Shrek

''Shrek'' is a 2001 American animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, and written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, and Roger S. H. Schulman, loosely based on the 1990 children's picture book '' Shrek!'' by William Steig. It is the first installment in the ''Shrek'' film series. The film stars Mike Myers as the voice of the titular character, with Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow in supporting roles. In the film, an embittered ogre named Shrek (Myers) finds his home in the swamp overrun by fairy tale creatures banished by the obsessive ruler Lord Farquaad (Lithgow). With the help of Donkey (Murphy), Shrek makes a pact with Farquaad to rescue Princess Fiona (Diaz) in exchange for regaining control of his swamp.

After purchasing the rights to Steig's book in 1991, Steven Spielberg sought to produce a traditionally-animated film adaptation, but John H. Williams convinced him to bring the project to the newly founded DreamWorks Pictures in 1994. Jeffrey Katzenberg, along with Williams and Aron Warner, began development on ''Shrek'' in 1995, immediately following the studio's purchase of the rights from Spielberg. Chris Farley was cast as the voice for the title character, recording most of the required dialogue, but died in 1997 before his work on the film was finished; Myers was hired to replace him, and gave Shrek his characteristic Scottish accent. The film was initially intended to be created using motion capture, but after poor test results, the studio hired Pacific Data Images to complete the final computer animation. ''Shrek'' parodies other fairy tale adaptations, primarily animated Disney films.

''Shrek'' premiered at the Mann Village Theatre In Westwood, and was later shown at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or, making it the first animated film since Disney's '' Peter Pan'' (1953) to be chosen to do so. The film was theatrically released by DreamWorks Pictures in the United States on May 18, 2001, and grossed over $492 million worldwide, becoming the fourth highest-grossing film of 2001. It was widely praised by critics for its animation, voice performances, soundtrack, writing and humor, which they noted catered to both adults and children. ''Shrek'' was named one of the top 10 films of 2001 by the American Film Institute, the first animated film to be listed, and won numerous accolades including the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the inaugural Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

The film's major success helped establish DreamWorks Animation as a competitor to Pixar in feature film computer animation. Three sequels have been released—'' Shrek 2'' (2004), '' Shrek the Third'' (2007), and '' Shrek Forever After'' (2010)—along with two spin-off films— ''Puss in Boots'' (2011) and '' Puss in Boots: The Last Wish'' (2022)—with other productions, notably '' Shrek 5'', in development. It is also regarded as one of the most influential animated films of the 2000s and one of the greatest animated films ever made. The United States Library of Congress selected ''Shrek'' for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2020, becoming the first animated film of the 21st century to be preserved.

Plot

Shrek is an anti-social ogre who loves the solitude of his swamp and enjoys fending off mobs and intruders. One day, his life is interrupted after he inadvertently saves a talkative Donkey from some soldiers, prompting Donkey to forcibly stay with him. Donkey is one of many fairytale creatures that are being exiled or sold by the dwarfish Lord Farquaad of Duloc to beautify his land. However, the creatures inadvertently end up in the swamp. Angered by the intrusion, Shrek resolves to visit Farquaad and demand that he moves the creatures elsewhere, reluctantly allowing Donkey to accompany him as he is the only one who knows where Duloc is.

Meanwhile, Farquaad is presented with the Magic Mirror, who tells him that he must marry a princess in order to become king. Farquaad randomly chooses Princess Fiona, who is imprisoned in a castle guarded by a Dragon. Unwilling to rescue Fiona himself, he organizes a tournament in which the winner will receive the "privilege" of performing the task on his behalf. When Shrek and Donkey arrive at Duloc, Farquaad announces that whoever kills Shrek will win the tournament; however, Shrek and Donkey defeat Farquaad's knights with relative ease. Amused, Farquaad proclaims them champions, and agrees to relocate the fairytale creatures if Shrek rescues Fiona.

Shrek and Donkey travel to the castle and the Dragon attacks them. Shrek locates Fiona, who is appalled by his lack of romanticism; they flee the castle after rescuing Donkey from the Dragon, who is revealed to be female and has fallen in love with him. When Shrek removes his helmet and reveals he is an ogre, Fiona stubbornly refuses to go to Duloc, demanding Farquaad arrive in person to save her. Shrek carries Fiona against her will. That night, after setting up camp, and with Fiona alone in a cave, Shrek admits to Donkey that he is anti-social because he grew frustrated after being constantly judged for his appearance. Fiona overhears this and becomes kinder to Shrek. The next day, Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men harass the three, but Fiona easily defeats them in physical combat. Shrek becomes impressed with Fiona, and they begin to fall in love.

When the trio nears Duloc, Fiona takes shelter in a windmill for the evening. Donkey enters alone and discovers that Fiona has transformed into an ogre. She explains that during her childhood, she was cursed to transform into an ogre at night but retain her human form during the day. She tells Donkey that only "true love's kiss" will break the spell and change her to "love's true form". Meanwhile, Shrek is about to confess his feelings to Fiona, when he overhears Fiona referring to herself as an "ugly beast". Believing that she is talking about him, Shrek angrily leaves and returns the next morning with Farquaad. Confused and hurt by Shrek's abrupt hostility, Fiona reluctantly accepts Farquaad's marriage proposal and requests that they be married that day before sunset. Shrek angrily dismisses Donkey and returns to his now vacated swamp but quickly realizes that he feels miserable without Fiona. Donkey lectures Shrek for jumping to conclusions and reveals that Fiona was not referring to him as an "ugly beast", although Donkey does not reveal Fiona's secret to Shrek. The two reconcile, and Donkey summons the Dragon, whom he had reunited with earlier in the day. Shrek and Donkey ride Dragon to Duloc so they can stop the wedding.

Shrek interrupts the ceremony just before it ends. Before they can kiss, the sun sets, and Fiona transforms into an ogre in front of everyone. Disgusted and enraged, Farquaad orders Shrek to be executed and Fiona re-imprisoned, so that he will still be king by technicality. The two are saved when the Dragon, ridden by Donkey, breaks in and devours Farquaad. Shrek and Fiona kiss, and Fiona's curse is broken; though she remains an ogre, Shrek reassures her that he still finds her beautiful. They marry in the swamp with the fairy tale creatures in attendance, then leave for their honeymoon.

Voice cast

* Mike Myers as:
**Shrek
**One of the Three Blind Mice
* Eddie Murphy as Donkey
* Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona
* John Lithgow as Lord Farquaad
* Vincent Cassel as "Monsieur" Robin Hood
* Conrad Vernon as Gingerbread Man
* Chris Miller as:
**Magic Mirror
**Geppetto
* Cody Cameron as:
**Pinocchio
** The Three Little Pigs
* Simon J. Smith as Blind Mouse
* Christopher Knights as:
**Thelonius
**One of the Three Blind Mice
* Aron Warner as Big Bad Wolf
* Jim Cummings as Captain of the Guards
* Kathleen Freeman as Old Woman
* Andrew Adamson as Duloc Mascot
* Bobby Block as Baby Bear from the Three Bears
* Michael Galasso as Peter Pan

Production

Development

At the time DreamWorks Pictures was founded, producer John H. Williams got hold of the book from his children and when he brought it to DreamWorks, it caught CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg's attention and the studio decided to make it into a film. Recounting the inspiration of making the film, Williams said:
After buying the rights to the film, Katzenberg quickly put it in active development in November 1995. Steven Spielberg had thought about making a traditionally animated film adaptation of the book before, when he bought the rights to the book in 1991 before the founding of DreamWorks, where Bill Murray would play Shrek and Steve Martin would play Donkey. In the beginning of production, co-director Andrew Adamson refused to be intimidated by Katzenberg and had an argument with him about how much the film should appeal to adults. Katzenberg wanted both audiences, but he deemed some of Adamson's ideas, such as adding sexual jokes and Guns N' Roses music to the soundtrack, to be too outrageous. Adamson and Kelly Asbury joined in 1997 to co-direct the film. However, Asbury left a year later for work on the 2002 film '' Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron'', and was replaced with story artist Vicky Jenson, although Asbury would later co-direct the sequel. Both Adamson and Jenson decided to work on the film in half, so the crew could at least know whom to go to with specific detail questions about the film's sequences; "We both ended up doing a lot of everything," Adamson said. "We're both kinda control freaks, and we both wanted to do everything."

Some early sketches of Shrek's house were done between 1996 and 1997 using Photoshop, with the sketches showing Shrek first living in a garbage dump near a human village called Wart Creek. It was also thought at one time that he would live with his parents and keep rotting fish in his bedroom. Donkey was modeled after Pericles (born 1994; died 2025; also known as Perry), a real miniature donkey from Barron Park in Palo Alto, California. Raman Hui, supervising animator of ''Shrek'', stated that Fiona "wasn't based on any real person" and he did many different sketches for her. He had done over 100 sculptures of Fiona before the directors chose the final design. In early development, the art directors visited Hearst Castle, Stratford upon Avon, and Dordogne for inspiration. Art Director Douglas Rogers visited a magnolia plantation in Charleston, South Carolina, as inspiration for Shrek's swamp. Planned characters not used in the film include Goldilocks and Sleeping Beauty.

Writing

The screenplay was written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, and Roger S. H. Schulman, loosely based on the picture book by William Steig. The way Steig upended fairy tale conventions in the original book by making an ogre the protagonist formed the basis for the movie being a parody of fairy tales. Elliott and Rossio began writing for the film in 1997 and worked on the project for two years. Elliott and Rossio were also credited as co-producers for the film. They centered the four main characters' personalities on maladaptive responses to self-esteem issues; as the DreamWorks story crew developed the plot, their personalities remained the same, ensuring the "thematic unity" of the story was preserved. When the studio leaned towards Shrek being a kind person shunned for being an ogre, they pushed for Shrek to remain a "misanthropic anti-hero."

Casting

Nicolas Cage was initially offered the role of Shrek but he turned it down because he did not want to look like an ogre. In 2013, Cage explained: "When you're drawn, in a way it says more about how children are going to see you than anything else, and I so care about that."

Chris Farley was initially hired to voice Shrek, and he had recorded nearly all of the dialogue for the character, but died before completing the project. According to David Spade, Farley only had 5 days of voice work left to perform; Farley's brother John was asked if he would come in and finish the remaining lines, but he refused. A story reel featuring a sample of Farley's recorded dialogue was leaked to the public in August 2015. DreamWorks then re-cast the voice role to Mike Myers, who insisted on a complete script rewrite, to leave no traces of Farley's version of Shrek. According to Myers, he wanted to voice the character "for two reasons: I wanted the opportunity to work with Jeffrey Katzenberg; and he book isa great story about accepting yourself for who you are."

After Myers had completed providing the voice for the character over the course of 1999 and the film was well into production, a rough cut of the movie was shown to him in February 2000. Myers asked to re-record all of his lines with a Scottish accent, similar to that his mother used when she told him bedtime stories and also used for his roles in other films, such as '' So I Married an Axe Murderer'' and '' Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me''. According to the DVD commentary, he had also tried using a Lothar of the Hill People accent and a Canadian accent.Shrek. DVD Commentary, 2001. After hearing the alternative, Katzenberg agreed to redo scenes in the film, saying, "It was so good we took $4M worth of animation out and did it again." Myers disputed the cost, saying "it didn't cost the studio 'millions of dollars'," as rumored. "What it meant is instead of me going in for ten sessions, I went in for twenty sessions. I got paid the same." Because of Myers voicing the character, more ideas began to come. There were clearer story points, fresher gags and comedy bits. "I got a letter from Spielberg thanking me so much for caring about the character," Myers said. "And he said the Scottish accent had improved the movie."

Another person planned to voice a character in the film was Janeane Garofalo, who was set to star alongside Farley as Princess Fiona. However, she was fired from the project for unexplained reasons. Years later, Garofalo stated "I was never told why was fired I assume because I sound like a man sometimes? I don't know why. Nobody told me ... But, you know, the movie didn't do anything, so who cares?"

Animation

''Shrek'' was originally set up to be a live-action animation hybrid with background plate miniature sets and the main characters composited into the scene as motion-captured computer graphics, using an ExpertVision Hires Falcon 10 camera system to capture and apply realistic human movement to the characters. Softimage was used, as well as Mental Ray. A sizable crew was hired to run a test, and after a year and a half of R & D, the test was finally screened in May 1997. The results were not satisfactory, with Katzenberg stating "It looked terrible, it didn't work, it wasn't funny, and we didn't like it." The animation, known as '' Shrek – I Feel Good Animation Test'', was not released publicly until 2023 when it was posted by production designer Barry E. Jackson on his YouTube channel. The studio then turned to its production partners at Pacific Data Images (PDI), who began production with the studio in 1998 and helped ''Shrek'' get to its final, computer-animated look. At this time, '' Antz'' was still in production at the studio and effects supervisor Ken Bielenberg was asked by Aron Warner "to start development for ''Shrek''". Similar to previous PDI films, PDI used its own proprietary software (like the Fluid Animation System) for its animated movies. For some elements, however, it also took advantage of some of the powerhouse animation software on the market. This is particularly true with Maya, which PDI used for most of its dynamic cloth animation and for the hair of Fiona and Farquaad.

"We did a lot of work on character and set-up, and then kept changing the set up while we were doing the animation," Hui noted. "In ''Antz'', we had a facial system that gave us all the facial muscles under the skin. In ''Shrek'', we applied that to whole body. So, if you pay attention to Shrek when he talks, you see that when he opens his jaw, he forms a double chin, because we have the fat and the muscles underneath. That kind of detail took us a long time to get right." One of the most difficult parts of creating the film was making Donkey's fur flow smoothly so that it did not look like that of a Chia Pet. This fell into the hands of the surfacing animators, who used flow controls within a complex shader to provide the fur with many attributes (ability to change directions, lie flat, swirl, etc.). It was then the job of the visual effects group, led by Ken Bielenberg, to make the fur react to environment conditions. Once the technology was mastered, it could be applied to many aspects of the movie, including grass, moss, beards, eyebrows, and even threads on Shrek's tunic. Making human hair realistic was different from Donkey's fur, requiring a separate rendering system and much attention from the lighting and visual effects teams.

''Shrek'' has 31 sequences, with 1,288 total shots. Aron Warner said that the creators "envisioned a magical environment that you could immerse yourself into". Shrek includes 36 separate in-film locations to make the world of the film, which DreamWorks claimed was more than any previous computer-animated feature. In-film locations were finalized and, as demonstrated by past DreamWorks animated movies, color and mood was of the utmost importance. The animation was completed in 2000.

Music

''Shrek'' is the third DreamWorks animated film (and the only film in the ''Shrek'' series) to have Harry Gregson-Williams team up with John Powell to compose the score following '' Antz'' (1998) and '' Chicken Run'' (2000). Powell was left out to compose scores for later Shrek films with Gregson-Williams due to a conflict. The score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios by Nick Wollage and Slamm Andrews, with the latter mixing it at Media Ventures and Patricia Sullivan-Fourstar handling mastering.

''Shrek'' introduced a new element to give the film a unique feel. The film used pop music and other oldies to make the story more forward. Covers of songs like " On the Road Again" and " Try a Little Tenderness" were integrated in the film's score. The band Smash Mouth's song " All Star" gained massive popularity after its original release two years earlier, due to its usage in the film's opening credits. The filmmakers for ''Shrek'' had originally used the song as a placeholder for the opening credits and intended to replace it with an original composition by Matt Mahaffey’s band Self that would mimic the feel of "All Star", named Stay Home. However, DreamWorks executive Jeffrey Katzenberg suggested for them to use "All Star" over the sequence instead. As the film was about to be completed, Katzenberg suggested to the filmmakers to redo the film's ending to "go out with a big laugh"; instead of ending the film with just a storybook closing over Shrek and Fiona as they ride off into the sunset, they decided to add a song " I'm a Believer" covered by Smash Mouth and show all the fairytale creatures in the film.

Although Rufus Wainwright's version of the song "Hallelujah" appeared in the soundtrack album, it was John Cale's version that appeared in the film; in a radio interview, Rufus Wainwright suggested that his version of "Hallelujah" did not appear in the film due to the "glass ceiling" he was hitting because of his sexuality. An alternative explanation is that, although the filmmakers wanted Cale's version for the film, licensing issues prevented its use in the soundtrack album, because Wainwright was an artist for DreamWorks but Cale was not.

The film's 1996 animation test, made public in 2023, used the song " I Got You (I Feel Good)".

Cultural references

In many places, the film references classic movies, predominantly those by Disney. When Tinker Bell falls on Donkey and he says "I can fly" and people around including the Three Little Pigs say "He can fly, he can fly"; this is a reference to Disney's '' Peter Pan''. Donkey then says, while still flying, "You might have seen a house fly, maybe even a super fly, but I bet you ain't never seen a Donkey fly!". This scene is a reference to the Disney film '' Dumbo''. The scene where Fiona is singing to the blue bird is a reference to '' Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''. The transformation scene at the end of the film references Disney's '' Beauty and the Beast''.

When Shrek crosses the bridge to the Castle and says, "That'll do, Donkey, that'll do", this is a reference to the movie '' Babe''. The scene where Princess Fiona is fighting the Merry Men is a lengthy reference to the film '' The Matrix''. At the end of the film, the Gingerbread Man, with a crutch and one leg, says "God bless us, everyone", which is a reference to Tiny Tim in ''A Christmas Carol''.

In the scene where the Magic Mirror gives Lord Farquaad the option to marry three princesses, it parodies popular American television show '' The Dating Game'' featuring: Cinderella and Snow White. In addition, Lord Farquaad's theme park style kingdom Duloc heavily mimics Disneyland, even in so far as parodying the famous " It's a Small World" musical ride in the scene with the singing puppets. It has been suggested that Lord Farquaad himself is an unflattering parody of then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner, whom producer Katzenberg, a former Disney employee, reportedly dislikes.

Release

Marketing

In 2000, IMAX released '' CyberWorld'' onto its branded large-screen theaters. It was a compilation film that featured stereoscopic conversions of various animated shorts and sequences, including the bar sequence in '' Antz''. DreamWorks was so impressed by the technology used for the sequence's "stereoscopic translation", that the studio and IMAX decided to plan a big-screen 3D version of ''Shrek''. The film would have been re-released during the Christmas season of 2001, or the following summer, after its conventional 2D release. The re-release would have also included new sequences and an alternate ending. Plans for this was dropped due to "creative changes" instituted by DreamWorks and resulted in a loss of $1.18 million, down from IMAX's profit of $3.24 million.

Radio Disney was told not to allow any ads for the film to air on the station, stating, "Due to recent initiatives with The Walt Disney Company, we are being asked not to align ourselves promotionally with this new release ''Shrek''. Stations may accept spot dollars only in individual markets." The restriction was later relaxed to allow ads for the film's soundtrack album onto the network.

On May 7, 2001, Burger King began promotions for the film, giving out a selection of nine exclusive Candy Caddies based on the ''Shrek'' characters, in Big Kids Meal and Kids Meal orders. Ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases