THE last instalment of the green ogre and his chums inevitably lacks the dazzling invention and fizzing wit of the original but is still good fun.

HMV DVD of the Week

Shrek Forever After (Dreamworks, �15.99)

The last instalment of the green ogre and his chums inevitably lacks the dazzling invention and fizzing wit of the original but is still good fun.

With really good animation ideas – I’m thinking Toy Story and maybe, going right back, Jungle Book – the sequels have to take the quality to another level or else critics, and then the public, grumble about them losing their way and not being as funny.

Fortunately Eddie Murphy’s Donkey is still a treat and Antonia Banderas gets some good lines out of his now rather over-sized Puss in Boots.

The plot involves Shrek, still voiced by Mike Myers, wanting to return to his old life as a feared ogre but there’s some double-crossing from the film’s baddie Rumpelstiltskin which puts our hero into situation where he must share a true love kiss with Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) or quite simply fade out of existence.

Cue some well thought out action sequences and a few laughs as Shrek sets out to win back his friends and outwit Rumpelstiltskin.

Obviously there’s a happy ending but you might think, like me, this franchise has now run its course.