Shrek (2001)
SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK
Brief Backstory
Jeffery Katzenberg, former chairman of Disney in the late 1980s and early 1990s, founded DreamWorks in 1994 after surrendering his position at Disney. During the 1990s, several sleeper hits like Prince of Egypt and Antz in 1998 resulted in gaining cult followings shortly afterwards. However it was Shrek, released in early 2001, which brought DreamWorks into being a powerhouse throughout the 2000s.
Unlike Pixar’s works, Shrek was more on the line of being relatively adult-oriented, and was more of a direct attack against Disney for what it had become. After the success of the first Shrek, three more sequels were made, and as of this writing, a fifth one is stated to be in the works.
Story
Shrek, an ogre forced into a life of solitude, and his swamp are invaded by fairy tale creatures, under the arrogant Lord Farquaad’s decree. To reclaim his swamp, Shrek is ordered by Farquaad to find Princess Fiona trapped in a tower so Farquaad can marry her and become king. During the journey, Shrek finds himself much happier with Fiona, and wants her along with the swamp.
Random Facts
Lord Farquaad was modeled after Michael Eisner.
Although there are numerous Disney references such as the scene with the stars (reference to Mufasa and Simba looking at stars), there are also a glut of general fairy tales and nursery rhymes. These include the three bears and the pied piper (which the latter was a Silly Symphony short in the 1930s).
Jimmy Hopkins in Bully describes Bullworth Academy as like an onion, but not in the way Shrek does.
Chris Farley was originally going to voice Shrek but died long beforehand. Watch your weight and don’t do drugs.
Random Opinions
Although Shrek is medieval fantasy, there are quite a few things in the world of Shrek that can contradict the medieval fantasy setting. Some of these include loudspeakers and cameras that take sepia-tone photos at Duloc. Contrary to these objects, the world of Shrek stays medieval fantasy unlike Mario and Legend of Zelda, both which feature medieval materials and are considered general or high fantasy but are not “medievalish” enough to me to be considered medieval fantasy.
And speaking of Mario, Shrek’s fascination with onions is very similar to Mario and mushrooms, or Wario and garlic. The tower where Fiona is kept has some similarities to fortresses and castles in Mario games.
Shrek makes a good point about ogres not being like cakes or parfaits; they might have layers, but not as many.
I don’t think I can get my mind off of Trump and that idiotic idea of a wall each time I hear Shrek saying he plans to wall off the entire swamp from everybody.
Fiona is very similar to Mulan, who was also a warlike princess.
Pros
- Memorable characters, with some ranking as several of the greatest animated characters in history.
- Animation has aged amazingly well and it looks like it just came out.
- Great soundtrack.
- I can never listen to All Star without thinking about Shrek anymore.
- Glorious voice work by Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy.
- Sends a message stating that appearances aren’t everything. This is especially noticeable when Fiona turns into an ogre. Furthermore, words can hurt as noted when Shrek mistook Fiona’s grieving over being an ogre and thought she was saying that about Shrek.
Cons
- Shrek’s guilty of popularizing the dance party ending, which would show up in numerous movies afterwards. It was already a thing seen in movies like Return of the Jedi, but this got more out of hand later onwards.
Rating: 9.5/10 – Amazing
One of the greatest animated movies of all time.
Dedicated to Steve Harwell (1967-2023), lead singer of Smash Mouth.
Leave a Reply