Prince Charming performs at a dinner theater, where he rescues a princess (probably because he failed to do that with Fiona. He was originally planned to do that and kiss her in order for her ogre transformation curse to be broken). His show fails after he gets mad at a waiter, holding a giant cupcake, with lit candles, singing, “Happy Birthday to thee, Happy Birthday to thee…” (Yet, we don’t know who he’s singing to since we never see the cupcake again), which angers Charming. That leads to the audience, particularly Shrek’s Swamp buddies, laughing at him.

If that doesn’t ruin his night enough, the set falls apart. Charming walks out in tears… only to realize that he shouldn’t let some performance disaster get in the way of becoming king of Far Far Away. His first plan is to get rid of Shrek and Fiona 

Shrek and Fiona wake up and discover different tasks that need to be done until King Harold, Princess Fiona’s father (who’s turned into a frog in the previous movie after he protected Shrek from the wicked fairy godmother’s sorcery, and the wand’s effect hit him instead), recovers from his illness. It involves painful makeovers. 

Once the presentation of Shrek and Fiona starts, a button flies off of Shrek’s overly tight suit, which leads to bigger disasters until a flaming shrimp stick that soars off of a waiter’s serving tray and hits a curtain, and the fire spreads throughout the room.

Angry, Shrek demands that he and Fiona leave. After he calms down, Fiona cheers him up by telling him how soon the two will be back in the swamp, and even describes it in a way unpleasant to many people, but exciting to Shrek. Then she hints at the idea of becoming parents. Shrek resists, stating that babies constantly cry and defecate, or do both at the same time – and is worried that an ogre baby will do more of those. Then a servant opens the door. Shrek and Fiona find out that King Harold is dying.

During this painful moment, Shrek tells King Harold that he doesn’t want to be the next heir to the throne. So, King Harold tells him that there is only one other who can take his place. That is Fiona’s cousin, Arthur. The king then meets his demise.

As the majority of Far Far Away citizens attend King Harold’s funeral, Charming goes to the Poisoned Apple, which is a bar for villains. He shares his plan with Maybel, Cinderella’s other ugly stepsister, besides Doris. Charming announces it to the rest of the crowd, whom he calls his friends.

That infuriates them and they try to hurt him. He points out to the different beings there about their plans, and how they failed. So, he and everyone else plans to get together and retrieve their happily-ever-afters. 

As Shrek goes out to find Arthur with Donkey and Puss in Boots, Fiona announces that she is pregnant. Shrek has a nightmare about ogre babies, and wakes up, fearing the idea of becoming a father. Not long after, he, Donkey, and Puss, arrive at the place Arthur is, which is a high school.

Shrek sees a strong boy and takes him – except that he’s not Arthur, but Lancelot. He points out Arthur, who runs away. Shrek and his pals follow him. 

Shrek walks into an assembly, claiming to be a mascot since that’s they only way that anyone is allowed to enter the auditorium section, which is similar to a stage. Arthur is revealed by hanging from a pole. Everyone laughs at him and chants at Shrek to eat him – which he isn’t there to do, thus won’t. He tells Arthur that he is going to be the next king of Far Far Away – but his classmates bully him for that.

He then gives a speech, which includes standing up for himself to everybody who’s ever picked on him, and admits his love to Gwen, a girl with wavy hair who speaks in stereotypical teenage girl talk from the 2000’s. 

At some point, though, Donkey and Puss tell Arthur (or Artie, what he prefers to be called) the “benefits” of being king – which makes him violently steer the boat away from the direction they are headed toward, since he is now against the idea of becoming king. Everyone lands on some other form of land. Artie angrily walks away from Shrek, but Shrek continues to follow him. 

The four meet Merlin, the high school’s former magic teacher. He refuses to help them at first. But Artie fake cries about innocent people being in peril, thus making Merlin change his mind. But things go in a strange direction.

Meanwhile, Fiona is pregnant and spends much of her time with Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Doris, and Rapunzel. During her baby shower with them, she tries to tell them what Shrek said about her pregnancy – only for the dragon that had previously guarded her in the first movie, and who had hybrid young with Donkey, to roar as a way to alert danger. 

Charming, along with the other villains, attack Far Far Away, and he has a unique plan to kill Shrek. Will Artie be willing to become king of Far Far Away? Or will Charming stick to his plans and rule the kingdom instead?

My thoughts

This movie cracked me up several times, thus making it the funniest Shrek movie I’ve seen. The others I saw were the first one, and the sequel. Not only that, this one is my favorite out of all three of the Shrek films I’ve watched – all because the humor nailed it for me.

The idea of a medieval “Happy Birthday” song, especially done in a humorous way with a fast tempo also pleased me a lot. I actually wish the real “Happy Birthday” song was sung in a much quicker tempo, like how that waiter did it, more often. That way, it would sound more like a song for celebration. Clapping along with it would make it even more joyful, in fact the best – for me, personally.

Yet, doing that is considered rude and disruptive during a performance. Prince Charming even felt that way by asking the waiter, “Do you mind?” And then Gingy repeats that and shouts, “Boring!” Finally, the audience laughs at Charming.

There is another time Charming gets challenged. That is when Fiona, Queen Lillian, and the other princesses hide, and the swamp pals fake a tea party in front of him and the other bad guys.

Knowing that Pinocchio’s lies would be revealed because his nose would grow longer, Charming asks him where Shrek is. Pinocchio rambles into complex sentences to avoid lying. I laugh hard at that, too.

Another funny moment, although I don’t laugh as hard as when Pinocchio tries not to lie, is when Shrek claims that he is entering the mascot contest for the high school Artie attends. A student doesn’t believe him when he handles his skin, stating that his “costume” seems real. And then Puss and Donkey hurt him, and Shrek reacts with painful sounds as he touches those areas.

There is also a brief scene where Shrek diapers Puss by mistake, and Puss gives him a dirty look. This leads me to proclaim the funniest scene in this film, and perhaps out of every movie I’ve ever seen, which may also be permanent for me… the baby nightmare.

It starts out where Shrek is back at his swamp home and is expressing excitement and relief. He hears Fiona call his name from the little house, and he enters… only for her to not respond, or even be seen. A stroller rolls up, and Shrek stares at it nervously. He removes the cover, which reveals an ogre baby. It expresses glee and burps… but then vomits in an extreme way – similar to a dragon breathing fire. It cries, and Shrek briefly comforts it. 

This is the part where I begin to laugh hard – in the uttermost way: more ogre babies show up doing dangerous things, and Shrek has to keep saving them. As he collects the infants, he slides his bed curtains open, and an ogre infant is reading on the mattress (which is possibly a recycled moment from when the big bad wolf did that in the first movie). Out of nowhere, an avalanche of ogre babies slide into Shrek’s home, and take up all the space. Shrek struggles to escape. But when he runs out the door… he finds himself naked, except for a graduation cap and medals. He covers himself as a bunch of ogre babies laugh at him, and “Pomp and Circumstance” plays in the background. 

He wakes up, screaming, while it’s still dark. He tells Donkey to wake up… only for him and Puss to have ogre infant faces and make the same noises. Shrek freaks out. The scene ends with ogre baby-faced Donkey, saying in his normal voice, “Da-da.” Finally, Shrek wakes up back in the real world. That concludes the funniest moment in this film and in all of movie history for me – as of now.

Other strengths

It’s not just the humor I consider a strength, but also the morals and character development – particularly Shrek, himself. He has become the good guy, literally. He no longer terrorizes villagers, deems himself evil, demands that everybody leaves him alone, or does that signature roar he does in the other Shrek films, including the one after this, Shrek Forever After. This makes him more likable than ever.

That being said, Shrek isn’t perfect since no fictional character is or should be. He still does things that are wrong numerous times as well as displays bad attitudes.

Regardless of his flaws, Shrek does allow characters to make their own choices and does show affection at times. He also experiences fear and anxiety, making him more real and likable.

Another perk is the breaking of the stereotype about species and physical appearances and how one should view those instead. That brings me to my next point… 

Prince Charming, who was originally designated to rescue Princess Fiona, goes bad. He is the main villain of this film, despite his handsome looks. At the same time, Cinderella’s ugly stepsister, Doris, has become good. She has even joined Cinderella and the other princesses, including Fiona. The moral is to never judge anyone’s trustworthiness or behavior merely by his or her appearance. 

Someone who appears handsome or beautiful may not necessarily be a kind person. In fact, he or she could be the opposite. The same can apply for somebody who many might not consider the most attractive. That means despite their less-pleasing looks to others, they can still be very sweet and gentle.

While some old stories or movies, like The Wizard of Oz or Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves often communicated that message, thankfully, those in recent films tried to avoid it.

Another important moral is that making a sad-eyed face won’t distract others from what they are trying to do to do, including denying you what you want. This is a big feature of Puss, whose big, sad eyes made others think he was adorable in Shrek 2.

However, during the scene after Shrek yells about his suffering through the painful tasks he and Fiona had to perform, Puss states that not everyone understands boundaries. Shrek takes him outside, which prompts him to give him the sad eyes again – only for Shrek to lower the blinds. Every time I watch that scene, I think to myself, Sorry, that’s not going to work. You can’t get what you want just by making those sad kitty eyes.

I also appreciate that Fiona and the other princesses rescue Shrek from something dangerous during the story. In the previous Shrek films, he saves Fiona. But the idea of females rescuing males pleases me a lot – maybe even more – particularly since it represents them as being strong, and how they can be as heroic as males. Plus, it makes for a nice change, and is often pleasing to girls and women.

But there is a scene where Artie gives a speech, expressing an important message that applies to real people too. That is, just because others view you a certain way, that doesn’t mean you have to be that. Who you are and what you want matters a lot more than how others view you.

Somebody considered the speech to be too nice. There have even been people who found Fiona’s cousin, Artie, annoying. However, I think he deserves more sympathy. 

His father had abandoned him prior to when he first appeared in the story. Aside from that, his classmates constantly bully him at his school. Therefore, I think he had so much bravery to give that speech, which can be daunting for many, particularly those who have been picked on so often.

Overall

Enjoying this movie a lot also puts me in the minority, sadly, since most people consider it the worst out of all the Shrek movies and deem it to be so bad. Shrek 2 is the most popular in this movie series, and the best to the majority.

I like the first two movies as well. But Shrek the Third is the winner for me.

I give it 5 out of 5 stars.