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Yesterday saw a flurry of trailer debuts, including the first Iron Man 2 trailer and the newish Clash of the Titans trailer (which I will be posting with comments shortly). Today, we get the first trailer for Shrek Forever After. That makes one point for yesterday, zero points for today.

Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh with the fourth Shrek movie, which once again returns Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas to the film’s core voice cast. Perhaps I’m not giving it a chance when I think to myself that there’s really no story left to tell, and that the one presented in the trailer seems too easy, and potentially dumb. Yes, dumb. So I watched the trailer again. On second thought, I’m right. This just seems to be pushing the cash-grab that is the Shrek franchise a bit too far. But who can blame Dreamworks, who is yet to find that next big animated franchise. Sometimes you need to go back to the well — otherwise known as parental wallets.

Directed by Mike Mitchell, Shrek Forever After hits theaters on May 21, 2010.

After challenging an evil dragon, rescuing a beautiful princess and saving your in-laws’ kingdom, what’s an ogre to do? Well, if you’re Shrek, you suddenly wind up a domesticated family man. Instead of scaring villagers away like he used to, a reluctant Shrek now agrees to autograph pitch forks. What’s happened to this ogre’s roar? Longing for the days when he felt like a “real ogre,” Shrek is duped into signing a pact with the smooth-talking dealmaker, Rumpelstiltskin. Shrek suddenly finds himself in a twisted, alternate version of Far Far Away, where ogres are hunted, Rumpelstiltskin is king and Shrek and Fiona have never met. Now, it’s up to Shrek to undo all he’s done in the hopes of saving his friends, restoring his world and reclaiming his one True Love.