Shrek The Third

When his frog-in-law suddenly croaks, Shrek (Myers) finds himself The Third in line for his throne (or is it first?). Mortified at the thought of having to rule Far Far Away, Shrek, along with his pals Donkey (Murphy) and Puss In Boots (Banderas), embark on an adventure to find the rightful heir to the throne, Arthur (Timberlake). Will Shrek be able to seat the awkward Arthur on the King's Throne or will he be forced into a role as Ogre King? Based upon the book by William Steig. (Stacey Pendry)

Special features include the featurettes "Spotlight On Fiona" (HD 09:53) and "Secrets Of Shrek The Third" (HD 03:47); four deleted scenes; the promotion "How To Be Green" (HD 04:03); the Worcestershire Academy Yearbook; "Shrek, Rattle & Roll" that includes the Donkey Dance, Shrek The Musical "Freak Flag," and the DreamWorks Animation Video Jukebox; Blu-ray Exclusives: The Animator's Corner and Shrek's Interactive Journey: III; and up-front previews.

Reviewed in Issue 127 as both an anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 DVD and an HD DVD, the picture showed bold, vibrant colors combined with very good shadow delineation, making for a realistically dimensional-looking animated picture. This 1.78:1 1080p AVC Blu-ray Disc™ picture exhibits nicely balanced contrast and deep, solid black levels. Details are rendered very well, from the sheen of horses' coats to the wood grain of trees. There are times throughout the presentation, though, where the images can still look soft. The VC-1-encoded HD DVD featured fantastic resolution and color fidelity, with solid blacks and a great sense of depth. This AVC encoding delivers no discernable difference in performance. The picture shows wonderful detail and is quite impressive. (Gary Reber/Danny Richelieu)

The previous DVD's Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel soundtrack and the HD DVD Dolby Digital Plus encoding featured an exciting mix that used each of the available channels well. This new Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel rendering is properly mixed with the two added channels positioned to the 90-degree side channels, The result is an effectively enhanced sense of seamless holosonic® soundfield envelopment. Dialogue is mixed into the soundtrack nicely, with good fidelity and a natural presence. There are times when the dialogue can be masked by the music and effects, which are delivered through the front full-range channels at levels very close to that of the center channel. At times, surround imaging is limited, which can leave a gaping hole in the mix directly behind the listening position, but imaging across the three other stereo walls and side walls are crafted well. Deep bass is delivered through each of the full-range channels, and the .1 LFE channel is not incorporated very often. The Dolby TrueHD encoding has an added level of realism, with slightly improved fidelity over the previous encodings. This is an enjoyable soundtrack. (Gary Reber/Danny Richelieu)