Compare the presentation of heroes and villains in 'Shrek' by DreamWorks and other traditional fairytales in Walt Disney stables.

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Catherine Johnstone                  2004

GCSE English Media Coursework

Compare the presentation of heroes and villains in ‘Shrek’ by DreamWorks and other traditional fairytales in Walt Disney stables.

DreamWorks’s ‘Shrek’ is the award winning animated film from 2001, known to be the modern day fairytale with its informal language and alternative storyline.  Shrek is very much the opposite of what we know to be traditional fairytales, tales that send out heart-felt warmth and feed the imagination.  These tales of fantasy have been known throughout many generations and with the experience of Shrek we may be introducing a whole new interpretation of fairytales.  This story overrides any of the traditional fairytale boundaries with its heroic princes’, beautiful princesses and terrifying beasts.

The first scene that we come across is of an imitation fairytale book that is seen in Sleeping Beauty as if to show that this will turn out to be a conventional fairytale.  The soft classical music being played in the background shows authenticity of a stereotypical fairytale. Suddenly a large green hand rips out a page and snaps the book shut.  Already we notice certain opinions that are being expressed towards fairytales in this story and give us the impression that this will not be just any ordinary fairytale.  The moment Shrek steps out of the outhouse, modern upbeat music begins to play and we continue to watch Shrek’s daily life as an ogre.   Although we see him basking in mud we are still able to feel warmth towards him.  His large grin and non-angular features give him a soft, friendly look, which also makes him different to the conventional evil characters with their stern appearances.  All of these ingredients are what makes him prone to be favoured immediately.   We like Shrek as a character because we see him as a agreeable person who is misunderstood by a large amount of the community.  However if the film was to open with a average man, or a conventional hero we would start to switch off immediately because we have all seen that before.  The opening sequence shows that Shrek is going be diverse.

The directors, Andrew Adamson and Kelly Asbury, have used the music to set the scene and to reflect the characters personality towards the audience in a way that they will be able to relate to.  The music will show the audience things about the characters that cannot be pronounced, an example of this would be the presence of power surrounding a certain character.  This is shown when we first meet Lord Faquaad and the hooded figure.  The music is a type of marching music to give a sense of evil that is present.  It automatically warns us that these characters are menacing and sets the scene for the type of character they are without even saying a word.  If we look back at when we first came across Shrek you are able to see that his music is a lot lighter toned which appeals to the audience.  The music has been used in a way that purposely makes a character appear good or evil.  This is a very similar style to the way that the composers for the Disney films work.  The most obvious examples of music in films are “Fantasia” and “Peter and the Wolf”.  In “Peter and the Wolf” each character has a specific theme, played on a specific instrument that represents their personality.  If the characters had to explain everything about their character to the audience, the film would take a forced appearance, because the writers would have find a certain way to explain their temperament.  Music allows the writers to explain the more important things about the film.

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Shrek is different from more traditional fairytales in that is purposely breaks the orthodox roles.  In various parts of the film it even ridicules the standard boundaries, for example the “three blind mice” are used in Shrek to add a comedy value to the film.  This is done in Shrek to show how different it is to other fairytales and enables us to compare and contrast.  To do this, the writers take these well-known characters and use them in a different situation than they would normally be perceived to be associated with.  They also manipulate their own characters to make ...

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