Scared Shrekless

Scared Shrekless (2010)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Highly entertaining 21-minute short takes place on Halloween as Shrek proudly teaches his kids the proper way to scare people. This gets the "group" discussing how they might be able to scare Shrek and this is when donkey, the gingerbread man and Puss in Boots tell their scary stories. It seems some people thought that the later SHREK films weren't all that good but I must say that I found this short to be extremely good and I think it's so good that it'll probably appeal to more horror film buffs than actual SHREK fans. I say that because the film has some wonderfully clever homages to older films like PSYCHO and THE EXORCIST and I think both of them work tremendously well. The stuff dealing with Puss in Boots and PSYCHO were highly entertaining and especially when Donkey got involved. Another great moment happened when Shrek tells his story of a possessed Pinocchio. The animation, as you'd expect, is top-notch as are the vocal performances with everyone really giving it their all and delivering fun performances. Obviously there's nothing here too scary that kids won't be able to watch it but I do wonder how many young ones will recognize the films that are being paid homage to. Either way, adults and especially those who enjoy horror movies should really enjoy this.