Shrek the Halls

Shrek has settled into life with Fiona and their children, and when Christmas arrives he wants to give them a holiday they will remember. The problem is that ogres have never celebrated it, so he turns to a guidebook for instruction. As he tries to follow it and put together a quiet family evening, Donkey, Puss in Boots and the rest of the fairy-tale crowd arrive at the swamp uninvited and disrupt his plans.

This half-hour television special was directed by Gary Trousdale, whose earlier credits include Beauty and the Beast, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and, more recently, The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper. It comes between that short and Scared Shrekless in his filmography. Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas reprise their voice roles from the Shrek features, alongside Cody Cameron and Conrad Vernon.

Produced by DreamWorks Animation and Pacific Data Images, the special carries a reported budget of 60 million dollars. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.4 from around 17,000 votes, and on TMDB it also stands at 6.4, from roughly 938 votes. The two scores are closely aligned, indicating a modest but steady reception from viewers rather than a sharply divided one.