Lawrence.com

At the beginning of "Shrek," the title character rips the pages out of a fairy tale book and uses them as toilet paper. That pretty much sums up the whole movie.

"Shrek," produced by DreamWorks, is basically the anti-Disney � in more ways than one. The hero, voiced by Mike Myers in full Scottish brogue, is a giant green ogre who just wants to be left alone in his swamp, where he can be as rude and anti-social as he pleases. When the local ruler, Farquaad (John Lithgow), banishes all the magical creatures from his kingdom (an action which is never explained, by the way), they end up in Shrek's front yard.

Exasperated, Shrek goes to Farquaad and cuts a deal: He'll rescue the cursed Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from her tower prison and bring her back to marry Farquaad. In return, Farquaad will get the "dead broad" (as in Snow White), the "possessed toy" (Pinocchio) and their various companions out of Shrek's way.

So Shrek sets off, accompanied by an annoying talking donkey (Eddie Murphy), only to discover that Princess Fiona is hardly the swooning beauty he expected. She's tough and strong-willed and even has a terrible secret which she goes to great lengths to hide.

Based loosely on William Steig's 1990 children's book, "Shrek" is full of inside jokes and winking parodies of everything from "The Matrix" to "The Dating Game." The biggest target, however, is the Magic Kingdom, which DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg once headed. The tiny, arrogant Farquaad is obsessed with creating a sterile and orderly environment, which ends up looking suspiciously like a certain famous amusement park (including an "It's a Small World"-type display to remind visitors of the kingdom's numerous rules). Farquaad is even rumored to look a bit like Disney chief Michael Eisner, although no one outside Hollywood is likely to notice or care.

Less esoteric are the clich�s that get turned on their heads throughout the film, in a sort of homage to Jay Ward's old "Fractured Fairy Tales" cartoons. Not only are there constant gags involving famous characters, the whole structure of the story is a reversal of the usual conventions. The slobbering ogre is the hero, the dashing prince is the villain and the beautiful princess is light years from the passive maidens of old. Even the story's final plot twist is the exact opposite of what anyone raised on traditional children's fantasy is likely to expect.

The computer-generated animation in "Shrek" is truly stunning � many of the buildings and landscapes look real � and the movie always seems to be edging toward something groundbreaking. It pulls back all to frequently, though, and that timidity is doubly frustrating when so much about the film is so good. Besides the trendy overreliance on (sometimes literal) bathroom humor, there's an all-around tendency to go for easy jokes.

This is especially problematic with Murphy's Donkey, who sounds almost exactly like his Mushu character from "Mulan," not to mention every other goofy, motormouthed sidekick ever created. It also doesn't help that some of the material is wildly out of date (there's actually a Macarena reference), due mostly to the fact that "Shrek" has been in production since 1996.

While it never quite achieves the brilliance it aims for, "Shrek" is still more clever and daring than most of the films that crowd the multiplex all summer. It's the kind of movie parents can enjoy with their kids, instead of falling asleep or trying to sneak into the grown-up flick down the hall.

In this world of Pok�mon and Teletubbies, that's quite an accomplishment, and one that should make everyone happy. As long as you don't mind seeing impolite things done to Sleeping Beauty and her Handsome Prince.