Happily ever ogre

Luckily, we've had hints by then of the fizzy, shallow, pun-strewn lunacy that eventually lifts "Shrek 2" to within sight of the original film. In the honeymoon montage that begins the film, there are references to "From Here To Eternity," "The Lord of The Rings," and "The Little Mermaid" -- more importantly, at least two of those three gags get a laugh.

But the story line remains the weakest and most forced part of "Shrek 2," and sometimes you pray for it to just get out of the way. Shrek and Fiona return to her home country of Far Far Away, where they are greeted with alarm because King Harold (John Cleese), Queen Lillian (Julie Andrews), and their subjects expected a human, un-

cursed Princess and a Prince who was, if not charming, then at least not flatulent. There's a real Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), though, a vain lunkhead cheesed at not getting the girl. And there's a Fairy Godmother who's not quite as helpful as the ones in the old stories -- but, then, she's voiced by Jennifer Saunders, the divine floozy of "Absolutely Fabulous." A fairyland CEO with itsy-bitsy wings, this Godmother suggests a power-mad Angela Lansbury, and if you missed the implied Disney bashing, the musical number that rips off, rips up, and merrily stomps on "Be Our Guest" from "Beauty and the Beast" should tip you off.

What works best in "Shrek 2" are the smaller roles, the pile-driving pop-culture jokes, and the moments of weird, early-Mad-magazine comic invention: Prince Charming wearing a paper Burger King crown in the background of a scene, for example. The CGI animation is painterly and sometimes breathtaking, but it lacks the easy brilliance of a Pixar film (so does the script), and the human characters have the ungainly plasticity of Barbie dolls. There's a reason "Toy Story" used toys.