Shrek
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| Shrek | |
|---|---|
 Offical poster for Academy Award winning Shrek |
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| Directed by | Andrew Adamson Vicky Jenson |
| Produced by | Jeffrey Katzenberg Aron Warner John H. Williams |
| Written by | Screenplay: Ted Elliott Terry Rossio Joe Stillman Roger S.H. Schulman Book: William Steig |
| Starring | Voices: Mike Myers Eddie Murphy Cameron Diaz John Lithgow |
| Music by | Harry Gregson-Williams John Powell |
| Distributed by | USA: DreamWorks SKG Non-USA Theatrical: United International Pictures DVD/Video: Universal Pictures (through DreamWorks label until 2006) Paramount Pictures (2006–) Television Distribution: CBS Television Distribution (2006–) |
| Release date(s) | May 18, 2001 |
| Running time | 90 minutes (1:29:59) |
| Country | United States, Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US $60 million |
| Gross revenue | Worldwide $484,409,218[1] |
| Followed by | Shrek 2 (2004) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Shrek, an animated feature film by DreamWorks Animation, debuted in 2001, and is based upon William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture book entitled Shrek! It was directed by New Zealander Andrew Adamson and Los Angeles artist Vicky Jenson and animated by DreamWorks Animation SKG. Shrek was the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, a category introduced in 2001. It was released on DVD and VHS on November 7, 2001.
The film features the voices of Mike Myers as a large, strong, solitude-loving, intimidating ogre named Shrek (from the German word "schreck" meaning "terror" or Yiddish word שרעק, meaning "fear"), Cameron Diaz as the beautiful but very down-to-earth and feisty Princess Fiona, Eddie Murphy as a talkative donkey named Donkey, and John Lithgow as the villainous Lord Farquaad.
It was critically acclaimed as an animated film worthy of adult interest, with many adult-oriented jokes and themes but a simple enough plot and humor to appeal to children. It made notable use of pop music—the soundtrack includes music by Smash Mouth, Eels, Joan Jett, The Proclaimers, Jason Wade, The Baha Men, and Rufus Wainwright.
The film was extremely successful on release in 2001 and it helped establish DreamWorks as a prime competitor to Walt Disney Pictures in the field of feature film animation, particularly in computer animation. Furthermore, Shrek was made the mascot for the company's animation productions.
This film is third on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" [2]. Shrek was also ranked second in a Channel 4 poll of the 100 greatest family films, losing out on the top spot to E.T.[3].
Tagline: The Greatest Fairy Tale Never Told
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The story begins with Shrek (voice of Mike Myers) peaceably enjoying life within his home: a swamp. This is shattered when he inadvertently rescues the stubborn and talkative Donkey (voice of Eddie Murphy) from soldiers sent by the ruthless ruler of the Kingdom of Duloc, Lord Farquaad (voice of John Lithgow). Farquaad is obsessed with ruling a "perfect kingdom", without any fairy tale creatures in it, and uses the Magic Mirror to select a princess bride he can marry in order to become a king. He chooses Princess Fiona (voice of Cameron Diaz), who is held captive in a castle surrounded by lava and guarded by a fire-breathing dragon.
Much to Shrek's chagrin, Lord Farquaad has relocated all the fairy tale creatures to his swamp. Shrek and Donkey head off to the Kingdom of Duloc so they can complain to Farquaad and Shrek can get his swamp back. When Shrek and Donkey get to the Kingdom, they interrupt a tournament Farquaad is holding in order to select a knight worthy of rescuing Princess Fiona. Lord Farquaad then sends the knights to kill Shrek. Shrek fights the knights, with some help from Donkey, and defeats them. Lord Farquaad, getting an idea, proclaims Shrek the winner of the tournament and agrees to remove the fairy tale creatures from the swamp if Shrek rescues Fiona.
When they get to the castle Shrek and Donkey split up to search for Fiona. As Shrek, after putting on the helmet of a fallen knight finds the princess, Donkey runs into the fire-breathing dragon, which he gets cornered by, and begins to give compliments to her to stop her from killing him. Dragon takes these compliments seriously and she subsequently takes Donkey away to her chambers.
After escaping, Fiona orders Shrek to remove his helmet so they can share true love's first kiss. Shrek refuses her request at first, but then shows her his true face. Upon realizing that he is an ogre and not her true love, she angrily refuses to go with Shrek back to Dulot so Shrek takes Fiona by force instead, picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder. The three set off back to Dulot.
On their way through the woods, Fiona insists that they should stop and make camp as sunset comes. Fiona sleeps in a little rock cave while Shrek and Donkey talk under the stars, where Shrek reveals he is upset that people judge him as nothing but a monster without getting to know him.
The next night, Shrek and Fiona are about to kiss when Donkey reminds them of the sun setting. Surprised, Fiona rushes into the old windmill near which they are camping. Donkey now thinks that Shrek and Fiona are beginning a romantic liking towards one another, to which Shrek realizes that he and Fiona could never be and storms off.
Donkey enters the windmill, but finds an ogress instead of Fiona. He instantly starts screaming and yelling, until he realizes that the ogress is Princess Fiona. She then explains that she was cursed by an enchantment: human by day, ogress by night, until she receives her true love's first kiss and takes "love's true form". Donkey brings up Shrek's name, saying that the two of them have a lot in common. Meanwhile, Shrek is outside the door waiting to tell Fiona how he feels about her, but overhears the conversation between Donkey and Fiona, thinking that Fiona is calling him a horrible monster. Shrek leaves, angry and heartbroken, without listening to the rest of the exchange: Fiona requests Donkey not to reveal the secret to anyone. Before Fiona has the chance to tell Shrek, the sun rises, turning Fiona into her human form. Fiona tries to tell him, but he is too angry about what he heard last night. As she still does not understand why he was upset about it, Shrek repeats what she said, "who could love a beast so hideous?" Unfortunately, Fiona misunderstands this as Shrek saying even he thinks she was hideous. Farquaad and his knights then simultaneously appear to escort Fiona back to Duloc, which Fiona gladly accepts. Farquaad gives Shrek his deed to his swamp and he begins to head off. Farquaad takes Fiona back to Duloc and begins the preparations for the marriage, while Donkey rushes to Shrek, telling him to stop Farquaad from taking Fiona. Shrek refuses to listen to him and sets off for his swamp, leaving an upset Donkey behind him.
Shrek goes home to return to his normal life, even more miserable than before. Donkey returns to Shrek's swamp to confront Shrek and tells him that Fiona was talking about somebody else rather than him. Shrek wants to end the wedding before it is too late, but would not be able to make it in time. Donkey then whistles and Dragon appears offering to take them. Upon arriving, Shrek storms in and objects to the wedding.
Shrek tells Fiona that Farquaad only wants to marry her so that he can be king and that he is not her true love. Farquaad then realizes that Shrek has fallen in love with the princess. He and the rest of the citizens begin to laugh before he reminds Fiona that they are one kiss away from their happily ever after. The sun then sets, revealing Fiona's ogre form. Farquaad, disgusted, orders his knights to kill Shrek and lock Fiona back in her tower. Shrek whistles and Dragon smashes through a stained glass window and swallows Farquaad. Shrek tells Fiona that he truly loves her and they share a kiss that turns Fiona into an ogress permanently. She is initially confused, as she was expecting to become beautiful, but Shrek assures her that she is beautiful.
At the end, the two get married and set off on their honeymoon in an onion carriage. In a post-credits scene, Shrek hosts a variety of songs sung by many of the characters of the movie.
[edit] Production
Robin Williams, who had worked for Katzenberg before in Aladdin and had had a bitter falling out with him and The Walt Disney Company after going back on the deal they had (which can be explained in the Aladdin page), has hinted in an interview that he has refused a role in this film, because it would mean working for Jeffrey Katzenberg again. He would not state which role he refused[4].
Chris Farley was originally going to do the voice for Shrek and did at least half of the audio for the voice, but died before the project was completed. Dreamworks then re-cast the voice role to Mike Myers. After Myers had completed providing the voice for the character and the movie was well into production, he asked to be allowed to re-record all of his lines in a Scottish accent similar to the one his mother had used when she told him bedtime stories. Myers had also employed this character voicing for a skit during his Saturday Night Live tenure, and also for the character Stuart MacKenzie in the motion picture So I Married an Axe Murderer and Fat Bastard in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Donkey was modeled after Pericles, a real miniature donkey from Barron Park, Palo Alto, California.[5]
[edit] Cast
- Mike Myers - Shrek / Blind Mouse
- Eddie Murphy - Donkey
- Cameron Diaz - Princess Fiona
- John Lithgow - Lord Farquaad
- Conrad Vernon - Gingerbread Man
- Chris Miller - Geppetto / Magic Mirror
- Cody Cameron - Pinocchio / Three Little Pigs
- Michael Galasso - Peter Pan
- Christopher Knights - Blind Mouse / Thelonius
- Simon J. Smith - Blind Mouse
- Aron Warner - Big Bad Wolf
- Jim Cummings - Captain of the Guards
- Jerome De Guzman - Blind Mice
- Vincent Cassel - Robin Hood
Chris Farley was originally in the cast of Shrek as Shrek, but due to his untimely death during production, he was replaced by Mike Myers.[6]
[edit] Soundtrack
[edit] Influences
Previous films and TV shows, such as Fractured Fairy Tales and The Princess Bride, have parodied the traditional fairy tale. However, Shrek itself has noticeably influenced the current generation of mainstream animated films. Particularly after Shrek 2, animated films began to incorporate more pop culture references and end-film musical numbers. Such elements can be seen in films like Ice Age 2, Robots, Chicken Little, and Hoodwinked!.[7]
[edit] Other media
[edit] Books
Original story on which the film is based:
- Steig, William (1990). Shrek!, Sunburst Paperback. ISBN 0-374-46623-8
[edit] Video games
Several video game adaptations of Shrek have been published on various game console platforms.
- Shrek (video game)
- Shrek 2 (video game)
- Shrek Smash and Crash
- Shrek: Hassle at the Castle
- Shrek Super Slam
- Shrek: Extra Large
- Shrek: Super Party
- Shrek the Third (video game)
[edit] Comic books
- In 2003, Dark Horse Comics released a Shrek three-issue mini-series comic book adaptation, which was collected into a trade paperback.[8]
[edit] Broadway
A musical version of Shrek is planned for the stage, announced to open on Broadway at The Broadway Theatre with previews starting on November 9, 2008 and opening December 14, 2008. The cast is as follows, from www.broadway.com and www.shrekthemusical.com
- Shrek: Brian d'Arcy James
- Donkey: Chester Gregory II
- Princess Fiona: Sutton Foster
- Lord Farquaad: Christopher Sieber
- Pinocchio: John Tartaglia and,
- The Dragon: Kecia Lewis-Evans
[9]Jeanine Tesori, composer of Thoroughly Modern Millie and Caroline, or Change is composing the show's music, with the book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire. A reading was held in February 2007, and a later one was held in July-August 2007.[10] The hit songs "All Star" and "I'm A Believer" from the original movie will be transformed into musical numbers for the stage (most likely sung by Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona).[citation needed] Tesori and Lindsay-Abaire eventually created two songs for Shrek the Third. The director is Jason Moore.
[edit] Crew
| Directed by | Andrew Adamson Vicky Jenson |
| Produced by | Aron Warner Jeffrey Katzenberg John H. Williams |
| Screenplay by | Ted Elliott Terry Rossio Joe Stillman Roger S.H. Schulman |
| Based on the Book by | William Steig |
| Executive Producers | Penny Finkelmen Cox Sandra Rabins |
| Co-Executive Producer | David Lipman |
| Music by | Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell |
| Co-Producers | Ted Elliott Terry Rossio |
| Associate Producer | Jane Hartwell |
| Production Designer | James Hegedus |
| Art Director | Guilluame Aretos Douglas Rogers |
| Film Editor | Sim Evan-Jones |
| Supervising Animator | Raman Hui |
| Visual Effects Supervisor | Ken Bielenberg |
| Head of Story | Randy Cartwright David Lowery |
| Head of Layout | Simon J. Smith |
| Lead Character Designer | Tom Hester |
| Character Designer | Raman Hui |
| Production Manager | Triva Von Klark |
[edit] See also
- Other Shrek films
- List of animated feature-length films
- List of computer-animated films
- List of fairy tale characters in Shrek
[edit] References
- ^ Box Office Mojo: Shrek
- ^ Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies"
- ^ 100 Greatest Family Films
- ^ Robin Williams (I) - News
- ^ Barron Park Donkeys
- ^ How "Shrek" went from being a train wreck to one for the record books
- ^ Is Shrek Bad for Kids? Time Magazine May 10, 2007
- ^ Dark Horse Comics > Profile > Shrek TPB
- ^ 'Variety article, Feb. 11, 2008
- ^ see playbill article December 8, 2006 and playbill article, August 10, 2007
[edit] External links
- Shrek Official Web Site
- Shrek at the Internet Movie Database
- Shrek at Rotten Tomatoes
- Shrek at Metacritic
- Tom Hester - Shrek Character Designer
- William Steig's web page describing the original 1990 story book
- Shrek Rendering Statistics
- Shrek at Box Office Mojo
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