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Jumped the shark?

And holy Pebbles and Bamm Bamm, “Shrek the Third” boasts a veritable newborn ward, what with the spawn of Donkey and Dragon flying all over the place and Fiona finding herself in a family way. Manufacturers of plush toys must have popped the bubbly when they heard the news.

The babies aren’t the undoing of the “Shrek” franchise, but they are a sign that the filmmakers have run out of ideas. The new entry doesn’t have much of a story and, even worse, isn’t all that funny, unless you find poorly staged deathbed scenes in a family movie to be a barrel of laughs.

Having Frog King Harold (John Cleese) croak could be funny, but it’s a symptom of this movie’s poorly calibrated comic tone that the would-be edgy set piece falls flat. A subsequent somber funeral scene set to Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” is another bad idea because it asks us to mourn a character we never knew or really liked. Leave the circle-of-life stuff to the other guys.

Now that the king is gone, Shrek (Mike Myers) stands to inherit the throne. But he just wants to get back to his smelly swamp, so he, Donkey (Eddie Murphy) and Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) go looking for the other heir, Fiona’s geeky cousin Arthur (Justin Timberlake), or “Artie” as he’s known to his tormenting classmates.

While they’re away, the vain Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) seizes control of Far Far Away. Fiona (Cameron Diaz) recruits a gaggle of girl-power princesses to save the day.