Mike Myers stars as Shrek, a cynical and reclusive ogre whose quiet life is disturbed when the swamp he resides in is used as a dumping ground for fairy tale creatures. He learns that Lord Farquaad - the diminutive ruler of Duloc voiced by John Lithgow - seeks to create a "perfect kingdom" in which fairy tale creatures are outlawed and banished. Eager to get his solitude, Shrek travels to Duloc with the talkative Donkey, voiced by Eddie Murphy. Upon meeting with Farquuad, he is promised a deed to his swamp if he rescues a princess from a dragon so he can marry her and legitimise Duloc's status as a kingdom. Shrek succeeds in rescuing Princess Fiona, voiced by Cameron Diaz, and the two grow closer on the journey back to Duloc.
I think one of the big reasons this film got so big was because Disney's Pixar had pretty much dominated the market for computer-animated films, and this wasn't made by Pixar. In fact, it takes a heavy satirical swipe at Disney, particularly in the first half of the film. This was because the Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg previously worked for Disney until he was fired over a dispute. Lord Farquaad is modelled after Disney's then-CEO and Katzenberg's nemesis, Michael Eisner. and Duloc is intended to be a parody of Disneyland (not to mention a joke about the size of Farquaad's castle compensating for something). Even Farquaad's name sounds like "Fuckwad", which is a pretty risqué thing to work into what is marketed as a family film.
After that first half of venting, I must admit that the film flags. While it is nice to see Shrek and Fiona growing close after a poor first impression, there's later a misunderstanding between them - stemming from Donkey finding out that Fiona takes the form of an ogre at night but swearing not to tell Shrek - which kinda bogs the story down. A lot of dialogue is mostly Shrek and Donkey just bickering, but that's not a major issue as Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy work off of each other really well. Donkey's a fast-talker while Shrek's wit falls flat, which is a common joke associated with Mike Myers' characters. They even get a moment together when Shrek discusses why he prefers solitude due to society quickly judging him. They even reference The Goon Show at one point when Shrek talks about an ogre named "Bloodnok the Flatulent".
Other than bickering and aiming a giant animated middle finger at Disney, what kind of humour does this film have? Well, there seems to be a run on pop culture zeitgeist. For example, Princess Fiona fights off Robin Hood and his Merry Men with gravity-defying martial arts seen in The Matrix (something which was parodied endlessly to the point of cliché at that time). Or there's another scene in which Shrek fights off Farquaad's knights in a ring using wrestling moves. Again, there doesn't seem to be much to it other than incorporating professional wrestling into the world (and the aforementioned zeitgeist). I don't think there's anything wrong with incorporating modern pop culture into a fantasy world, but it has to make some kind of sense. There's also some gross-out humour, and I counted two fart jokes and one groin attack. I'm going to assume there's a quota for those as I do the subsequent viewings.
That said, there was one moment of black comedy which was great: There's a scene where Princess Fiona sings with a bird in a parody of the Disney version of Snow White. But when Fiona sustains a high note, the bird explodes trying to keep up. Fiona then sees some eggs in the bird's nest, and it cuts to her frying them for Shrek and Donkey.
All in all, I think the first half of the film is strong, but then it declines near the end.
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