Shrek Forever After

With the Shrek series finally being finished, one has to breath a sigh of relief. The first two films were lots of fun, taking mad swipes at the Grimm Fairy Tales and various Disney stories. That is, until the third film was released. A disappointment in almost every way, Shrek the Third was completely forgotten. Fortunately Shrek Forever After decided to put it's foot down and complete the series. Returning (for the last time) comes composer Harry Gregson Williams who had only started the series about 9 years prior in a collaboration with John Powell. The solo result here is interesting but not much else.

Unlike the previous scores, there is really no interesting thematic material. Even the main theme for Fiona (the serie's signature theme) is barely hinted at this time around. The only truly notable things to mention come in the Hans Zimmer knockoff cue 'Ogre Resistance' and the Danny Elfman styles in the second half of 'Shrek Sign The Deal'. Alot of the score suffers from lack of strong themes or any music remotely interesting. There is no real new motif for the villainous character Rumpelstiltskin. Sadly, the highlights of the score come whenever Fiona's theme appears. Occasionally Gregson-Williams does manage to crank out fun melodies ('Din Din', 'Planning The Attack') and interesting ideas that could have worked well. The last two cues, however, actually sound great and do a great job for the finale of the film.

Is Shrek Forever After a bad score? No. At times, Gregson-Williams does manage to have a little fun with the score. Unfortunately, that's the extent of this album. Most of the time, the music sounds like it was picked from a generic Gregson-Williams album. Not really bland but not exciting either.