History YMMV / ShrekForeverAfter

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: When Shrek snaps at Fiona and says he wishes he had never saved her from the Dragon's Keep, Fiona is meant to be viewed as sympathetic, except she doesn't come off any better than Shrek since she brushes off his feelings when the guests at the babies' party drive Shrek off the deep end, getting mad at Shrek and accusing him of being ungrateful even though it was clearly shown that Shrek ''is'' grateful for what he has and was simply [[RageBreakingPoint so aggravated by everyone's demanding behavior towards him that he just couldn't take it anymore]]. Fiona instead comes off as insensitive towards Shrek for refusing to understand Shrek's problem and also refusing to sympathize with him for what everyone put him through. Only until we go to the alternate universe do we actually start to feel bad for her.

** Also, in the French dub, when Shrek is captured by the witches, some of the songs that Donkey sings are different as well. The one that the witches sing along to is "Ma liberté de penser".

* {{Woolseyism}}: In the Norwegian dub of the films, Shrek's species was changed from being an ogre to a troll instead, as there is no equivalent to the word "ogre" in Norwegian. In English, Rumpelstiltskin looks at a creature (a Shrek imposter) and says "That's not even an ogre, that is a troll." The Norwegian dub cleverly gets around this by saying "That's not even a troll, that is a jotne.", a "jotne" being (among other creatures) a different kind of troll in Nordic mythology.

--->'''Shrek:''' I ''used'' to be an ogre, now I'm just a jolly green joke!

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: One of the most common criticisms. While it takes a different approach with the ItsAWonderfulPlot and expands on the universe and characters, it's the fourth movie in a row where the villain's plot is to make himself King, and once again creates drama by pitting Shrek's ogre nature against the more sympathetic aspects of his personality and by having the outcome hinge on TrueLovesKiss.

* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: There were some Shrek fans who were skeptical about [[spoiler:Shrek dying at the near end.]] Sure enough, [[spoiler:Shrek returns to the normal universe alive and well after he and Fiona kiss to reverse the contract.]]

* MemeticMutation: See the franchise's [[Memes/{{Shrek}} page.]]

* KarmicOverkill: [[spoiler:Rumpelstiltskin when Fiona kills his pet goose, given he'd already been imprisoned for his crimes and caring for it was his one redeeming trait.]]
* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: There were some Shrek fans who were skeptical about [[spoiler:Shrek dying at the near end.]] Sure enough, [[spoiler: Shrek returns to the normal universe alive and well after he and Fiona kiss to reverse the contract.]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: These characters mentioned below were actually supposed to return in the film, but they got excluded at the last minute.

** And what happened to the Fairy Godmother and Prince Charming? This is rectified in the video game, however.

** Artie's fate is also never touched upon, due to Justin Timberlake’s scheduling conflict.
** The movie also never shows what Fiona's human form looks like in the new timeline aside from a flashback.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: A major criticism is that the whole alternate universe setting is not as thoroughly explored as it potentially could have been, mostly thanks to the short runtime the movie has. We also never see the aftermath of Shrek correcting the timeline, aside from Rumpelstiltskin's arrest in the ending -- does Shrek feel any remorse or concern for possibly erasing all of his ogre friends from the alternate universe? They do appear at the dance party ending and in two Christmas shorts after the film, but how are they there? And how does Shrek still know them?

* TorchTheFranchiseAndRun: The reason why the film was made was so that [=DreamWorks=] Animation could prevent the Shrek franchise from decaying any further after the middling reception to Shrek the Third. Even the title was changed from Shrek Goes Fourth to Shrek Forever After to cement the idea that it was a GrandFinale — and while reactions to the film were mixed, it's usually considered better than the third film, and a fitting send-off to the characters. Since then, the only new entries have been the Puss in Boots spin-off films and their associated SequelSeries made for Netflix. A ContinuityReboot was announced, but seems to have been quietly canceled; Puss in Boots: The Last Wish presents itself as a direct sequel to the original Shrek films and ends on a SequelHook that suggests [=DreamWorks=] intends to continue the series after all.

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: One of the most common criticisms. While it takes a different approach with the ItsAWonderfulPlot and expands on the universe and characters, it's the fourth movie in a row where the villain's plot is to make himself King, and once again creates drama by pitting Shrek's ogre nature against the more sympathetic aspects of his personality and by having the outcome hinge on TrueLovesKiss.

* ItsTheSameSoItSucks: One of the most common criticisms. While it takes a different approach with the ItsAWonderfulPlot and expands on the universe and characters, it's the fourth movie in a row where the villain's plot is to make himself King, and once again creates drama by pitting Shrek's ogre nature against the more sympathetic aspects of his personality and having the outcome hinge on TrueLovesKiss.

* SoOkayItsAverage: The general consensus from fans is that while it's a watchable movie that improves on ''Shrek The Third'', it doesn't have enough of the magic or humor of the first two movies to be worthwhile.

* ContestedSequel: To some, it's a mild improvement on ''Shrek The Third'' but still not a very good movie. To others, it's a huge improvement with an interesting plot, tons of ContinuityPorn, presents the characters in fresh ways, and [[LoveToHate a great villain]], and indicative of Creator/DreamWorksAnimation's [[GrowingTheBeard beard-growing]], and to others it's worse than ''Shrek The Third'', completely abandoning the actual characters and a waste of time.

* HarsherInHindsight: In this film, Puss in Boots is shown to have retired from adventuring in favor of becoming Fiona's largely overweight lapcat, which he clearly relishes. In ''Film/PussInBootsTheLastWish'', the titular character ends up briefly retiring in the main timeline as well, only this time [[HeroicBSOD it's far from voluntary]] due to the threat of Death hanging over him.