SHREK BARTENDER MOVIE

The quick-fire, wilfully anachronistic, pop-culture-savvy humour of the Shrek franchise draws mainly on American references to begin with - one could argue that these additions go some way to redressing the balance.

SHREK BARTENDER MOVIE

In a world of ever-increasing homogenisation and globalised cultural product, the attempt to redo bits of a movie to make it funnier for a specific market shows, if not a laudable sort of sensitivity then, at the very least, sound business sense. Whether the Ross and Thornton substitutions enhance or detract from the film as whole is ultimately less interesting than the fact that they are there in the first place. Perhaps it's carping to single out the weaknesses of the voice substitutions, given that Shrek 2 is, by and large, hilarious, although perhaps a shade less charming and fresh than the first instalment. Thornton, on the other hand, with her giggly, girlish pipes, only works as a joke in the film (and a weak one at that) if you know that it's her doing the voice. Plus, there's no mistaking her throaty, Brooklyn cackle. That's why her appearance in Shrek 2 - the character is even modelled to look like her - is one of the funniest moments in the American version. Every year, on Oscar night, she trawls the carpet outside the Academy Awards ceremony, caustically reviewing the frocks of the famous and dishing out insults. As most Brits (however benighted) know, Rivers is the grande dame of trash talking, a 70-year-old former Borscht Belt comedienne whose stand-up material predates the French Revolution and whose face has been lifted more times than a Concorde flap. This swap is at least more understandable than the later one, when the British showbiz reporter Kate Thornton replaces Joan Rivers in the role of The Red Carpet Reporter.

This is a children's film, for heaven's sake. Nor will there be bonus explicit footage of Shrek and Fiona playing Pin the Tail On the Donkey for a 'European' cut, in the style of The Man Who Fell to Earth. No, there won't be an extended, extra-violent climax, à la the 'House of Blue Leaves' sequence in the Japanese cut of Kill Bill Vol. When Shrek 2 opens here in July, British viewers will see a different version from the one showing in American cinemas.

Shrek bartender