Orchestrated by John Bell, John Coleman, Elizabeth Finch, Bruce L. Fowler,

                         Walter Fowler, Ladd McIntosh, and Yvonne S. Moriarty

Conducted by Gavin Greenaway and Harry Gregson-Williams

Produced by Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell

Release Date: December 4th, 2001

  Varese Sarabande Records

     Starting with AntZ, Dreamworks CG animation division was blessed with a musical powerhouse. That would be the composing duo of Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell. It was with Chicken Run that this combination proved a formidable one, and through Road to El Dorado, Shrek, and Shrek 2, it would be this team that would create memorable scores for these Dreamworks films. But while Chicken Run was an almost perfect score from first note to last, things began to falter a bit. Road to El Dorado was a combination of score and songs with Elton John in a way that was reminiscent of Hans Zimmer's score vying for attention against John's songs on the soundtrack album to The Lion King. Even so, the score to Road to El Dorado was seen as settling in to a comfortable style, as opposed to reaching new heights with their music. With a more conventional film in Shrek did they reclaim some of that glory, but again, having to share score cues with musical numbers (this time of a pop variety as opposed to being written for the film) their work on Shrek comes across as troubled. Could it be the short cues that necessitated the format of the score in the film itself? Or was just that nothing came across as potentially inspiring as far as musical parodies (a la Chicken Run)? Or was it just that the earlier success of the Dynamic Duo just a blip on the collective soundtrack radar screen?

     On the whole, Shrek has a lot going for it: lots of little themes and motifs running about, plenty of musical gags, and the inclusion of some stand-out techno-mixed creations offer much in the way of variety. On the downside, some of these pluses can, at times, cause the score to become slightly schizophrenic. This is especially true in the last third, with the music trying to tie up everything, and contrasting with the generally solid opening half. The cues are short for the most part (between the one and two minute length), which is good for quick jaunts around the album, but it removes any complexity as the development of the mentioned themes and motifs is cut short, and there is usually a long gap between the appearance of the theme and its resulting payoff later on. In fact, for most of the minor themes in this score, they pop up only occasionally and never really have time to be developed.

     With the main theme to Shrek, however, Powell and Gregson-Williams devote a lot of attention. It's a flowing, pastoral-type cue that has a lot in common with The Princess Bride, especially when the guitar comes into play. Given the storyline, the similarity is intentional I'm sure, and it is a nice musical gag that actually manages to come on its own by the time the album is over. And with all the different performances of this theme (from fully orchestra, to the guitar, to whistled, to sung), you'll definitely be satisfied with the fact that it was thrown at you in every conceivable way.

     A few source cues are scattered about, and these are delightful and fun, the most notable being the Welcome to Duloc ditty and the Merry Men song. Singing Princess suffers just slightly as it relied primarily on a visual gag, but even it can be delightful (at least until the punch line). None of the pop songs are included, as a separate soundtrack release contains them, so in order to have the complete musical representation of the movie, you'll have to purchase both.

     Shrek is solid, but still a notch or two below Chicken Run. Powell and Gregonson-Williams fans (in addition to those who enjoyed the score in the film) will find this to be a pleasant album, but don't expect much in the way of complexity.

Total Running Time: 44:28