2007 was a big year for the Shrek franchise. Shrek the third had been released in mid 2007 and grossed a total of $794.4 million worldwide. Not wanting to let a good thing pass them by, Dreamworks brought back Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas and friends to be the voices of their Shrek characters for a thirty minute Christmas special, Shrek the Halls, that originally aired on November 28, 2007. With the massive success of the Shrek films, it should come as no surprise that the according to Nielsen, the first airing attracted 21.1 million viewers in the United States and was the third highest rated show that week.
Set shortly after the events in Shrek the Third, our favorite ogre (Mike Meyers) is still living in the swamp with his family, when the Christmas season approaches. At Donkey’s (Eddie Murphy) insistence, Shrek promises Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) a special Christmas surprise. Shrek heads to the bookstore to find a present for Fiona. Since he has no idea what Christmas is all about, the shopkeeper gives Shrek a copy of Christmas for Village Idiots, a step-by-step guide to celebrating the holiday.
Shrek intends to follow the books advice to create a nice, quiet celebration for his family. Predictably, Donkey has other plans; he manages to bring the entire gang to the swamp for Christmas Eve. The main plot of the special revolves around Shrek’s attempts to tell his three children “A Visit from St. Nicholas (The Night Before Christmas)”. The ogre sees this task as essential because the guide he has been reading says it’s a very important part of the perfect Christmas. Unfortunately for Shrek, his attempts at storytelling are repeatedly hijacked by Donkey, Puss N Boots and the Gingerbread Man.
The haphazard story (unbelievably needing four writers to construct it: Gary Trousdale, Sean Bishop, Theresa Cullen, Bill Riling) seems cobbled together from severak different ideas. The how-to book for dummies on Christmas preparations might have made a charming half hour special (indeed, the best jokes have the family making candy canes from coral snakes and hanging up underwear for stockings), but that idea is quickly dropped for a section where four characters tell their own versions of “The Night Before Christmas”: Donkey, Puss, Gingy, and inevitably Shrek himself. Then that leads to a raucous Christmas party where things get wildly out of hand.
Shrek the Halls is a television special that has the feel of a project that was put together quickly. The marketplace wanted more Shrek back in 2007 and Dreamworks was happy to oblige. Major Shrek fans will want to add this one to their DVD collections just to have it but I’d hardly call it a classic. Though it does offer a few laughs, Shrek the Halls doesn’t play much better than a Christmas episode of the average sitcom.
The special premiered on ABC in a 720p high definition broadcast, and this 480p down conversion of the 1.78:1 program is outstanding. Color is solid and sharpness is exceptional. There is no edge enhancement to spoil the image, and there is no banding present. The disc also includes a 1.33:1 version of the program.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is good, delivering clear, distortion-free dialogue and strong music (one of the franchise’s biggest strengths) but there’s nothing overly impressive about the mix, which only really kicks in during the film’s use of pop songs, using the rear speakers to enhance the sound.
Shrek the Halls does come with a few special features. The Twelve Days of Christmas Sing Along rewrites the words to the holiday classic to match with new animation and film clips from Madagascar. The new words are lit on screen to aid in singing along at home. Deck the Halls Sing Along is yet another sing along with the penguins from Madagascar with new words fitted to the classic holiday tune. Again, the new words are lit to aid at-home vocalists sing along with Skipper, Private, and Kowalski. Gingy’s Dunking Game is a set-top matching game that starts out pretty simple, but gets more difficult. The Shrek Carnival Craze Video Game Demo is a DVD-ROM enabled promo for the video game with the lure of cheat codes being offered on the website. Instructions for loading on a PC are provided. Finally, the Dreamworks Animation Jukebox is another promotion for other Dreamworks animated features. The viewer can select musical film clips from the various Dreamworks animated films including the three Shrek films, Over the Hedge, Flushed Away, Madagascar, Bee Movie, and Shark Tale.
