Christmas with Shrek – Shrek the Halls (2007)

Directed by: Gary Trousdale | 27 minutes | animation, comedy, family, short film, fantasy | Original voice cast: Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Cody Cameron, Susan Fitzer, Christopher Knights, Gary Trousdale, Conrad Vernon, Aron Warner, Marissa Jaret Winokur, Miles Christopher Bakshi, Nina Zoe Bakshi, Dante James Hauser

‘Christmas with Shrek’, or ‘Shrek the Halls’ (a title that mimics the Christmas song “Deck the Halls”) is a Christmas special originally made for American TV, which aired in 2007. It was released on DVD in 2008. The short film – it only lasts 21 minutes if you don’t count the credits – is set in the period after the birth of the triplets of Shrek and Fiona, after the disappointing ‘Shrek the Third’.

Donkey reminds the ogre lounging in the swamp in his well-known obnoxious and obtrusive way 159 days before Christmas is coming, by singing phrases from Christmas carols. Shrek has no idea what his friend is talking about and just before Christmas indicates that “ogres don’t care about Christmas”. When Fiona delights in exclaiming that it’s going to be a white Christmas, he’s proven wrong and forced to backtrack on his decision. Using a book titled “Christmas for village idiots” as a variation on the “…for dummies” books, Shrek tries to create the perfect Christmas for his new family at lightning speed. A comment from Fiona is misunderstood by Donkey: When she says it’s the first Christmas as a family, he assumes she means Shrek and Fiona want a big party with all the friends. Just as Shrek is narrating his version of “The Night before Christmas,” Donkey, Puss in Boots, the mice, the pigs, the bad wolf, Gingy, and Pinocchio invade and rock Shrek’s house.

‘Christmas with Shrek’ is an extremely predictable film, with the greatest attention being paid to the animation. This one is not inferior to the high-quality earlier ‘Shrek’ trilogy and therefore looks slick. It is also striking that the atmosphere of this short Christmas special is reminiscent of the first ‘Shrek’, when the ogre wanted to chase everyone out of his swamp in an unfriendly way and preferred to stay alone. Also positive is that the entire original voice cast has returned to the studio to record the roles. Unfortunately, less time has been spent coming up with jokes, you can’t get more than a few smiles. The film doesn’t want to be really humorous. In addition, the Christmas stories of successively Donkey, Puss in Boots and Gingy incorporated into the already meager story feel forced and seem to have only been put in the film to stretch the length a bit. ‘Christmas with Shrek’ can compete with the best productions of Dreamworks in appearance, but once you’ve seen it once, you won’t long for a repeat.