Andrew Adamson’s fantasy films work best when their characters matter more than the cleverness around them. We recommend Shrek for the warmth he and Vicky Jenson find beneath its bad manners, with reservations about the pop-culture jokes.
Fi1m perspective
An ogre and a talkative donkey give Shrek (2001) its lasting appeal. Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson make their company matter, even as the film teases the fairy-tale conventions around them. We warmed to the pair because the directors let us enjoy their bad manners without withholding affection. There is enough feeling here to keep a family comedy going when its cleverness starts to wear thin.
The teasing of fairy-tale conventions is less consistently funny. At times, recognising a pop-culture reference is most of the joke, and the storytelling settles for the familiar. We would recommend it for the voices before the references. It is also a shared achievement: Jenson’s co-direction matters to any account of what works, and there is no reason to credit Adamson alone for the affection beneath the rudeness.
Adamson came to directing through computer animation and visual effects. After Shrek 2 (2004), he moved into live action with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). He brought animation’s storyboarding and pre-visualisation with him to tighten the scripting and planning. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) put greater emphasis on action. The smaller-scale Mr. Pip (2012), adapted from Lloyd Jones’s novel, took him beyond those two fantasy series.
His adaptations draw on childhood memories of the material, rather than literal fidelity alone. His work with the child ensemble in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe also suggests that the preparation leaves room for performers. In Shrek, that attention to performance gives us a reason to forgive the weaker jokes, though it cannot make them funnier. Start with the ogre and donkey; there is no need to recognise every reference to enjoy their company.
Biography
Andrew Adamson is a New Zealand film director, producer, screenwriter and animator. Born in Auckland on 1 December 1966, he began his career in computer animation in New Zealand before moving to the United States, where he worked as a visual effects supervisor on films including Batman Forever (1995) and Batman & Robin (1997).
He co-directed the DreamWorks animated feature Shrek (2001), which won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and directed and co-wrote its sequel Shrek 2 (2004). Adamson later directed and co-wrote the first two live-action adaptations of C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and Prince Caspian (2008). He was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2006.
