Shrek is an animated fairy tale about a large loner ogre (played by Mike Meyers) who teams up with a donkey (Eddie Murphy) to rescue a princess (Cameron Diaz) for the egotistical king Farquaad (John Lithgow).
Greatest kudos are due to the animators. The computer-generated medieval environment is vivid enough to draw the viewer in, but whimsical enough to convey the necessary comic elasticity. Shrek is ugly but likeable, the donkey is suitably beast-like, and the princess is undeniably sexy. There's a lot of nice touches throughout the film. (My favorite was in the castle where the dragon was holding the princess captive. There's a pile of armor and bones on the floor, with a scorched dragon-breath outline of the knight getting roasted against the wall.)
The writers have cleverly woven a number of risque adult puns in with the slapstick humor, such that toddlers and grownups will laugh at the same time, for different reasons. There were a few particularly good one-liners that really cracked me up. (But will go miles over the heads of those who ought not yet understand the relevance of things like "size" references...)
My favorite character was the evil, vertically-challenged king Farquaad. John Lithgow seemed to be having a ball, expertly hamming it up on the mic. (I saw him demonstrating his cheesy evil laugh on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and it's damned hard to duplicate!) Cameron Diaz also seems to be having fun, as does Mike Meyers, who gives the ogre a Scottish dialect.
I wasn't quite as impressed with my old hero, Eddie Murphy. His once-hysterical brand of street jive seems awkwardly out of place in a medieval fairy tale. His bantering feels more contrived than spontaneous. Unfortunately, his character is the principal motor mouth, so there's a lot of it to wade through. (I guess I can't help but miss the Eddie Murphy of old, back when he used to make fun of Michael Jackson instead of hanging around with him.)
Overall, I didn't find Shrek to be a runaway classic the way some people do, but I certainly enjoyed myself.