“Shrek 2” is colorful, lively and wonderful, but lacks the originality and creative energy of the first film.

With over $500 million grossed on the first film, it was only a matter of time before Hollywood hopped on the gravy train and made a franchise out of “Shrek.”

Sequels rarely meet up to the original, but with an all-star cast of A-list celebrities, producers and directors of “Shrek 2” comes close to the first film.

Like the original, “Shrek 2” has a message: to not try to live up to the expectations of others, and that happiness is only found when a person accepts who he or she is and embraces it.

Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) seems to be flirting with middle-class respectability in the sequel.

In the first film, Princess Fiona’s (voiced by Cameron Diaz) curse was that she was taken prisoner by a dragon, but could be set free if the dragon was slain and kissed by the hero who did the deed.

Ideally, that would have been Prince Charming (voiced by Rupert Everett), but in “Shrek 2,” when he finally arrives in the neighborhood, he discovers that the ogre has already dispatched the dragon and wed the princess.

To his biggest surprise, Shrek’s kiss has dramatically changed Fiona. She is no longer beautiful, but is tall, broad and a green ogre.

Later, Fiona’s parents summon the newlyweds to meet her husband. This involves a very long journey by Shrek, Fiona and Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy) who insists on coming along.

Donkey is definitely the high point of the movie and had viewers laughing in about every scene he was in.

Fiona’s parents, King Harold (voiced by John Cleese) and Queen Lillian (voiced by Julie Andrews) are shocked to find that their daughter has not only married an ogre, but has also become one.

Eventually, the plot leads viewers to the clutches of the Fairy Godmother (voiced by Jennifer Saunders), a sinister character who operates a huge factory manufacturing potions and hexes and more.

The Fairy Godmother has a plan to get rid of Shrek and marry Fiona to Prince Charming.

Like the first movie, the sequel has several songs, none of which was too memorable. Also, like the first film, the songs play out like an animated music video.

A few minor characters from the first film, such as the Gingerbread Man and the Three Blind Mice returned for the sequel.

There’s a new major character: Puss-In-Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas), a cat who seems to act a lot like Zorro with his maneuvers as the feisty feline.

Donkey and Puss build an enormous mutual resentment because both believe they are the stars.

The characters in “Shrek 2” not only sound like the actors who play them, but uncannily mimic their gestures and expressions.

This is the most interesting part of the movie, which shows the lampooning of today’s popular culture through animation.

By film’s end, all is resolved and as with most fairy tales, there’s a moral to the story.

Sequels have a lot to live up to, especially when the first was such a blockbuster.

By itself, this is a really good children’s movie, but with the first movie as its measuring stick, the sequel just does not quite measure up the first.

(“Shrek 2” recieves four out of five stars. This movie is rated PG)