Latest 'Shrek' sequel a 3-D homage to midlife crisis

"Shrek Forever After," the third and supposedly final sequel in the popular fractured fairy tale franchise, still packs plenty of green entertainment power.

It offers up the expected barrage of witty lines, pop culture references, sight gags and songs played for comic effect. It brings back Shrek, Donkey, Fiona and Puss in Boots for one more round of merriment.

But you know the series is running out of inspiration when it resorts to using an ogre's midlife crisis as a premise, then baldly steals its plot from the classic film, "It's a Wonderful Life," in which a despondent Jimmy Stewart contemplates suicide before an angel shows him what the world would be like had he never been born.

Shrek, that green glob of gelatinous goodness voiced by Mike Myers, doesn't want to be lovable anymore.

No. He wants to be feared.

He wants people to run away from him in stark terror.

He wants to frighten children so he can steal food from their picnic baskets.

What the heck has happened to Shrek?

He's in the throes of a midlife crisis. He hates the drudgery of everyday life, changing diapers of his three belching, pooping babies and forgetting how sexy his wife Fiona (Cameron Diaz) used to be in her prime princess period. He hates being beloved.

"I'm just a jolly green joke!" Shrek shrieks.

That changes when rascally old Rumpelstiltskin (voiced by story editor Walt Dohrn), resembling Pee-wee Herman's evil twin, makes Shrek a deal. He can arrange for the ogre to revert to his fearsome pre-Fiona persona for one day, if Shrek will give up one day of his past.

Shrek doesn't know that years ago, the King and Queen (John Cleese and Julie Andrews) were so desperate to cure Fiona's human-by-day curse, they were willing to surrender their kingdom of Far Far Away to old Rumpel if he could help them. Shrek thwarted his plans for power by saving Fiona himself.

When Shrek signs away his single day, he doesn't realize Rumpelstiltskin has taken the day he was born. Now, stuck in a dark and Shrekless world, the ogre has a scant 24 hours to find Fiona and share a kiss of true love, or he'll simply disappear forever after.

A lot has changed in this alternate universe. The wisecracking Donkey (Eddie Murphy) has been commandeered as a beast of labor for a coven of witches who owe their allegiance to the now-King Rumpelstiltskin.

The dashing Puss (Antonio Banderas) has become a lap cat and really let himself go. He can't even squeeze his paws into those boots.

Fiona is now an Amazonian warrior and commander of the rebel forces against the evil empire. (Yes, there are subtle allusions to the "Star Wars" movies if the flying witches are fill-ins for TIE fighters hovering around the Death Star.)

The question remains: How can Shrek get Fiona to fall in love with him and kiss him during the next few hours?

To appreciate how creatively deflated that "Shrek Forever After" has become, just remember back to DreamWorks' 2001 original.

Every scene exploded with imagination, wit and fun. Every other line and image packed a comic punch, and the film took sadistic joy in shooting down Walt Disney animation conventions and poking merciless fun at Disney theme parks.

"Shrek" also won the first Academy Award for Animated Feature, beating Disney's "Monsters, Inc.," a triumph for DreamWorks founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, who had been fired from Disney after resurrecting its creatively moribund animation branch.

"Shrek Forever After" marks the first time this franchise has utilized both widescreen and 3-D formats. This pays off in some nifty chase scenes through the sky on broomsticks (an homage to Harry Potter?) and a few deft scenes of objects flying into our faces.

But there's a big downside to the 3-D.

The luminous colors of the original "Shrek" - the glowing ogre-green and popping red and white hues - are diminished and dulled by 3-D glasses on a palette of muted illumination.

Just when Shrek sees the light, we don't.

"Shrek Forever After"Rating: #9733; #9733; #9733; Starring: Mike Myers, Antonio Banderas, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Walt Dohrn, Julie AndrewsDirected by: Mike MitchellOther: A Paramount Pictures release. Rated PG. 95 minutesFalse20001568The evil, snotty Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn) tricks Shrek (Mike Myers) into never being born in "Shrek Forever After." False