Shrek the Third

Shrek the Third (2007), directed by Chris Miller, continues the story of the ogre Shrek, voiced by Mike Myers, with Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas and Julie Andrews returning. When King Harold falls ill, Shrek is named heir to the throne of Far Far Away. He wants only to go home to his swamp.

Shrek sets out with Donkey and Puss in Boots to find another heir, the teenage Artie. Meanwhile Princess Fiona and her mother, Queen Lillian, and friends deal with court life and a coming change in the family. The jilted Prince Charming plots his own comeback.

The film mixes fairy-tale parody, pop-culture jokes and slapstick. Underneath, it is about whether an unlikely hero can accept the roles other people expect of him.

The film argues that worth is not decided by title, birth or reputation. Shrek fears he will be a bad king and a bad father. Over the course of the story he learns that leadership and parenthood come from caring about people, not from looking the part. Villainy, in turn, comes from entitlement and resentment, as Charming shows.

The film can be read as a comic parable about anxiety over parenthood, with the kingdom as a stand-in for adult responsibility. Another reading takes it as a satire of princess and prince archetypes and of entitlement, with Charming as the clearest example.