There is a very interesting tactic in which fans were clamoring for a bevy of fairy tale characters to assemble together not in a Disney film but in a much more original animated story involving an ogre of all characters or creatures. It caught former Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg's attention because producer John H. Williams showed it to him as Williams stated that a child was "quoting statements or large segments of the book" whereas he thought that Shrek was an irreverent, gross character but had a warming personality and he is a lot of fun. There were a lot of pitches on the table like Shrek living in a dumpster or being just a crass personality. The pitches did not seem to mesh with the idea of being a family film especially with fairy tale characters, mostly more familiar from other Disney projects.
But, you have to think about it. Those fairy tale characters were from novels too. The movie was in production in the 90s when SNL star Chris Farley recorded about 85%-95% of his dialogue in production before he sadly passed away. But, Mike Myers came in and re-recorded another draft of dialogue in honor of Farley's passing and not wanting to duplicate the same script. He interpreted many accents into many sessions and went with a Scottish accent to fit the character. But, Myers took the part because he liked that the movie was about accepting who you truly are in society and I'll talk about the theme of acceptance later in the analysis. Then, it got going with stars like Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow were on board. As a result, this is a movie that takes on a big risks by cramming in a jolly, disgusting green ogre pairing up with a talkative donkey and rescuing a princess from the tallest tower along with cultural references and many other fairy tale characters. But, the movie pays off with a heart of gold from the ogre and a winning voice-over performance by Eddie Murphy.
Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers), is an ogre living in his swamp, loving the awry environment of his solitude. After messing with and scaring the hunters away, Shrek sees a wanted poster of missing fairy tale characters and does not bother with it as he continues minding his own business. As other fairy tale characters are being sold and being put in custody, an old woman attempts to sell Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy), as he is avoiding being put in custody. After the help of Tinker Bell's magical fairy dust, Donkey flies and right after the effects wore off, he runs and meets Shrek as Donkey wants company. Shrek allows Donkey to stay in his swamp for one night but outside with not much food.
Later, that night, as Shrek was about to eat his dinner, his peace and quiet is interrupted by the countless fairytale creatures as they are exiled by the short-statured, powerful yet hateful Lord Farquaad of Duloc (voiced by John Lithgow). Donkey volunteers to go with Shrek to Duloc to confront Farquaad and after ignorantly defeating his guards, Farquaad labels him as a champion. Farquaad makes a deal in which the banished fairytale creatures will be removed from Shrek's property in order for Shrek to perform Farquaad's quest to rescue Princess Fiona (voiced by Cameron Diaz), so they can marry and Farquaad can be king.
After rescuing Fiona from the tower and the Dragon, who weirdly is in love with Donkey, Fiona is disappointed to learn that Shrek is an ogre as he had a helmet on. During the journey back to Duloc, Shrek and Fiona find out that they have a lot in common and they begin to fall in love. However, Fiona has a secret that she avoids being outside at night that Shrek and Lord Farquaad does not know about but Donkey finds out later.
SPOILER ALERT! (But, come on.)
This is a consistently funny yet heartfelt movie about acceptance and also friendship. The movie holds up quite well in today's society as people struggle to identify what is the perfect role model with the perfect body or size. People these days seem to improve or enhance their bodies because they feel they are not "perfect". Nobody is perfect. If so, society and civilization would become boring.
Shrek is a perfect character of a symbol that is being alienated from society. Even though he loves his peace in being in a swamp, he is saddened that even though he is "like an onion" because he has layers of personality beneath him, people are still haunted by his outer appearance, jumping to conclusions and not knowing who he really is. Maybe, Shrek was accepting the fact that him scaring off people just to be isolated was the only to live his life as a reclusive character. The scene right above fits the message of teaching people not to judge a book by its cover, hence, their appearances, because the person with the unique appearance will get hurt and he or she will be afraid of the world and would not make any friends and struggle with boosting their self-esteem.
Yet, that is when Donkey comes into the picture as he tries to form a friendship with Shrek but his acceptance is getting in the way of forming a camaraderie with him. In his introduction, even though Shrek is annoyed by Donkey's singing, he sings a song about friendship as he wants to simply get along with Shrek.
So, if Shrek treated Donkey with not much respect and not much appreciation, Donkey came back for forgiveness. But, obviously in the scene above, there is a hidden truth in which Fiona is not who she says she is because Shrek thought Fiona hurt his feelings by saying she would not get along with a ugly, hideous beast whereas, she is an ugly, hideous beast when she turns into an ogre at night because of a witch's spell. Shrek does not expose his feelings to other people because he wanted to retreat to his solitude. Again, he accepts the truth that other people does not want to be friends with him or get to know him. But, even though Fiona may be a positive impact on his life regarding potential love, Donkey is a positive impact on his life regarding friendship.
Now, Shrek is still the introverted, disgusted ogre on a mission from Lord Farquaad to rescue Princess Fiona. Fiona is so dedicated to planning her own rescue as she had a lot of time in her hands as she was locked away and trapped in the tower. (By the way, how did she survive? Was there food in the tower or castle? I don't know.) Anyway, there is maybe a mixed theme of true love and beauty in the conversation as Fiona expects to receive true love like any other fairy tale. According to Fiona, it is destiny. Maybe, it was unexpected destiny for Fiona and Shrek to be together as she did not anticipate that Shrek was an ogre. It is his appearance that dismays Fiona yet in that scene, we do not know the truth about her entirely.
When talking about appearance, we go to a more specific theme about beauty as Fiona is exposed as an ogre. She does not think of herself as beautiful but Shrek considers Fiona as beautiful even though she exposes the truth to Shrek that she is an ogre. Beauty is incorporated into the story to show that it is not based on what someone would look like except personality and sometimes, commonality. Also, beforehand, Shrek confesses that he has true love in Fiona besides the fact that he is an ogre and that whole scene in the church is a beautiful scene, funny and heartwarming.
Shrek and its franchise was based on the children's picture book from 1990 by William Steig and has the same plot in one way or another as he wanted to see the world and save the princess from the tower. Before Jeffrey Katzenberg and Williams were interested and wanted to do this book, Steven Spielberg acquired the rights in 1991, planning to produce the animated film. But, it is ironic because they all be working together when Dreamworks was founded. Without this movie's massive success, Dreamworks Animation would not have been established and become one of the best animated studios, creating some solid work like this movie, How to Train Your Dragon or Kung Fu Panda.
It would have easily been the case if the supporting fairy tale characters were distractions as pop references. But, they were not as they were execution to the whole story as Shrek wanted to go back to the way things were. Granted, there are cultural references in this movie, predominantly from Disney movies, but there were moments that parody The Matrix, Babe and A Christmas Carol. But, this movie has a lot less than its sequel, Shrek 2, since Far Far Away is a parody of Hollywood. So, Far Far Away is a setting to many of its princesses and obviously, there are a lot of cultural references from movies from a couple of classics, kid flicks and some R-rated films. Nevertheless, the sequel is a very good movie, too.
Directors Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jensen created a nearly-instant classic with Shrek as he is a disgusting character, yes, but a likable character with heart and complexity beneath him that anyone can attach to. You sympathize with him and Mike Myers does a great job of mixing up his usual humor with providing gravitas to his emotional scenes. Cameron Diaz is solid as she voices the usual, sweet qualities of a princess but has some strong gumption in her emotional and action scenes, for example when Fiona kicks Robin Hood's and his merry men's butts. The comedy is well thought-out and does not resort to one-note gross humor but elevates with smart humor and quick and witty dialogue. There are a couple of humorous moments that kids will not get but once you are an adult, you will understand. Shrek is remarkable entertainment that welcomes children and adults with a great message, relevant themes and humor that hearkens back to The Princess Bride. If people say Shrek is a classic, a very good case can be made.
(These three scenes are the more hilarious scenes in my opinion.)
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