Bovie Movie

Disney’s made-for-video sequel to the 1950 classic takes over where its predecessor finished, with Cinders finding it hard adjusting to her new life as a princess. The main pleasure, as before, comes from lovable mice Gus and Jaq, who write a storybook that creates the film’s three short segments. The first and best sees Cinderella adding the common touch to her royal status, but the other two (Jaq gaining human form, a romance for one of Cinders’ ugly sisters) possess little charm or imagination. Ultimately, despite a couple of cute moments, the ordinary animation and terrible tunes suggest that Disney should have quit at the original fairy tale ending. 

The first two Shrek movies were packed with fairy-tale send-ups and warm humanity, and proved an absolute delight for young and old alike. The third outing shows signs of franchise fatigue as it struggles with a half-baked storyline in which the grumpy green ogre (voiced by Mike Myers) goes in search of a young King Arthur as heir to the throne of Far Far Away. The breathtakingly innovative wit of the earlier films may be lacking, yet there’s still plenty here to enjoy, from Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas’s manic double act as Donkey and Puss-in-Boots to some sly, “Once upon a time” in-jokes. But in keeping with the film’s less certain direction, entertaining scenes of adorably cheeky baby ogres are upstaged by a blandly mirthless human teenager in Artie (Justin Timberlake), who appears to have been brainstormed by marketing department suits eager to extend their audience demographics.