Fed up with the Ogres never being scared of anything, the rest of the Far Far Away gang challenge Shrek to a scary-story contest, with the last to flee in terror being crowned The King Of Halloween.
Much to my surprise, Mike Myers does indeed reprise his roll as Shrek for this special; Eddie Murphy does not return as Donkey, although Dean Edwards' Murphy impression is spot on, and you'd never know.
Another surprise, is that rather than being in its own little bubble universe, Scared Shrekless does actually take place in the movie series continuity (after Shrek Forever After). While having seen the 4th movie isn't essential, events from it are referenced in the wraparound segments.
The first story, Bride of Gingey, is by far the best. After being dumped by his girlfriend, the Gingerbread Man goes to see the Muffin Man to have him bake a perfect woman for him. After a fun bit of business choosing his ideal cookie cutter, we're treated to a "creation scene" with lots of very smart little nods to James Whales' two Universal Frankenstein movies. There's nothing to be lost here if you don't know those movies backwards, but there's more to enjoy if you do, and I have to say I was impressed at the detail of references to 80 year old movies in a throwaway kids' special.
Possibly due to Gingey's insistence that The Muffin Man use more sugar than the recipe calls for, his new lady friend comes out way more clingy than he wanted. The story manages to trow in some Night of the Living Dead references, and even a blink and you'll miss it visual callback to The Evil Dead.
Best of all, the back end of the segment has some genuinely slightly disturbing moments, and I can honestly imagine younger kids watching through closed fingers!
Boot's Motel, despite having the best title of the three segments, is the weakest; Puss in Boots and Donky improvise a story about a visit to a motel, and things constant,y change as the two try to outdo each other. The concept is funny and they do, of course, slide in some Psycho references, but the references are a little on-the nose, and not nearly as impressive as those in the previous story. I guess to a child it might be a funny sketch, but it fails as a story, and in no scarier than an average episode of Tom and Jerry.
Finally, The Shreksorcist sees Shrek, as a babysitter for hire, called to look after a possessed boy, played by Pinocchio.
This third segment is neither as funny as the second, nor as clever as the first, and frankly falls a little flat.
If all three segments had been as good as the first, I'd be giving this a very enthusiastic "recommended". As it stands, if you can pick it up for a quid or two, pick it up for a tiny person in your life and give it look over their head while they watch it.
Disclaimer:
If you look through the archives, you'll see that I've been using "Bought from Poundland" as a tag since at least 2011.
At the end of October 2013 I decided that all of my 2014 movies would be purchased from Poundland, and began buying up horror movies, to ensure I would have enough come October 2014.
In March 2014 I took a part time job at Poundland.
In accordance with the companies social media policy, in September 2014 I contacted Poundland's social media team to check that I would be okay to carry on with my plan to use the "bought from Poundland" tag.
I have been given the go-ahead on condition that I make the following clear:
All the reviews on this blog are entirely the opinion of Will Tingle, the reviews are not endorsed by Poundland in any way and (as should be obvious from some of the more scathing ones) are certainly not reviews I have been paid to write.
In short: The views expressed in this blog are mine alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Poundland or it's owners, shareholders, or management.
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