Paramount Home Entertainment

An entertaining festive short, spun off from the popular series of movies. All the main voice cast, including Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy, return and reprise their roles and they all do an excellent job.

Christmas is coming, and Fiona (Cameron Diaz) and Donkey are looking forward to Christmas with their family and friends. Unfortunately for Shrek, he just wants to be left alone and won't get things ready for the big day.

Not letting on to Fiona that he doesn't even know what Christmas is and hasn't bothered getting ready - in a great scene set to the epic music of O Fortuna, poor Shrek frantically rushes out into the snow and buys a guide book called Christmas for Village Idiots to help him prepare for the holiday.

The film that preceded this - Shrek the Third, was quite disappointing, but I was pleasantly surprised by this short, which was much better and funnier. I'm a big fan of the Shrek movies and since this was first shown on TV it's become a Christmas favourite of mine that I'll watch on DVD, when the holiday approaches.

There are some funny scenes that made me laugh, and the CGI animation and voice acting is excellent - of the same stellar quality as the main films, and the transfer is very good.

The story is simple, yet also heart warming and touching, and this movie definitely gets me into the Christmas spirit. Shrek may be an ogre, but it's not like he's actually evil. The Shrek babies are adorable.

The characters of Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) in particular steal the show, and are hilarious. Despite the fact Puss in Boots is played as a kind of feline Zorro character, he's still a pussycat at heart!

In Donkey's version of the Christmas story, he tells of a HUGE waffle Santa - the way it was designed in this scene was surely a reference to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters.

Though the main characters have very modern sensibilities, the humans in Shrek seem to live in a kind of Ye Olde Fairytale world. The theme of the film is universal, Christmas may not always go exactly as planned, but it's a time for love and family.

The extras on the DVD include sing-along songs from other Dreamworks films, and a video game demo. Upon starting up the DVD, there are trailers for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa and Kung Fu Panda which can be skipped.

In this review, I'll be talking about my favourite episodes from this season. I think Plankton episodes are often my favourite. In "Fear of a Krabby Patty", Mr. Krabs opens the Krusty Krab 24 hours a day which causes Spongebob to become unhinged and scared of making Krabby Patties.

Though ostensibly a show for children, I think there's plenty of humour for adults to enjoy too. I love the episode called "New Leaf" where Plankton becomes much nicer and throws in the towel, and he actually befriends Mr. Krabs... or does he? Perhaps much of the comedy comes from anticipation - you know Plankton will always lose even when he appears to win, but you're never quite sure how.

But sometimes this show can do sadness, even pathos as well as goofy humour and parody. "Have You Seen This Snail" is the episode where Spongebob unwittingly neglects to feed Gary (his pet snail), so Gary runs away, and winds up staying with a grandmotherly figure who thinks he's her long lost cat. This episode is both funny and also very touching, especially the sad song "Gary Come Home" with a heartbroken Spongebob looking for Gary (though even that isn't immune from 4th wall humour - the song appears to be playing on an old fashioned record, and Spongebob tries sky-writing) and a scene where Gary finds out he must escape from his Grandma captor, or else die like the other snails he finds that have been overfed. I got misty eyed during that song. When Grandma gives Gary a stack of fliers, he sees they are from Spongebob, and realises he does care about him.

On the face of it, the show repeats it's stories which often seem the same when you boil them down - Spongebob and Patrick annoy their eternally grumpy neighbour Squidward, Mr. Krabs wants more money, Plankton wants to steal the Krabby Patty formula, or they show farce/misunderstanding, but it's funny how they're done.

For example in the episode "The Thing" Squidward gets covered in cement, and Spongebob adopts him like a pet. In another episode, Patrick disguises himself as a girl called "Patricia" in order to avoid trouble... only for his new persona to catch the eye of Mr. Krabs.

"Karate Island" is a spoof of the Bruce Lee film Game of Death, in which Sandy the squirrel (Carolyn Lawrence) has to fight different opponents, to get to a top of a tower.

In the "Hocus Pocus" episode Spongebob receives a magic kit and tries to practice magic on Squidward - however, Squidward just wants to be left alone. He gets on a bus to take him far away when Spongebob's back is turned, just at the moment a kid throws a pistachio ice cream onto Squidward's chair.

Spongebob comes back out and thinks he has turned Squidward into an ice cream cone! There's a funny reference to The Wizard of Oz in this episode, where Spongebob and Patrick decide they have to visit "The Wizard" to change Squidward back (after following the Brown Tile road).

I like the Good Neighbours episode where Spongebob and Patrick annoy Squidward when he just wants to relax on a Sunday, so to stop intruders getting in his house, he installs a computer in his home that winds up destroying the town.

Selling Out is also good, where Mr. Krabs sells The Krusty Krab to a conglomerate who plans to turn it into a big corporate chain called Krabby O' Mondays. What I like most about this episode is the satirical way it shows corporate culture and those types of homogenised restaurants - Squidward is forced to keep to the "happy" image sold by the Krabby O' Mondays and go round with a fixed smile on his face, and instead of being freshly cooked by Spongebob, Krabby Patties are disgusting processed monstrosities literally made from grey goo. I think this sort of joke shows the cartoon can do more grown up humour, and it may be missed by a young child.

The "Krusty Towers" episode (where Mr Krabs turns The Krusty Krab into a posh hotel) is hilarious. Patrick comes in and asks for a Krabby Patty but Mr. Krabs says he has to order a room too which leads to Squidward acting as Patrick's porter and getting so annoyed. But the tables are turned when Squidward enters as a guest himself....

"Best Frenemies" is another great episode with Plankton, in this episode Mr. Krabs enlists Plankton's help to find out just what is in a new popular drink, the Kelpshake.
In "Squidbob Tentaclepants", an accident with one of Sandy's inventions leads to Spongebob and Squidward being melded together in the same body, Fly-style.

Sometimes I'm not quite sure why but I enjoy the series a lot, it can be very funny.

This is the benchmark for all detective thrillers should be based against. Razor sharp script & plot; honed and polished acting with exemplary performances by Jack Nicholson; Faye Dunaway and John Huston. This film keeps you guessing with its many winding turns - the final twist of the knife is devastating and the last line of dialog just hangs in the air: "Forget it, Jake - it's Chinatown." This film was made during the Sharon Tate / Charles Manson massacre and there is a feeling of creeping darkness and despair perpetuating the narrative. It's about the corruption of innocence where the truth is just another murky grey area and the final truth is often too much to bare.

There is a feeling of detachment as well, as if the audience are just observers in the drama, just like the private eye Jake Gittes so we are actually implicated in the murder and intrigue and, at the end, are just as helpless to make things right as Gittes.

This is a fascinating film, one of the few thrillers that can be called brilliant and is certainly one of the films you need to see before you die!

Channel surfing, late one night and I couldn't sleep. Bleary eyed I watched this and was spellbound by this film. It was so quirky and off kilter. It was extremely funny, but not in a laugh out loud guffaw or giggling way. Instead it was very well observed, all the characters are emotionally reserved and quite making this one of the most subtle comedies I've ever seen. The main character, Napoleon, is one of the most unlikely "hero's" I've ever come across but there is something.. charming about him... well, maybe not charming... maybe an awkwardness that is endearing.. hmm

Anyways, I think this is a film that you either "get" or you don't. If you're lucky enough to "get it" then you will find it extremely funny and unforgettable. If you don't....