Shrek, the new Broadway musical based on the 2001 movie hit, is DreamWorks' first attempt to capture a share of the riches that Disney has amassed by turning its animated musicals into Broadway blockbusters. And on paper it's a no-brainer. The movie, based on William Steig's children's stories about a softhearted ogre, was one of the most charming of the new wave of cartoons for the whole family launched in 1989 by Disney's The Little Mermaid. With its fart jokes and self-parodying humor, Shrek was hipper and funnier than the more earnest and straightforward Disney fairy tales, as well as one of the few that appealed primarily to boys, an underserved audience on Broadway, where shows like Wicked and Legally Blonde have become love objects for tween girls.