Lithgow) to rescue Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from a faraway castle. If he succeeds, the princeling will marry the girl and remove the crowd of enchanted nuisances from Shrek's property...
...ground, big ears swivelingly alert for false and dangerous notes. His vocal characterization is supplied by Eddie Murphy, and it is fair to say that not since Robin Williams in Aladdin has an actor so deliciously appropriated a movie. Whether he's fending off the sudden amorous attentions of Fiona's dragon, proposing an evening of man-to-man conversation with Shrek--to be followed by a waffle breakfast he's willing to whip up--or dealing with a twitching eye brought on by his many stressful adventures, no one has ever made a funnier jackass of himself than Murphy...
...would be unfair to reveal Fiona's secret, except to say it puts a potent twist on that standard fairy-tale trope about the transformative powers of love and provides a neat switch on all those Snow White-Sleeping Beauty legends. But let's not stress morals and messages. Let's stress the sheer, cheeky fun of this movie. And the fact that Shrek, like Chicken Run a year ago, enchantingly expands animation's palette and possibilities...