FORGET blockbusters, those monolithic movies with more money than sense. The animated world of Toy Story and now Shrek is the new king of computer-generated film-making.

These are films built on the old-fashioned virtues of colourful characters, a fast-moving plot, demented comic invention and humorous, enchanting scripts which appeal to film veterans and children alike, yet newly blessed with digital wizardry too.

This joyful send-up of fairyland's most egotistical occupants also marks the first time that Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks studio takes the mickey out of the Disney cartoon empire, the original Mickey Mouse outfit, with utter assurance.

Where Shrek's predecessor, Antz, had the technology and the visual pizzazz, Shrek has the energy, the sharp tongue and much more appealing characters.

None more so than the blunt Shrek, who will soon become the most instantly recognisable green character since the Jolly Green Giant, the Incredible Hulk and Kermit.

Shrek is a mild yet mighty-strong ogre, voiced by Mike Myers, who decided to reprise his Glasgow kiss of a Scottish accent from his Fat B*****d character in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, having originally recorded the dialogue with a Canadian accent.

His instinct was right: Shrek has the kind of comic candour patented by Scottish icons Billy Connolly and Rab C Nesbitt, and so you warm to the house-proud, big-hearted but lonely big guy, whose incredible green sulk is triggered by the invasion of his swamp by an A-list of fairytale celebrities.

They have been banished to his back-of-beyond bogland by the diminutive despotic tyrant Lord Farquaad (dressed like Laurence Olivier's Richard III, voice courtesy of a reedy John Lithgow). This latterday Grimm reaper with the height complex of Napoleon will remove goody-goody Snow White and her fellow luvvie squatters from the swamp only if Shrek succeeds in rescuing the deliciously lovely Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from the protective clutches of a dragon for his Lordship to make his bride.

Shrek will be accompanied on his perilous journey by a smart ass (a gregarious Eddie Murphy, so much better for merely hearing rather than seeing, like Robin Williams in Aladdin), and the double-act sparring between Myers' bold ogre and Murphy's clever but timid donkey is a comic delight, all the more so when the Princess joins in.

Never predictable, there is more than one sting in the Shrek tale; Princess Fiona is given the chance to send up Diaz's Charlie's Angels role, and the irreverent put-downs of fairytale clich mount up like George Burns's cigar ash. Shrek is a monster hit.