Shrek

***Shrek*** is a 2001 British animated fantasy comedy movie loosely based on the 1990 fairy tale picture book _Shrek!_ by William Steig. The name _Shrek_ likely comes from the Yiddish word _שרעק_ (pronounced Shreck) or the German word _Schreck_, both words mean "fear" or "terror". It was directed by Andrew Adamson and animated by DreamWorks Animation and DreamWorks Pictures internationally released on 18 May 2001 in the United States and 29 June 2001 in the United Kingdom. It was the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, a category introduced in 2001. The series also been four sequels of _Shrek_, included _Shrek 2_, _Shrek the Third_, _Shrek Forever After_ and _Shrek 5_.

There is also a Christmas special, a Halloween special and a spinoff film all about a minor character in the sequels and specials. It was adapted into a Broadway musical. Otherwise, there was also a series by the name Scary Stories released on Netflix in 2009.

## Plot

Shrek is a Scottish-accented green ogre who always loves living peacefully in the swamp. However, he finds his life about many fairytale creatures disrupting his privacy, because the lack of the order by Lord Farquaad. Shrek goes along with a talking Donkey to Duloc, where they ask Farquaad to give his privacy back. Farquaad wants to be King by marrying Princess Fiona to be become Queen.

Farquaad orders Shrek and Donkey to rescue Fiona from the tower she is imprisoned in and bring her to Farquaad. After defeating the dragon, they manage to get Fiona from the castle, Fiona is happy that she is rescued, but soon becomes sad that the knight reveals to become an ogre. He forces Fiona to travelled with him and Donkey, with Shrek and Fiona finding they have more in common with each other along the way, and falling in love.

However, at night, she refuses to camp with them. Eventually, Donkey finds Fiona in a windmill, he realises that Fiona has turned into an ogress. She tells Donkey that she was cursed as a child and turns into an ogress every night and locked away in the castle. She also says that only a kiss from her true love will return her to her "love's true form". Shrek confess his feelings for Fiona, overhears part of their conversation, and is heartbroken as he thinks her disgust at her transformation into an "ugly beast" is her being disgusted with him.

The next morning, Fiona meets Lord Farquaad and leaves to get married to him. Shrek goes back to his swamp while Donkey finds the dragon in a forest. Shrek realises that he misses Fiona. Shrek, Donkey and dragon travel to Duloc. They interrupt the wedding before Farquaad can kiss Fiona, but not before the sun sets, which causes Fiona to turn into an ogress in front of everyone. Shrek and Fiona admit their love for each other and share a kiss—Fiona's curse is broken, but remains an ogress, as the curse said that she will become "true love's form". In the ending credits, they sung about "I'm a Believer".

## Cast

- Mike Myers as Shrek
- Eddie Murphy as Donkey
- Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona
- John Lithgow as Lord Farquaad
- Conrad Vernon as Gingerbread Man
- Chris Miller as Magic Mirror
- Cody Cameron as Pinocchio / The Three Little Pigs
- Simon J. Smith as Three Blind Mice
- Aron Warner as Big Bad Wolf
- Christopher Knights as Thelonius
- Jim Cummings as Captain of the Guards
- Vincent Cassel as Monsieur Hood
- Kathleen Freeman as Donkey's ex-owner
- Andrew Adamson as Duloc Mascot
- Bobby Block, Elisa Gabrielli, and Eddie Murphy as Three Bears
- Frank Oz as Dragon
- Michael Galasso as Peter Pan
<small>Cinderella, Snow White, Pied Piper, and several other characters are not speaking roles and are thus uncredited</small>

## Production

Steven Spielberg bought the rights to the original book in 1991, when he apparently thought about making a traditionally animated film based on the book with Bill Murray as Shrek and Steve Martin as Donkey. After only a few years in development, producer John H. Williams got hold of the book from his children, and when he brought it to DreamWorks, it caught Jeffrey Katzenberg's attention and the studio decided to make it into a movie. After buying the rights to the film in 1995, Katzenberg quickly put the film in active development.

The Art Directors visited Hearst Castle, Stratford upon Avon and Dordogne for inspiration on Duloc's place. Art Director Douglas Rogers visited a magnolia plantation in Charleston, South Carolina for inspiration for Shrek's swamp.

The film was originally planned to be a motion-captured film. DreamWorks used live action background plates with miniature fairy tale settings that they had filmed, giving the film a very visual distinct look. After a year and a half of R & D, a test was finally shown. The result was a disaster, with Katzenburg stating "It looked terrible, it didn't work, it wasn't funny, and we didn't like it." Production was shut down for a while. DreamWorks later went to its production partners at PDI in Spring of 1997, when the movie _Antz_ was still in production, to help _Shrek_ get it's final computer-animated look.

“We did a lot of work on character and set-up, and then kept changing the set up while we were doing the animation,” Ramon 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."

Saturday Night Live member Chris Farley was to be the voice for Shrek. He was able to voice around 80-90% of the script, although Chris' brother, Tom Farley, states that Farley had actually already recorded 95% of Shrek's dialogue for the movie, but died in 1997 before he finished voicing the character. Production was shut down again after Farley's death. Andrew Adamson stated "Chris Farley's death was before any animation had been done [although] we'd recorded an amount with him."

DreamWorks later asked Mike Myers to play Shrek, whom Myers wanted the writers to re-write the script to leave no traces of Farley's version of Shrek. After Myers had completed providing the voice for the character, when the film was well into production, he asked 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. After hearing the alternative voice-over, Katzenberg agreed to redo scenes in the film, saying, "It was so good we took $4m worth of animation out and did it again."

## Home media

It was released on DVD and VHS on 2 November 2001.

## Reception

The film was entered into the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, and was the first animated film since Disney's Peter Pan (1953) to receive that honour. _Shrek_ open in more 3,587 movie theaters on its 2001 release, 11 of them showing them digitally, made possible by the THX Division of Lucasfilm. This was the first time that DreamWorks had shown one of its movies digitally. Produced on a $60 million budget, _Shrek_ was commercially successful, becoming the highest-grossing animated movie ever to be released in Australia, passing the mark set by 1994's _The Lion King_. In the United Kingdom, _Shrek_ regained the top spot at the British box office after being beaten out the previous week by _Lara Croft: Tomb Raider_, earning a $20.3 million since its opening in the UK. The film closed on 6 December 2001, after grossing $267,665,011 domestically along with $216,744,207 overseas for a worldwide total of $484,409,218. _Shrek_ is the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2001 behind _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone_, _The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring_ and _Monsters Inc._

_Shrek_ received critically good reviews, praising _Shrek_ 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. Review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes reports that 89 per cent of critics have given the film a positive review based on 176 reviews, with an average score of 7.7/10. The general opinion is: _While simultaneously embracing and subverting fairy tales, the irreverent Shrek also manages to tweak Disney's nose, provide a moral message to children, and offer viewers a funny, fast-paced ride._

Roger Ebert liked the film, giving it four stars out of a possible four and describing it as "jolly and wicked, filled with sly in-jokes and yet somehow possessing a heart." USA Today's Susan Wloszczyna praised Eddie Murphy's performance, stating it "gives the comic performance of his career, aided by sensational digital artistry, as he brays for the slightly neurotic motormouth." Richard Schickel also enjoyed Murphy's role, stating, "No one has ever made a funnier jackass of himself than Murphy."

William Steig, the author of the original book, and his wife Jeanne Steig also enjoyed the film, stating "We all went sort of expecting to hate it, thinking, 'What has Hollywood done to it?' But we loved it. We were afraid it would be too sickeningly cute and, instead, Bill just thought they did a wonderful, witty job of it."

_Shrek_ won the first ever Academy Award For Best Animated Feature, beating _Monsters, Inc._ and _Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius_. _Entertainment Weekly_ put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Prince Charming? So last millennium. This decade, fairy-tale fans--and Princess Fiona--fell for a fat and flatulent Ogre. Now, that's progress."

_Shrek_ was also nominated for 6 BAFTA Award, including the BAFTA Award for Best Film. Eddie Murphy became the first actor to ever receive a BAFTA nomination for a voice-over performance. The film was also nominated for Best Visual Effects, Best Sound, Best Film Music, and won the BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

_Shrek_ was nominated for a dozen Annie Awards from ASIFA-Hollywood.

In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten"; the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after asking 1,500 people for their opinions. _Shrek_ was acknowledged as the eighth best film in the animated genre, and the only non-Disney·Pixar film on the top ten. It is also third on Bravo's 100 funniest films. _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. the Extra-Terrestrial_. In 2005, _Shrek_ came sixth in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Cartoons poll behind _The Simpsons_, _Tom and Jerry_, _South Park_, _Toy Story_ and _Family Guy_. In November 2009, the character, Lord Farquaad, was listed #14 in IGN UK's "Top 15 Fantasy Villains".

## Sequels and spin-offs

A sequel, _Shrek 2_, was released on 19 May 2004 while another sequel titled _Shrek the Third_ was released on 18 May 2007 and _Shrek Forever After_ on 21 May 2010. A fifth _Shrek_ film is in development, releasing on 23 December 2026.

A spin-off film _Puss in Boots_ was released on 28 October 2011. _Puss in Boots: The Last Wish_ was released on 21 December 2022. It is a sequel rather than a reboot.

## Other websites

- Shrek Official Website
- Shrek on Know Your Meme
- DreamWorks SKG Fansite for Shrek
- William Steig's web page describing the original 1990 story book

## Infobox (film)

- **image**: Shrek logo.png
- **caption**: The first _Shrek_ logo styled as grayscale.
- **editing**: Sim Evan-Jones
- **distributor**: DreamWorks Pictures (through DreamWorks Distribution)
- **runtime**: 90 minutes
- **country**: United Kingdom
- **language**: English
- **budget**: $60 million
- **gross**: $492.5 million