Slowswift

That's good to hear. Is the first one required viewing?

Nope. I never watched the first one, but I had no trouble understanding what was going on in the second. It includes at least one character from the first, but she's reintroduced pretty efficiently and her relevant history with Puss is explained, so there's no need to go back and see what you missed. The story that's told is self-contained enough that there might not even be much need to watch any of the original Shrek movies, come to think of it. 

Good!