Seeing "Shrek The Third" makes for quite an adventure...

Seeing an animated movie at 10 a.m. in the heart of Hollywood on a Saturday morning, not my usual thing. But DreamWorks had an early screening of "Shrek the Third" for media folks at Grauman's Chinese 6 and I thought it would be fun to invite a few friends along and have some laughs. So we're standing on Hollywood Boulevard waiting for my pal Alejandro to arrive (he's taking the subway from North Hollywood) and it is quite a scene.
Tourists are taking pictures galore in front of the Kodak Theater and Grauman's, a woman is sitting in the sidewalk making these cool roses out of palm leaves, there's an anemic looking Spider-Man walking around, a dreadlocked guy dancing around and his pants keep falling down and then some aggressive homeless man walks up to my friend Mariel and I and says: "give me a dollar!" I give him a you can't be serious with that approach look and say, "Move on!" Finally, we see Alejandro coming out of the subway station and we hurry into the theater. As among the last to arrive, we have a choice between the second row and three seats higher up off to the side where a railing partially obscures our view. We choose the seats higher up and settle in. It feels a little early for popcorn but, I ask you, is it ever really too early for FREE popcorn?
I know what you're thinking. The MOVIE Greg! What about the MOVIE?
It's a scream! From start ot finish, it is an absolute hoot. I think I like this one most of all so far but I haven't seen the first two Shrek movies in awhile. Shrek is supposed to be King of Far Far Away but doesn't want the job because, frankly, he's horrible at it. He tries to christen a ship and ends up sinking it. He knights some dude with his sword and...well...it gets messy. The best part about all of it, I think, are the sidekicks Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss & Boots (Antonio Banderas). They just kill me. We only get a few Puss & Boots sad eyes but he's got some very funny things to do. The plot is mainly evil prince charming trying to overtake the kingdom and he brings all the outcasts with him like the Captain Hook and Cinderella's evil (and very butch) stepsister. A lot of classic storybook characters are used in this film in very clever ways. Two of my favorite scenes: the hysterical death scene of the king who was turned into a frog in the last film (trust me, you will bust a gut!) and a scene that takes place at a high school where the kids are all attitude. Also very funny is an anxiety dream Shrek has about becoming a father.
What I love about the Shrek franchise and the biggest reason why these films make gobs of money is that they are fun for kids but there is also this entire level of adult sophistication that keeps adults entertained as well. It's almost like there are two movies going on at the same time. It's brilliant. We were laughing the entire time.
Also, moms will no doubt like the female empowerment aspect to the movie with Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and the queen (Julie Andrews) proving themselves to be quite resourceful and tough when their backs are up against the wall.
"Shrek The Third" opens on Friday and I'm saying, go see it!