Shrek the Third is a great example of milking a franchise until there's not much left. The first Shrek was original, quirky, had a great story, and was well made. Shrek 2 was able to make up for a lack of originality with a few great new characters (including Puss in Boots) and a ton of jokes. Unfortunately however, Shrek the Third is neither original nor particularly funny.
For the success of any film, animated or otherwise, you have to have a good story. This movie doesn't offer much. The first two Shrek movies both featured a major plot, several sub-plots, and some character development. This one pretty much has a weak major plot, no sub-plots, and no character development. The movie is pretty much over by the time it gets started, which, ironically, is a good thing.
As for new characters, we have a couple of extremely lame ones from the story of King Arthur. Arthur Pendragon (voiced by Justin Timberlake) is a nerdy high-schooler who is sought out by Shrek to be the next king in order for Shrek to avoid the responsibility that kinghood entails. Artie, as he is called, is first of all not very king-like and secondly is not at all funny. Merlin, another new character voiced by Eric Idle, is just plain disturbing as he prances around in a moon and stars robe that reveals almost his entire pair of legs.
The humor wasn't much better than the story or its characters. Jokes were few and far between. What I did enjoy was the Gingerbread cookie's life flashing before his eyes, Artie's farewell speech to his high school, Snow White's song/battle cry, and Prince Charming's musical. These were all very funny. I can't remember laughing at anything else though, which made me feel that I really overpaid at today's ticket prices for four brief moments of jovial ecstasy.
Finally, I was very disappointed that there were no deleted or additional scenes during or after the credits. I wasted a few minutes sitting through the credits for nothing. If you do make the mistake of seeing this movie, at least don't waste your time watching the credits.
Not worth it. If anything, wait for the DVD to come out, borrow it from someone, and skip to the four funny scenes that I mentioned above...you'll spend about five minutes, get the gist of the movie, and get all of the laughs.
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