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Characters are beginning to arrive in Narnia for the upcoming feature film of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. Last week, the extraordinary Tilda Swinton (Orlando, Adaptation) was announced as the actress playing the villainous White Witch. Now, James McAvoy (TV's Band of Brothers, Children of Dune) has been assigned the role of Mr. Tumnus, the faun who welcomes four young heroes to their first adventure in C. S. Lewis's famous fantasyland.

The director, Andrew Adamson, is off to a good start. Swinton is a formidable actress, capable of spooking viewers with just a glance, and yet she's also exotically beautiful. She could fulfill Lewis's description of that bone-chilling baddie brilliantly. McAvoy's still unknown to most moviegoers. He'll have his hands (hooves?) full playing the gentle faun who becomes a target of the witch's wrath. Now comes the real challenge—finding child actors talented enough to play Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy without making them corny or merely cute.

Adamson's got a good track record so far, but is he right for Narnia? That's something to think about as you watch the film he's turned loose in theatres this week—Shrek 2.

Shrek stands as one of the most successful family films of all time. When it was released, it boasted standard-setting animation. It wove fairy tales together with a wicked wit, turning the genre on its head and mercilessly spoofing the often-superficial, saccharine storytelling of Disney animation studios. But it also damaged its own credibility by relying far too heavily on cheap punch lines, flatulence jokes, and pop culture references, as if the filmmakers did not trust their own story to hold the attention of both children and grownups.

Shrek 2 serves up a lot more of the good stuff and finds a better balance. While it tells basically the same story in a new context, it's funnier, digs deeper, and provides a fast and frenzied finale. The relentless references to other films, television shows, and pop culture personalities are brilliantly employed so that they do not detract from the storytelling, which remains simple but strong. In fact, by turning Hollywood—and the cosmetic surgery culture it has spawned—into the target of its sharpened comedy arrows, Shrek 2 is a much more resonant tale of integrity and authenticity versus the forces of conformity and superficiality.

My full review is at Christianity Today Movies.

"Shrek 2, in many ways, is an improvement over the original film," says Michael Elliott (Movie Parables). "The satire on popular culture seems sharper; the crude humor has been softened; the characters are both familiar and fresh; and the computer generated artwork seems more technologically advanced. Bottom line: the film is a winner for all concerned."

Annabelle Robertson (Crosswalk) enthuses, "Really good films are oh-so-rare these days, so when one combines top-notch writing, excellent acting, a positive message and brilliant satire about pop culture, I can't help but rave. I've also never been a fan of animation, but I am now."

David DiCerto (Catholic News Service) says, "Shrek 2 echoes both the wit and charm, if not the freshness, of the original—a rare achievement in the world of sequels. The wall-to-wall humor will keep young viewers laughing, with the bawdier zingers ricocheting off their funny bones and above their heads. Adults will also have fun spotting the parodies of both current and classic Hollywood fare. And while the follow-up's message of self-acceptance is somewhat recycled from the earlier installment, it is one well worth repeating, especially in our superficial society which puts such a premium on surface appearance at the exclusion of inner worth."

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May (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48