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For Shrek, the honeymoon period is over – it’s time to meet the in-laws!.

Delivering a second Shrek was never going to be easy, but the sequel is just as hilarious – if not funnier than the original. Grossing over £47.6m at the UK box office (the highest grossing animated film of all time), and £10.6m in its opening weekend in the UK and EIRE (the biggest opening of all time), Shrek 2 was such a box office smash that a third Shrek is already being planned.

From the start of the movie, you are transported back into the irreverent fairytale land that the original Shrek was able to create so well. Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) races through desolate lands of cold and heat to rescue Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz), from the tower guarded by a dragon, only to find the wolf from the Little Red Riding Hood reading Pork illustrated(!) As anyone who saw the original Shrek will know, Princess Fiona married 'Shrek' (Mike Myers), her grumpy green rescuer. They are now living "happily ever after".

But things aren’t as straightforward as one might think – Returning from their honeymoon, Shrek and Fiona are greeted by a love-sick Donkey (Eddie Murphy) who has been living in Shrek’s home since he was kicked out by Dragon. Just as Shrek and Fiona believe they have persuaded Donkey to leave so they can have the Swamp to themselves, our troupe of messengers arrive who invite the pair back to the Kingdom of Far Far Away. It turns out that Fiona’s parents, ‘Queen Lillian’ (Julie Andrews) and ‘King Harold’ (John Cleese) have heard of their daughter’s marriage and would like to meet their new son-in-law.

When Shrek arrives at the Far Far Away home of his beloved Fiona, against his better judgement, the welcome that he receives from his new in-laws is far worse than he could have predicted. Rather than welcoming their daughter and her new husband back into the fold, the King turns to the Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders), the mother of Prince Charming for help and arranges for an assassin to have Shrek killed(!)

A swashbuckling feline assassin (Puss-in-Boots) is hired to kill Shrek, but when the assassination attempt fails, he becomes an unlikely new companion to Shrek and Donkey and the three of them set out to discover the reason behind the hit on Shrek's life.

“The position of annoying talking animal has now been filled!” - Donkey (Eddie Murphy)

Mike Myers (Austin Powers), Eddie Murphy (Doctor Dolittle 2) and Cameron Diaz (Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle) all reprise their voice roles from the first film, along with many new characters such as Puss-in-Boots (Antonio Banderas), Princess Fiona’s parents the King (John Cleese) and Queen (Julie Andrews) as well as Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) and his mother, the Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders). Saunders and Banderas are especially excellent in their roles with Banderas’ tabby in thigh-high boots really stealing the show. Parodying his role as Zorro, the suave Spanish accented feline has many of the film’s best lines and his sad kitty facial expressions will melt your heart.

Many of the supporting characters from the first Shrek movie also return to reprise their roles in Shrek 2. The Three Blind Mice, Pinocchio and the Gingerbread Man who were all great in the first film are even better in Shrek 2 as they come to the rescue in a superb Mission: Impossible parody. Just like in the first film, Shrek 2 contains many references to other movies – the honeymoon sequence alone spoofs Lord of the Rings, From Here To Eternity and Spider-Man while in one of the funniest scenes, the fairytale characters are watching “Knights” on Shrek’s TV set, which is a parody of the police reality show Cops.

OVERALL: Shrek 2 is an extremely funny family movie with loads of in-jokes and pop culture references that make it an ideal choice for children and adults of all ages. Irreverent as ever, the film picks up exactly where the first movie left off and takes the Shrek story, animation and visual effects to a whole new level. The bickering between Donkey and Shrek is as hilarious as ever and with the inclusion of the 'Zorro Inspired' Puss In Boots keeping the story fresh, Shrek 2 never gets dull and is a must for anyone who loved the first film. Rent Online now!

Movie Clip - Who Are They?

Movie Clip - The Invitation

Movie Clip - Puss In Boots

Movie Clip - Dinner Scene

Movie Clip - Far Far Away

Movie Clip - Fairy Godmother

Shrek is a registered trademark of DreamWorks LLC. TM (C) 2004 DreamWorks LLC. All Right Reserved.

How did you first get involved with Shrek?

“ I ran into Jeffery Katzenberg at the premiere of Saving Private Ryan. He came over to me and said, are you interested in doing animation? I went home and thought, I'm going to have to write an animated movie. I had no idea I was being offered a job. The next day I got a call from him saying, there's this fairy tale called Shrek. And I was, like, Shrek. What a terrible name. It'll never take off. I think I had the audacity to say, no, is there any play in the name? Can you change the name? He goes, no, we're quite confident. So I thought, always listen to Jeffrey Katzenberg. So I came and I tried to voice the character as a Canadian, but I just didn't connect to it somehow. Cameron is American and Eddie's American, and the whole world seemed a little Old World to me. It’s a Eurocentric offering, if you will. I thought about my mother, who's from Liverpool, and has an English accent. When she read stories to me, they were always British Isles. So I thought Scottish 'cause it's working class and I think ogres are working class. I could relate to it and I redid it. I was really happy with it and I got a wonderful letter from Steven Spielberg saying, dear Mike, thank you so much for caring and thank you so much for insisting on it being better. Later on I found out how much they had spent on it, ouch. I wish they had told me but they didn't. In many ways, I guess I’m glad they didn't. It's been a wonderful experience. I just love how they really wanted to be great. ”

Can you talk a little bit about the story of Shrek 2?

“ In Shrek, we leave the audience with a happily ever after. Shrek 2 starts with what this happily ever after actually looks like. They have their honeymoon, and then they're summoned to visit Princess Fiona's parents who are the king and queen of the Kingdom Of Far-Far Away. So then it's time to meet the parents, and they're not so happy that Shrek is an ogre and not so happy that the complications of the first one have left their daughter an ogre. The rest of the movie unfolds from there. ”

How does Puss-In-Boots fit into this?

“ The dad really doesn't like the fact that Shrek is an ogre. He hires an assassin to kill Shrek. The assassin he hires is Puss-In-Boots, played by Antonio Banderas. Antonio Banderas is hilarious in this film. I have three great dogs but I want to have two more pets. One is Donkey and one is Puss-In-Boots. I love them so much, I can't stand it. ”

Do you think there's a healthy rivalry between Puss-In-Boots and Donkey?

“ I think there's always a healthy rivalry between insolent animal sidekicks. I encourage that in a movie. I think there's plenty of room for both of them and they're both hilarious and sweet. It gives Donkey an interesting competition. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when we first meet Puss-In-Boots. I think their bickering at each other is hilarious. ”

What is the best thing about being the voice of Shrek?

“ I do a lot of characters, and the best thing about being Shrek is that I don't have to sit in the makeup chair for 11 hours but I get to look entirely different from myself. A lot of the stuff I've done has a lot of prosthetics, and I changed the outside because my heroes growing up were Peter Sellers, Alec Guinness and Dan Aykroyd, and I just love the world of immersing yourself in a different character. What's great about animation is that I get to be 12 feet tall and 400 pounds and I don't have to wear a suit. ”

What's the appeal of Shrek to people of all ages?

“ I think the message of the film is that you have to love yourself before you can love somebody else. I think everybody feels different and everybody feels terminally unique. I think you can relate to Shrek coming to accept himself, and it's a very nice story about that. I think the message is great. ”

What's your favorite part of doing an animated film?

“ My favorite part about doing an animated film is that you get plenty of chances to improve it. One of the things that causes anxiety when you’re working on a live action film, is you're doing a scene and have that sickening realization that it's very likely I will never be able to do this scene again and whatever happens today is it for the rest of my life. You have a lot of second chances in animation. What I love about working with PDI and DreamWorks is that they take every opportunity they can to make it better and better. Their motto is, always improve. It's a very, very intoxicating and infectious atmosphere. ”

You said your favorite scene is the first scene where we see Puss-In-Boots. Is there another scene that you really enjoyed, you loved?

“ I love the sequence, on the way to Far-Far Away, when Donkey is bugging the hell out of Shrek and Fiona. That's a really funny scene. I think Eddie's hilarious in that scene. ”

Discuss what it's like to have a DVD. We were talking to John Cleese and he said once you do a movie that's it. Years ago you would see a movie and then it’d be gone. Nowadays, we have DVDs in our libraries forever. What's it like to have Shrek and Shrek 2 immortalized?

“ I'm very proud to be part of Shrek, and I'm very proud to be the title character. When I was a kid and saw Butch Cassidy, I was lucky if I got to see it three times. Then I had to wait a long time and it would be on Buffalo TV. It would be years after you saw it again. Now, little kids can watch it over and over again. Then you have deleted scenes, which is great. For me, you know you can do more jokes per minute and people may miss some of the jokes at first. But you know it's going to be multiple-viewed, and they'll catch every joke. So no joke is made in vain. That's what I like about DVDs. ”

Mike Myers Filmography

On playing princess fiona for a second time:

“ Getting to participate in the second one, it’s just such a thrill. It's so gratifying every time I walk down the street and a parent or a kid comes up or parents are always saying, you know who that is - that's Princess Fiona and the kids are always, like, no it's not. And I just like seeing that genuine reaction in kids, and knowing that on the other hand they're in someway protecting Fiona. They enjoy her so, that’s very gratifying to me. ”

On the story:

“ This story is about, Fiona and Shrek who have come back from their honeymoon, and they've been asked to come to Far Far Away, which is where Fiona's from and her parents have asked her to come let them celebrate her marriage with Shrek. And this is something that Shrek doesn't want to do, because he knows he's gonna be out of place in this kingdom, with the King and Queen who sent their daughter away to , be rescued by Prince Charming and he knows that he's gonna fall short of that, and when he arrives there Fiona is worried about how her parents are going to accept her, because she's an Ogre as well. ”

On fiona’s parents reaction to shrek:

“ When they first see Shrek come out of the carriage, they're just appalled. They haven't seen Fiona since she's left the tower so they expected her to be this Princess and they expected him to be Prince Charming and the mother wants to greet Shrek with open arms because of the daughter, and the father wants to run the other way and pretend they're not home. Although there's red carpet and all of the kingdom there to meet them. ”

On the supporting cast:

“ Antonio Banderas is playing Puss In Boots and Julie Andrews is playing the mother, the queen. And John Cleese is playing the king. And the fairy godmother is Jennifer Saunders and Prince Charming is Rupert Everett who is an angel ”

About the animation process:

“ What I love about these filmmakers is that it's so clever, you know? There's so many things, in just the little bit that I've seen. You're going to have to see it over and over again just so that you catch all the little bits and pieces, the little things that are hidden in there, you know, from them entering Far Far Away. It's so clever the way that they work the humor and the visuals that they use. That's my favorite part of these films, just how far they can go and how they make you laugh. ”

Cameron Diaz Filmography

On being cast in shrek 2:

“ Well, they offered it to me, and, uh, it seemed like too good a, an opportunity to turn down. I mean, huge Shrek fan from, and my kids watch it endlessly, you know, rainy afternoon and Shrek is on. So, I mean, I couldn't resist it really. ”

On her character:

“ I'm playing the fairy godmother, who is the star of Shrek 2, um, I think, uh, she's, she's the fairy godmother to Princess Fiona, that Shrek married in, in the first Shrek. And, um, she's a bit of a character….you're supposed to have some sort of sympathy with her, I suppose, but she has an evil plan all the time. And, um, and she's fairly bad news. She's a, she's quite an arch character, which I like, so, I guess I suppose why they gave it to me, 'cause it's a, it's a, it feels familiar. ”

On the story:

“ It’s a sort of parody of, um, other movies and, and fairy tales and things. So she couldn't be the nice, happy, sweet fairy godmother. She's a bit of a, a sort of celebrity, uh, show business fairy godmother. And she's simply determined that, that her son should marry Princess Fiona, and, and that Shrek has got in the way, really of her, her devious plan. ”

On the story:

“ It's kind of, this is kind of Shrek meets the parents, because Princess Fiona goes home and so we see her, her parents, the King and the Queen. And she takes Shrek back to meet the parents, who are fairly, fairly shocked. And so is the fairy godmother who has always assumed that, that Princess Fiona would marry her son, and, and that's how the sort of, the story begins. ”

On singing in shrek 2:

“ It panics me to sing, because I'm not, I can't, I have to have someone there pointing at me the whole time saying, come in now. Not that note, go down a bit, so it's kind of hit and miss. But if I have something to imitate, I can generally imitate something, so that helped. ”

On audience appeal:

“ It appeals through the age groups, right up to adults, because, because it, it has, it's funny on so many different levels. Because it's largely parody, but it's also a lovely story. So I, I think it's a very, it's very clever in that respect. ”

On her favorite scene:

“ My favorite scene that fairy godmother is in is, um, a scene where she sort of takes the King off, and, to give him a talking to, and they arrive, and she's so annoyed that she started compulsively eating. So, and ruining her diet, and they stop at a Taco Queen, which is just lovely, lovely scene. ”

Jennifer Saunders Filmography

Shrek 2 (Animated)