DreamWorks' Shrek 0002

***Shrek 2*** is a 2004 American computer-animated fantasy comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation and directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, and Conrad Vernon. It is the second installment in the *Shrek* series, the sequel to 2001's *Shrek*, and features the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, and Jennifer Saunders. Like its predecessor, *Shrek 2* received largely positive reviews and was a blockbuster success. *Shrek 2* scored the second-largest three-day opening weekend in US history at the time of its release, as well as the largest opening for an animated film until May 18, 2007, when it was eclipsed by its sequel *Shrek the Third*. It went on to be the highest-grossing film of 2004. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Film, but lost to the superhero movie from Pixar, *The Incredibles*. It is DreamWorks' most successful film to date and was also the highest-grossing animated film of all time worldwide until *Toy Story 3* surpassed it in 2010; it is now the seventh highest-grossing animated film of all time. It is also the seventh highest-grossing ticket selling animated film of all time. The associated soundtrack reached the top ten of the *Billboard 200*.

## Plot

Prince Charming (Rupert Everett) journeys to the Dragon's Keep to rescue Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from her tower in the previous film. He instead finds the Big Bad Wolf (Aron Warner) in her place, who informs him that Fiona has already been rescued and is on her honeymoon. Charming has to wonder that Fiona has a honeymoon from whom. **When Shrek (Mike Myers) and Fiona come back to the swamp from their honeymoon, they find an invitation to a royal ball with Fiona's parents to celebrate their marriage, an event Shrek is reluctant to participate in. Fiona talks him into it, and along with Donkey (Eddie Murphy), they travel to the kingdom of Far Far Away. They meet Fiona's parents, King Harold and Queen Lillian (John Cleese and Julie Andrews), who are surprised and repulsed by Fiona's choice of husband (particularly the King himself), since they had arranged for Prince Charming to rescue her from the castle and return her to her human form.** At dinner, Shrek and Harold get into a heated argument over how Shrek and Fiona will raise their family, and Fiona, disgusted at Shrek and her father's behavior, locks herself away in her room that evening. There she is met by her Fairy Godmother (Jennifer Saunders), who is also surprised by Fiona's ogre form. Shrek worries that he is not the right husband for Fiona, particularly after finding her childhood diary and reading that she was once infatuated with Prince Charming. **King Harold is accosted by the Fairy Godmother and Charming, her son. They reprimand Harold for breaking an old promise that Charming would be able to marry Fiona and demand that he find a way to get rid of Shrek. Harold arranges for Shrek and Donkey to join him on a hunting trip, which really is a trap to lure the two into the hands of an cat assassin swordsman from Spain named Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas).** When Fiona realizes that Shrek has left, she asks her father where Shrek has gone to. Harold avoids the question, and tells her that he has always wanted the best for her. Puss is unable to defeat Shrek and, revealing that he was paid by Harold, asks to come along as a way to make amends. The three sneak into the Fairy Godmother's potion factory and steal a "Happily Ever After" potion that Shrek believes will restore Fiona's love for him. **Shrek and Donkey both drink the potion and fall into a deep sleep, awakening the next morning to discover its effects: Shrek is now a handsome human with a button nose, thick wavy locks and top round bottom, while Donkey has turned into a stallion. In order to make the change permanent, Shrek must kiss Fiona by midnight. He, Donkey, and Puss return to the castle to discover that the potion has also transformed Fiona back into her former, human self. However, the Fairy Godmother, having learned of the potion's theft, intercepts Shrek and sends Charming to pose as him and win her love. Shrek leaves Far Far Away after Fairy Godmother convinces him that an ogre and a princess aren't meant to be together, and that Fiona will be happier with Prince Charming.** To ensure that Fiona falls in love with Charming, the Fairy Godmother gives Harold a love potion to put into Fiona's tea. When Harold refuses to do so, she threatens him by telling him that she can undo his "happily ever after" if he doesn't obey. This exchange is overheard by Shrek, Donkey, and Puss, who are soon arrested by the royal guards and thrown into a dungeon of a show called K.N.I.G.H.T.S, the parody of COPS. While the royal ball begins, several of Shrek's friends band together to free the trio and create a gigantic gingerbread man (Mongo), which breaks through the castle's defenses so Shrek can stop Charming from kissing Fiona. He is too late to stop them, but instead of falling in love with Charming Fiona knocks him out with a headbutt. Harold reveals that he never gave Fiona the love potion, whereupon the Fairy Godmother attacks Shrek. In the ensuing fight, a spell from her wand, presumably to kill Shrek, rebounds off Harold's armor for deflection, when he commits self-sacrifice to save Shrek. The magic disintegrates her into bubbles and also returns Harold to his true form, that of the Frog Prince. Harold apologies to Shrek and Fiona for his behavior and gives their marriage his blessing. **As the clock strikes midnight, Shrek and Fiona let the potion's effects wear off and they revert to their ogre selves, while Donkey reluctantly changes back as well. The party resumes as the credits begin. After the party Dragon, who had romanced Donkey in the first film, arrives and reveals that they now have several dragon-donkey hybrid, or "Dronkey", babies.**

## Cast

* **Mike Myers** as **Shrek**
* **Eddie Murphy** as **Donkey**
* **Cameron Diaz** as **Princess Fiona**
* **Julie Andrews** as **Queen**
* **Antonio Banderas** as **Puss in Boots**
* **John Cleese** as **King**
* **Rupert Everett** as **Prince Charming**
* **Jennifer Saunders** as **Fairy Godmother**

### Additional Voices

* **Aron Warner** as **Wolf**
* Kelly Asbury as Page/**Elf**/**Nobleman**/**Nobleman's Son**
* **Cody Cameron** as **Pinocchio**/**Three Pigs**
* **Conrad Vernon** as **Gingerbread Man**/**Cedric**/Announcer/**Muffin Man**/**Mongo**
* **Christopher Knights** as **Blind Mouse**
* David P. Smith as Herald/Man with Box

## Songs

* Accidentally in Love performed by the Counting Crows – 3:08
* Holding Out for a Hero performed by Frou Frou – 3:22
* Changes performed by Butterfly Boucher & David Bowie – 3:22
* As Lovers Go performed by Dashboard Confessional – 3:29
* Funkytown performed by Lipps Inc. – 3:59
* I'm on My Way performed by Rich Price – 3:21
* I Need Some Sleep performed by Eels – 2:28
* Ever Fallen in Love performed by Pete Yorn – 2:32
* Little Drop of Poison performed by Tom Waits – 3:11
* You're So True performed by Joseph Arthur – 3:55
* People Ain't No Good performed by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – 5:39
* Fairy Godmother Song performed by Jennifer Saunders – 1:52
* So Crazy Falling in Love with You performed by Isabella Richards – 3:24
* Holding Out for a Hero performed by Jennifer Saunders – 4:01

## Production information

* In an early version of the movie, Shrek abdicated the throne and called for a fairy-tale election. Pinocchio's campaign was the "honesty" campaign while Gingy's was a "smear" campaign. Director Andrew Adamson said it was overtly satiric and political, with many funny ideas, but "it was more intellectual than emotional".

## Soundtrack

*Main article: Shrek: From the Swamp to the Screen*
## Trivia

* In the beginning when Shrek accidentally kissed a mermaid resembling Ariel from the Disney 1989 animated feature *The Little Mermaid*, Fiona drags Ariel and throws her back in the ocean, then two sharks eat Ariel, keeping in with the franchise's anti-Disney humor.
* After Fiona fights the ambushing villagers while Shrek is hanging upside down with mud on his face, Fiona wipes away the mud around his mouth and they share a kiss. This scene is a reference to the famous scene in *Spider-Man (2002)* where Mary Jane kisses Spider-Man as he hangs upside down.
* When Shrek tries to get the ring this was a reference to the *Lord of the Rings* saga. The first live-action film of which, *The Fellowship Of The Ring*, was released in the same year as the first Shrek movie.
	+ All of these actors who appeared in these movies; Antonio Banderas (Puss in Boots) and Rupert Everett (Prince Charming) were both in this film, *Shrek the Third*, *Justin and the Knights of Valour* and *Altamira*.
* When Shrek and Fiona were at the beach they had the pattern on their bathing suits with blue and white flowers.
* Shrek says "Well then how do you explain Sgt. Pompous and the fancy pants club band?" this is a reference to the famous Beatles album/song Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
* When people run out of Farbucks (a parody of Starbucks), they run across the street to another Farbucks. This lampoons the large amount of locations that Starbucks has, as well as poking fun at Starbucks' policy of putting numerous locations within walking distance of each other in the downtown areas of large cities.
* Prince Charming started the story sequence.
* First appearance of Puss in Boots in the franchise. However, chronically, his first appearance is in the show, *The Adventures of Puss in Boots.*
* First appearance of King Harold and Queen Lillian.
* The scene when the Fairy Godmother disintegrates, is similar to the scene of Voldemort's Last Stand in the *Harry Potter* saga. Voldemort disintegrates upon death in the film adaptation.
* After the release of this film, Jeffrey Katzenberg confirmed three more sequels: *Shrek the Third*, *Shrek Forever After*, and a possible *Shrek 5*.
* The 2011 spin-off movie *Puss in Boots*, was set before this film.
* The television show K.N.I.G.H.T.S is a parody of Spike's tv show, *COPS*. The knights who arrested Shrek, Donkey, and Puss were similar to what police in COPS do in the line of duty. Instead of using modern weapons, the knights used a pepper shaker for a pepper spray and bows and arrows for guns.
* The Far Far Away Police Department, (FFAPD) depicted in KNIGHTS is a parody of the Los Angeles Police Department, otherwise known as the LAPD.
* The scene on KNIGHTS where one of the knights pursuing Shrek, Donkey, and Puss, had referred Donkey as "A white bronco", is a reference to the double murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman where the suspect, Nicole Brown's ex-husband OJ Simpson attempted to flee from the Los Angeles Police Department in his friend, Al Cowlings' white 1993 Ford Bronco driven by Cowlings, resulting in the famous "Bronco chase".
* The show Gingy mentions Wheel of Torture is likely a parody of the Sony game show Wheel of Fortune.
* The DVD menu is basically a reference to the opening of The Brady Bunch. Everyone in the menu gets annoyed by Donkey.
* The only Shrek film where Lord Farquaad is not seen nor mentioned.
* The film grossed $928 million worldwide, which made it at the time of its release the fifth highest-grossing film of all time (behind *Titanic*, *The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King*, *Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone* and *The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers*) and the highest-grossing animated film of all time (surpassing *Finding Nemo*) until it was surpassed by *Toy Story 3* in 2010. It is currently the 60th highest-grossing film of all time and the 13th highest-grossing animated film of all time.
* The horse Donkey turned into is the horse of Shadowfax from The Lord Of The Rings The Two Towers and The Lord Of The Rings The Return Of The King.
* This film is considered the best *Shrek* film by most fans.
* Puss In Boots mimics the gagging sound Snots the dog makes in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989.)
* The scene in which King Harold jumps in front of Shrek and Fiona. References both The Bodyguard (1992). And Elf (2003).
* The movies Donkey makes puns on the dvd menu are Shrek 2: Day of the Donkey (Day of the Dead) Shrek 2: Donkey's Revenge (Halloweentown 2: Kalabur's Revenge) Shrek 2: 2 Fast 2 Donkey (To Fast to Furious) Shrek 2: A Donkey Will Rise. Shrek 2: Dead Donkey ‘s Society (Dead Poet’s Society.) Shrek 2: The Fellowship of the Donkey (The Fellowship of The Ring.) Shrek 2: The Donkey King (The Lion King). Shrek 2: The Real Jackass Movie (Jackass the movie.) Shrek 2: Donkey Reloaded (The Matrix Reloaded.) Shrek's title is, Shrek 2: Dude? Where's My Donkey? (Dude? Where’s my Car?)

### Goofs

* When Harold and Lillian are walking you could see that a man is climbing a ladder up in a tree which at the end he falls off.
* You could look up more secrets on the YouTube video Shrek 2 (2004) secrets.
* When Shrek and Fiona change back into ogres, they had their normal clothes. Before they wore different clothes.
* How was the royal messenger and his band able to find where Fiona and Shrek lived at the start?
* When Puss in Boots attacks Shrek he rips a hole in the middle of Shrek's shirt. But later the hole is gone.

## Locations

* Jail Tower
* Far Far Away
* Swamp

## See also

* *Shrek (film)*
* *Shrek 4-D*
* *Shrek 2 promotional appearances*
* *Shrek the Third*
* *Shrek the Halls*
* *Shrek Forever After*
* Furniture
* Shrek 2 Gallery

## External links

* Archived ABC Feature Page for *Shrek 2*