A Review of Shrek 3's weird body-swap subplot (Patreon)

Shrek 3, it's a film often considered one of the worst in the entire franchise. It told the story of Shrek being offered the position of king after the old king LITERALLY croaks, thus sending him to recruit King Arthur so he doesn't have to take the role himself. Now, the film itself isn't anything to write home about.

It's bland generic kids crap, yadda yadda yadda. In fact, the most interesting and fun thing to happen in the movie is the B-plot that has nothing to do with the actual main plot of the film. Due to a mess-up of a magic spell cast by Merlin the Magician, Donkey and Puss In Boots swap bodies.

This doesn't make a whole lot of sense, as Shrek and Arthur are unaffected despite being hit by the exact same spell. Maybe it only works on animals? Regardless, Donkey and Puss stay body-swapped throughout the entire film up until the end, when the spell is reversed.

I gotta say, this was definitely the best part of the film. Seeing a four-legged donkey and two-legged cat adapt to each other's differing body types made for some good writing. We got to see them struggle to walk in each other's bodies, along with dealing with new instincts or reduced abilities.

Seeing Puss randomly bray in the middle of sentences, or being unable to win over his foes with his patented "cute face" made for some great gags. I'm a sucker for good body-swaps, as you all know from the stuff I write, so this part of the film was genuinely a good time for me.

Now some may ask why this random body-swap subplot is in this movie, and I honestly don't have an answer for you. My guess is that because Puss and Boots had nothing to do in the film apart from being sidekicks, that they created this random body-swap story just to give them something to work with.

Honestly, it's funny that from the amount of complaints you here about this film, literally no one's ever said anything bad about the body-swap. Yes, this film is so bad that the most random thing in it isn't even the worst thing about it. Its a good body-swap in a bad movie.

I wouldn't recommend watching this film, but the body-swap scenes are definitely worth a watch. If someone could make a supercut just of the body-swap scenes, that'd make for some great viewing I think. Of course, they swap voices and that's kind of sucky. Regardless, bad movie, great swap! I give the swap 8/10, the movie 3/10.