Roger Ebert praised the film , giving it four stars out of a possible four and describing it as " jolly and wicked , filled with sly in-jokes and yet somehow possessing a heart " . '' USA Today '' s Susan Wloszczyna praised Eddie Murphy 's performance , stating it " gives the comic performance of his career , aided by sensational digital artistry , as he brays for the slightly neurotic motormouth " . Richard Schickel of '' Time '' also enjoyed Murphy 's role , stating " No one has ever made a funnier jackass of himself than Murphy . " Peter Rainer of '' New York magazine '' liked the script , also stating " The animation , directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson , is often on the same wriggly , giggly level as the script , although the more " human " characters , such as Princess Fiona and Lord Farquaad , are less interesting than the animals and creatures — a common pitfall in animated films of all types . " Peter Travers of '' Rolling Stone '' wrote " '' Shrek '' is a world-class charmer that could even seduce the Academy when it hands out the first official animation Oscar next year . " James Berardinelli of '' ReelViews '' gave the film three and a half stars out of four , saying " '' Shrek '' is not a guilty pleasure for sophisticated movie-goers ; it is , purely and simply , a pleasure . " Kenneth Turan of the '' Los Angeles Times '' wrote " The witty , fractured fairy tale '' Shrek '' has a solid base of clever writing . " Lisa Schwarzbaum of '' Entertainment Weekly '' gave the film an A - , saying " A kind of palace coup , a shout of defiance , and a coming of age for DreamWorks . " Jay Boyar of the '' Orlando Sentinel '' wrote " It 's a pleasure to be able to report that the movie both captures and expands upon the book 's playful spirit of deconstruction . " Steven Rosen of '' The Denver Post '' wrote " DreamWorks Pictures again proves a name to trust for imaginative , funny animated movies that delight kids and adults equally . " Susan Stark of '' The Detroit News '' gave the film four out of four stars , saying " Swift , sweet , irreverent , rangy and as spirited in the writing and voice work as it is splendid in design . " Lou Lumenick of the '' New York Post '' gave the film four out of four stars , saying " A fat green ogre with a grouchy disposition and worse manners , '' Shrek '' is the sort of unlikely hero that nobody could love – except just about everyone who sees this hip and hilarious animated delight . " Jami Bernard of the '' New York Daily News '' gave the film four out of four stars , saying " The brilliance of the voice work , script , direction and animation all serve to make '' Shrek '' an adorable , infectious work of true sophistication . " Rene Rodriguez gave the film three out of four stars , calling it " a gleefully fractured fairy tale that never becomes cynical or crass " . Elvis Mitchell of '' The New York Times '' gave the film four out of five stars , saying " Beating up on the irritatingly dainty Disney trademarks is nothing new ; it 's just that it has rarely been done with the demolition-derby zest of '' Shrek '' . " William Steig , the author of the original book , and his wife Jeanne Steig also enjoyed the film , stating " We all went sort of expecting to hate it , thinking , ' What has Hollywood done to it ? ' But we loved it . We were afraid it would be too sickeningly cute and , instead , Bill just thought they did a wonderful , witty job of it . " John Anderson of '' Newsday '' wrote " The kind of movie that will entertain everyone of every age and probably for ages to come . " Jay Carr of '' The Boston Globe '' wrote " In an era when much on film seems old , '' Shrek '' seems new and fresh and clever . " Stephen Hunter of '' The Washington Post '' gave the film five out of five stars , saying " Despite all its high-tech weirdness , it is really that most perdurable of human constructions , a tale told well and true . " Joe Baltake of '' The Sacramento Bee '' wrote that it " is n't so much a fractured spoof of everything Disney , but actually a Monty Python flick for kids – kids of all ages " . Andrew Sarris of '' The New York Observer '' wrote " What gives '' Shrek '' its special artistic distinction is its witty and knowingly sassy dialogue , delivered by vocally charismatic performers whose voices remind us of their stellar screen personae in live-action movies . " Lisa Alspector of the '' Chicago Reader '' wrote " This romantic fantasy complicates the roles of beauty and beast , making it hard to guess what form a sensitive resolution will take . " Joe Morgenstern of '' The Wall Street Journal '' wrote " The charms of '' Shrek '' , which is based on the children 's book by William Steig , go far beyond in-jokes for adults . " John Zebrowski of '' The Seattle Times '' gave the film three out of four stars , saying " The movie is helped immensely by its cast , who carry it through some of the early , sluggish scenes . But this is Murphy 's movie . Donkey gets most of the good lines , and Murphy hits every one . " A mixed review came from Mark Caro of the '' Chicago Tribune '' , who gave the film two and a half stars out of four and compared the film to '' Toy Story 2 '' , saying it " had a higher in-jokes/laughs ratio without straining to demonstrate its hipness or to evoke heartfelt emotions " . On the more negative side , Michael Atkinson of '' The Village Voice '' said he was " desperately avoiding the risk of even a half-second of boredom " , and said " the movie is wall-to-window-to-door noise , babbling , and jokes ( the first minute sees the first fart gag ) , and demographically it 's a hard-sell shotgun spray . " Christy Lemire of the '' Associated Press '' described '' Shrek '' as a " 90-minute onslaught of in-jokes " , and said while it " strives to have a heart " with " a message about beauty coming from within " , " somehow the message rings hollow " . Anthony Lane of '' The New Yorker '' said , despite the film " cunning the rendering of surfaces , there 's still something flat and charmless in the digital look , and most of the pleasure rises not from the main romance but from the quick , incidental gags . " At the 74th Academy Awards , '' Shrek '' won the first ever Academy Award for Best Animated Feature , beating '' Monsters , Inc. '' and '' Jimmy Neutron : Boy Genius '' . '' Entertainment Weekly '' put it on its end-of-the-decade , " best-of " list , saying , " Prince Charming ? So last millennium . This decade , fairy-tale fans – and Princess Fiona – fell for a fat and flatulent Ogre . Now , that 's progress . " It was nominated for The Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
74th Academy Awards
74th Academy Awards
Shrek