Shrek

Shrek is an animated film directed in 2001 by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson. The voice actors and actresses were Mike Myers (Shrek), Eddie Murphy (Donkey), Cameron Diaz (Princess Fiona) and John Lithgow (Lord Farquaad). This film is based on a book called Shrek! Written by William Steig in 1990. It received great critics and was awarded the Oscar of best animation film in 2002 and nominated for the Oscar of best film that same year. The film also has got an incredible soundtrack, using two songs of the band Smash Mouth: “All Star” and “I’m a believer”.

The films present us the story of Shrek, an ugly, green and grumpy ogre who lives alone in his beloved swamp. He encounters a talking donkey, just named Donkey, who follows him and finally, after some disagreements and discussions due to the lonely personality of the ogre, becomes his friend.

The call to action of the film is the occupation of Shrek’s swamp by some fairy tale creatures sent there by the despicable Lord Farquaad, ruler of Dulock. The Lord wants to become King and needs to get married in order to get the throne, he sends Shrek to rescue a princess called Fiona from a castle guarded by a dragon and promises to give the Ogre his swamp back. Shrek rescues princess Fiona from the dragon’s castle because the dragon falls in love with Donkey and gets distracted. Fiona is under a spell which makes her transform into an ogre between sunset and sunrise, she keeps that in secret and the only way to show her real appearance is to receive a kiss of true love. They return to Dulock and during the journey back home Shrek and Fiona fall in love, but, due to a misunderstanding Shrek gets angry and hands Fiona to Farquaad. However, Shrek finally interrupts the marriage ceremony and kisses the princess.

Fiona reveals her true appearance, she transforms into an ogre, and marriages Shrek in the swamp with Donkey, the dragon and other fairy tale creatures as witnesses.

Some aspects of the movie which make it a masterpiece of animation cinema are the type of parody it uses and the powerful message it delivers to the audience. Shrek uses a specific type of humour which transcends ages. Some jokes are just childish, but others use sexual innuendo and other mature things in order to make the adults laugh in a way children do not notice. Some aspects of the film like the town of Dulock and Lord Farquaad are a parody of Disneyworld and Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney Studios when the film was released. This is explained because the project was rejected by Disney and finally produced by DreamWorks. There are also references to other films like “The Matrix” in the forest fight scene between Fiona and Robin Hood’s Band. The film also shows classical fairy tale creatures and characters in a parodic way: Pinocchio, the wolf of the Red Riding Hood, the three little pigs, Snow white and many other characters. Shrek himself is a parody because he is the hero of the story, but he is not a handsome prince, he is an ugly ogre.

The powerful message the film essentially delivers is that true love could be found under any appearance, nobody deserves to be judged as a bad individual due to the way they look. “Shrek” also delivers a message of self-acceptance, of not being shy to show how we really are or to be who we really like to be, it as a message of mask removal, of loving ourselves. The film mixes humour with a moral lesson in the best of ways, it is a must-watch for kids and adults.