And one does not have to be a Merlin to divine that DreamWorks will continue their reckless pace with the big green ogre until he ceases to be lucrative. Countless amounts of merchandise and licensed deals for everything under the sun have been produced and sold. A stage musical adaptation just opened on the United States' west coast, with plans to open on Broadway in December. The television Christmas special Shrek the Halls debuted on the ABC network last year. Three feature films have been released thus far, with three more planned. In the years following the first film's enormous success, DreamWorks has certainly been trying their damndest to oversaturate the market with Shrek mania. This began an entire animated phenomenon from the studio, starting with Shrek 2 in 2004, wherein the eponymous hero must meet his in-laws and contend with the scheming Fairy Godmother. The film's cynical attitude and somewhat novel premise proved to be a winning formula, and Shrek went on to gross nearly $500 million worldwide. Still licking his wounds, Katzenberg - one of three founders of DreamWorks SKG productions, the parent entity of DreamWorks Animation - produced Shrek with then-partner Pacific Data Images in an effort to turn the faerie tale genre on its ear. The film served as a sort of vendetta by one Jeffrey Katzenberg, a former Disney honcho who was booted out in a battle royale over corporate power. Specifically, Shrek was aimed squarely at the legacy of Disney animated features - many of which are based on the age-old tales. Telling the story of a hermitic swamp-dwelling ogre whose territory is overrun by displaced faerie tale creatures, the film was a wild and biting parody of the many cultural clichés stemming from classic children's literature. Debuting in 2001, Shrek was a CG animated feature loosely based off the children's book of the same name by William Steig. I'm sure most will not require a refresher course on the commercial darling of DreamWorks Animation, but bear with me. Here we have the latest installment in a rather dubious legacy Shrek the Third or, The Further Adventures of One Very Lucky Ogre. Reviewed by Lindsay Mayer, September 28, 2008 The big green ogre looks great on Blu, but is his third tale on par with the previous two?
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