SHREK’S THRILLING TALES [2012] [DVD] [UK Release] Here We Get to Experience Things That Go Bump in the Night!

Join Shrek, Donkey, Puss in Boots and B.O.B., as they get the fright of their lives that will keep you howling with laughter. It’s a Shrektastic Halloween treat that’s ogre-the-top fun for the whole family.

Voice Cast: Shrek [Mike Myers], Donkey [Dean Edwards], Princess Fiona [Cameron Diaz], Puss in Boots [Antonio Banderas], Pinocchio and The Three Little Pigs [Cody Cameron], Gingerbread Man and Muffin Man [Conrad Vernon], The Three Blind Mice [Christopher Knights], Big Bad Wolf [Aron Warner], Sugar [Kristen Schaal], Geppetto, Prince Charming, Jiminy Cricket, Dwarves and Waffle [Sean Bishop], Ogre Babies [Miles Christopher Bakshi and Nina Zoe Bakshi], Teenager #1 [Louis Gabriel Basso III] and Teenager #2 and Teenager #3 [Devon Werkheiser], Heimlich / Dieter / Chef [Sean Bishop], Horst [Cody Cameron], Wolf [Aron Warner], Shrek [Mike Myers], Donkey [Eddie Murphy], Princess Fiona [Cameron Diaz], Ghost of Farquaad [John Lithgow], Theolonius / Blind Mouse [Christopher Knights], Gingerbread Man [Conrad Vernon], Pinocchio / Three Little Pigs [Cody Cameron], B.O.B. [Seth Rogen], General W.R. Monger [Kiefer Sutherland], Dr. Cockroach [James Horan], The Missing Link [David Kaye], Wendy Murphy [Julie White], Carl Murphy [Jeffrey Tambor], Zombie Carrot [Bret Marnell] and Cowboy Guy [Stephen Kearin]

Directors: Gary Trousdale, Raman Hui, Simon J. Smith and Robert Porter

Producers: Chad Hammes, Gary Trousdale, Karen Foster, Chad Hammes, Karen Foster, Tripp Hudson, David Lipman, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Aaron Dem and Lisa Stewart

Screenplay: William Steig (based upon the book), Gary Trousdale (screenplay), Sean Bishop (screenplay), Ken Bielenberg (story), David Lipman (writer), Joe Stillman (uncredited), Roger S.H. Schulman (uncredited), Ted Elliott (uncredited), Terry Rossio (uncredited), Bill Riling (writer), Robert Porter (additional screenplay material) and Spencer Filichia (additional screenplay material)

Composers: Halli Cauthery, Matt Mahaffey, Harry Gregson-Williams and Matthew Margeson        

Image Resolution: 1080i (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 (Anamorphic)

Audio: English: 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio

Subtitles: English

Running Time: 73 minutes

Number of discs: 1

Studio: DreamWorks Animation

Andrew’s DVD Review: SHREK’S THRILLING TALES [2012] ‘SHREK'S THRILLING TALES’ is the ultimate Halloween DVD compilation for your family. This is a three episode compilation. “The Pig who cried Werewolf” and “The Ghost of Lord Farquad” are from the Shrek universe and “The Night of The Living Carrots” is from the ‘Monsters vs Aliens.’ universe.

Shrek and his friends are good-humoured and mostly embody positive traits of friendship, loyalty, and reliability. We get to view some potty humour, including a kick to the groin, vomit in the face, and a frightened cookie character pooping sprinkles when he’s scared. So here is the following amazing scary comedy animations for you to enjoy.

Special Feature: A Shrek-ed Out Parody of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” [2011] [1080i] [1.78:1] [4:52] With this featurette, the special starts with Shrek [Michael Gough] bursting out of a movie theatre called “The Mirror” in anger and agony, followed by everyone else, including Princess Fiona [Holly Fields], Puss in Boots [André Sogliuzzo], and Donkey [Dean Edwards], who are all fine. Princess Fiona checks if Shrek is all right and Shrek replies that he actually wanted to see something scary because it is Halloween. At the end of the song, Shrek manages to break Pied Pipers flute, complaining that it will be a pain in the morning. As he turns around, he sees everyone “zombified” approaching him to kill him. Donkey then yodels as he and the others close on Shrek, preparing to eat his brains. Shrek wakes up screaming and it is shown that he is really back in the movie theatre, and it revealed that he was dreaming the whole time. Shrek asks if it is over; unfortunately, Princess Fiona tells Shrek that he only slept through the previews and Donkey says he has 3 more hours of children, puppets, and nuns, much to Shrek's distress and he shouts out, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Right before the short film ends, Puss in Boots appears from the black background laughing very evil (also similar to Vincent Price) and then hisses.

Special Feature: SCARED SHREKLESS [2010] Halloween is Shrek’s favourite holiday – but instead of the usual tricks or treats, Shrek ups the ante and challenges the gang to spend the night telling scary stories. The last one to be scared Shrekless wins. Animated short featuring the characters from the 'Shrek' series. It's Halloween in the ogre household and Shrek [Mike Myers] and his family are having fun scaring trick-or-treaters. When Donkey [Dean Edwards], Puss in Boots [Antonio Banderas], Gingy [Conrad Vernon] and the gang have a competition to see who can tell the scariest story, with an end goal of trying to scare the cool-headed Shrek, they quickly find out what their big green friend has in store for them. Here is what you get to view: The Bride of Gingy; Boots Motel and The Shrek Sorcist.

SHREK’S THRILLING TALES: Here are three wonderful spooky scary Halloween stories that are a joy to watch and they are as follows:   

The Pig Who Cried Werewolf: The Three Little Pigs find themselves in big trouble when they ignore the warning signs of the Big Bad Wolf, who is their new neighbour, who have moved in next door and takes on a ferocious form of the Chef human during a full moon.

The Three Little Pigs, named Heimlich [Sean Bishop], Dieter [Sean Bishop], and Horst [Cody Cameron], are heading home from the hospital where Heimlich got his leg hurt from spying on neighbours. When they arrived at home, Heimlich saw that there's a new neighbour: The Big Bad Wolf [Aron Warner], Heimlich, spying on Big Bad Wolf, saw that Big Bad Wolf has a box of knives, but Dieter and Horst didn't see it. Big Bad Wolf then buries the knives in the ground and goes into his house.

At night, the moon is full and Big Bad Wolf is turned into a lady named Chef (Sean Bishop). She is getting the knives, but when Heimlich almost drops the telescope, she can hear the noise. Heimlich was about to show Dieter and Horst that there's something going on the house. When Dieter looks at the house, he sees Big Bad Wolf saying hi to them, but Heimlich doesn't know that because when he looks, Chef played the knives and said, “Get the maniac.” Dieter and Horst are going in that house and they get captured by Chef. When Chef gets in the house, a scared Heimlich is captured in the Big Bad Wolf's house. After Heimlich screams in terror, Heimlich sees Dieter and Horst having dinner. When Chef arrives in the room, turns back into the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs don't know what to make of the situation. So the Big Bad Wolf tells them to get out, but when the Big Bad Wolf turns back into Chef, he gives chase and keeps changing back to the Big Bad Wolf and the Chef as he chases the Three Little Pigs.

Please Note: This short animated film is a giant parody of the Alfred Hitchcock classic film ‘Rear Window.’ Characters from the nursery rhyme “Hey Diddle Diddle” are mentioned by the pigs. The Chef's appearance and voice are based on the real-life legendary chef, Julia Child.

Night of the Living Carrots: Dr. Cockroach [James Horan] and B.O.B. [Seth Rogen] are forced to retreat into the Murphy house when The Missing Link [David Kaye] is infected only to discover that one of the Carrots sneaked in with them. When the carrot bites B.O.B. but is not infected Dr. Cockroach realizes that he's immune since he doesn't have a brain. To this end Dr. Cockroach states that the only way to defeat the carrots and free their loved ones is for B.O.B. to eat all of the carrots.

Unfortunately it's revealed that B.O.B. is deeply terrified of Carrots: during his infancy General W.R. Monger [Kiefer Sutherland] is force fed him an excessive amount of Carrot Puree that deeply scarred him for life. Refusing to eat the Carrots even after Dr. Cockroach is infected B.O.B. instead makes “new friends” from several stuffed animals and attempts to retreat. However he has a change of heart when he sees his loved ones suffering and decides to “eat his vegetables.”

Tearing through the house B.O.B. eats carrots until the point that he's morbidly obese and immobile, leaving only one left that he cannot reach. B.O.B. subsequently develops the will power to reach out and eat the carrot when he sees him opening the last Nutter Buddy Butter Bar freeing all of the carrots victims. In the final scene of the short B.O.B., who has been narrating the story, transforms into a giant Zombie Carrot.

The Ghost of Lord Farquaad: Join Donkey and Shrek as they   rescue Princess Fiona from the evil ghost of Lord Farquaad and embark on a bone-chilling adventure.

Shrek [Mike Myers], Donkey [Eddie Murphy], and Princess Fiona [Cameron Diaz] are trying to find their way to the Honeymoon Hotel so Shrek and Princess Fiona can celebrate their honeymoon, but the search stops when Fiona is captured by Thelonious. Shrek and Donkey chase Thelonious [Christopher Knights] through the forest in the carriage and destroy the Gingerbread Man's new house by crashing through it.

Lord Farquaad [John Lithgow] true plans for Princess Fiona is to kill her and make her his spirit Queen so he can be the King of the underworld. Shrek and Donkey arrive to save her, but Lord Farquaad makes them all fall down a waterfall known as “Fairy Falls,” Dragon saves them before they all die. Lord Farquaad finally dies again once Dragon breathes fire at his ghost, making him go into limbo. Dragon gives Shrek and Princess Fiona a ride to the Honeymoon Hotel, and Princess Fiona and Donkey ride off to have a honeymoon of their own. But Shrek and Princess Fiona's honeymoon begins celebrating after Shrek says “Let the Honeymoon Begin!” then pops the cork out of the champagne, sending one of the fairies flying with the cork.

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DVD Image Quality – DreamWorks Animation presents us ‘SHREK’S THRILLING TALES’ with a very reasonable 1080i image and is shown in the usual 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Although this is a DVD, I was still impressed with the image quality throughout ‘SHREK’S THRILLING TALES.’ There was a distinct lack of the usual noise I find with most DVD’s. The green of Shrek and all the colours throughout the animated videos were rich and dynamic. Black levels were solid and there’s a good amount of detail present. Please Note: Playback PAL: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.

DVD Audio Quality – DreamWorks Animation brings us brings us ‘SHREK’S THRILLING TALES’ with just one standard 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio experience. Dialogue was very clear and consistent and volume did not need to be adjusted. But also with the ‘SHREK’S THRILLING TALES’ it had some wonderful spooky sounds throughout all three stories, and the composed music for all three stories were by the wonderful Matt Mahaffey, Harry Gregson-Williams and Matthew Margeson was especially good throughout ‘SHREK’S THRILLING TALES.’

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DVD Special Features and Extras:

Special Feature: Trailer: ‘Rise Of The Guardians’ 3D [2014] [1080i] [1.78:1] [2:20] With this featurette, we get to view the amazing trailer for ‘Rise Of The Guardians’ 3D

Special Feature: Trailers: ‘Madagascar 3 – Europe’s Most Wanted’ 3D + ‘Shrek The Musical’ [2012] [1080i] [1.78:1] [5:47] With this featurette, we get to view two amazing trailers.

Finally,’ SHREK’S THRILLING TALES’ [2012] has Four full-length movies, plus two holiday specials, where these ogres prove that they're anything but rough around the edges. Shrek and Princess Fiona are perfectly lovable as ever, and their hodgepodge of faithful friends can still dish out the laughs with the best of them. Long-time fans won't be disappointed in this festive tale, which revisits Donkey and Puss in Boots contentious relationship, gives the Duloc singers the stage once more, and chronicles Gingy's attempts to create the perfect mate. Highly Recommended!

Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado 
Le Cinema Paradiso 
United Kingdom

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