The behavior of Donkey and the mice tells viewers that Shrek isn’t a normal orge like in conventional fairytales because if he was in a normal fairytale, Donkey would have been so scared he would have runaway from Shrek by now.
Shrek and Donkey visit Duloe, to try to reclaim Shrek’s swamp from Lord Farquaad. Donkey thinks that Shrek is too kind and should not have to ask as the swamp belongs to him anyway. Donkey tells Shrek that he should ‘Pull some orge stuff’ to sort out Lord Farquaad and get his swamp back.
Shrek threatens to ‘Decapitate an entire village, cut open their spleens’. The viewers feel that Shrek isn’t capable of doing it even if he really wanted to because he’s friendly. Donkey and Shrek start to argue and Shrek tries to frighten Donkey but Donkey isn’t vaguely frightened.
Instead of accepting Lord Farquaad’s knights challenge, Shrek offers to ‘Settle it over a pint’ and then knights charge at him causing a fight, which in the end Shrek wins. The Lord Farquaad orders his army to shot Shrek, then he changes his mind and says to Shrek ‘That he will be the knight to rescue Princess Fiona’ and that if he brings her back to the village he can have his swamp back.
As the film progresses, we learn that Shrek isn’t like a normal orge and that he is a normal orge and that he is friendly orge and does not want to hurt anybody. All Shrek really wants to do is live a peaceful life by himself.
When Shrek breaks into the castle to rescue Princess Fiona, he acts like an orge when he greets the Princess because traditionally he is supposed to kiss the Princess to wake her up but and shouts ‘Wake up’. Princess Fiona is disappointed that there is no ‘romantic moment’. Shrek responds to this by grabbing her and dragging her out of the room. Although Shrek appears violent, when we learn that he has failed to slay the dragon because he says he has to ‘Save his ass!’ This shows that he does not want to kill the dragon therefore there’s another reason why he is a friendly orge.
At the beginning of the film Shrek tries to threaten the characters that he meets, but Donkey, the mice, the storybook characters and Princess Fiona are not intimidated by Shrek or his appearance. He tries to make them frighten ed by reminding them that he is a big, ugly orge that are not very friendly and generally eat people. Although Shrek is an orge he isn’t a traditional fairytale orge.
In contrast to Shrek, Lord Farquaad is cruel. He watches the torture of the gingerbread man, and then laughs and taunts him by saying ‘Run, run as fast as you can you can’t catch me I’m the gingerbread man’. Thus shows that Lord Farquaad is the opposite of a traditional fairytale Prince. Lord Farquaad throws the gingerbread man in the bin and the gingerbread man screams.
In this film we quickly learn that the Prince is not like a fairytale character because in fairytale’s the Prince is supposed to be nice, and save the Princess. But instead the Prince in Shrek is the evil one that likes torturing people.
Lord Farquaad is all set to marry Princess Fiona, until he sees that when the sun sets she turns into an orge because she was put under a spell when she was younger. Lord Farquaad speaks to her in a cruel way and he orders his knights to ‘get that out of my sight’. Lord Farquaad calls off the wedding but he still proclaims that the marriage is legal. Lord Farquaad does not love the Princess, but agrees to marriage because he wants to become king.
When a director is making a film it is important that he/she uses a variety of camera angles to create certain effects. At the beginning of the film, Shrek scares the storybook characters away, there is a close up shot of Shrek’s Mouth to give the impression that he is going to eat them. As well it is dark so it creates more of an atmosphere.
Close upshots are also useful for focusing the viewer’s attention on the characters emotions. Princess Fiona and Shrek can reveal their true happiness through close up shots of them both smiling. The camera goes from one to the other.
Tension is created when Lord Farquaad is introduced. Instead of focusing on his face, the camera shows his hands, were he is putting on gloves, which means he means business.
When Shrek visits Lord Farquaad’s castle, the camera moves from ground level upwards to reveal his castle. This level is called a high angle shot. It I useful because it makes Lord Farquaad seem bigger and more important, Shrek and Donkey appear vulnerable.
Low angle shots are effectively used because they show Lord Farquaad looking down on Shrek and Donkey, again giving Lord Farquaad a powerful image.
Mid angle shots are used when Shrek and Donkey are relaxing together, and when Shrek has cooked Princess Fiona a meal. These shots show both of the characters at the same time and have the effects of showing two people talking.
Sometimes, a character’s back is shown rather than their face. This is used to suggest isolation from other characters. For example where Shrek is sitting on the edge of the cliff with his back to the camera when Princess Fiona goes off to bed. Shrek shows he wants to end his and Donkey’s friendship by turning his back to Donkey.
Presentational devices are also used to influence viewers, and to make them see a particular character in a certain way. The story begins in Shrek’s swamp. Shrek’s swamp looks like a traditional home of an orge. Donkey goes into the swamp because he has kind of got to know Shrek and Shrek hasn’t harmed him so he thinks that it is ok to go into Shrek’s swamp.
Lord Farquaad lives in a castle which we would expect to be a happy place with lots of gold and that is bright. Instead his castle is dark, silent and there are guards with hoods on and there’s torture and violence going on in the castle.
When we first meet Shrek, it is obvious that he is supposed to look like an orge because he’s big, ugly, he smells, he looks scary and lives in a swamp like orge’s normally do. As well as the way Shrek looks he has lots of bad habits such as in the toilet he uses a page out of a book as toilet paper, the way he has a bath because he uses mud to wash himself, he uses a caterpillar to clean his teeth, he jumps into a pond and farts in it and he pulls wax out of his ear.
Lord Farquaad seems like a typical Lord. He wears the Prince’s hat, boots and cape. He lives in a big castle that’s dark and quiet. If Lord Farquaad marries a Princess then he can become king.
Lighting is also used to persuade the viewer to think of a character in a certain way. When Princess Fiona leaves Shrek, Shrek sits with his back to the camera and stares at the moon. The darkness is used to make the atmosphere better because the darkness makes Shrek feel alone.
The images of light are used thoughtfully too. Shrek and Princess Fiona are often pictured walking through meadows.
The brilliant light at the end of the film suggests a magical fairytale ending.
When we first meet Lord Farquaad and the hooded figure, there is marching music, it makes the viewers feel as though there is a bad atmosphere and there is already an impression that Lord Farquaad is trouble.
When Shrek enters Duloe and the loud organ music starts it suggest that Duloe is a quiet and clean place.
When Shrek overhears the conversation between Donkey and Princess Fiona, he misinterprets the conversation. At this moment the music slows down, this suggests that Shrek is upset. I think that the song broken dreams and promises is playing because Shrek is heart broken and he thought that Princess Fiona liked him. The effects of having Donkey and the dragon crying are to show that it is a sad moment.
Donkey is an important character in the film, as he helps us to understand the character of Shrek. When Donkey refuses to listen to Shrek, ignores the ‘Beware of the orge’ sign, and follows him back to his swamp. This shows that Shrek isn’t persistent about Donkey leaving him alone. Donkey turns the tournament into a comedy by rolling barrels into the knights. When Shrek beats all the knights it proves he is an orge. Shrek and Donkey have a nice friendship were the help each other and tell each other things. Donkey is also like Shrek’s advisor because he helps him when he has difficulties.
After analyzing the characters of Shrek and Lord Farquaad, I have come to the conclusion that although Shrek seems like a traditional orge he isn’t because Shrek has friends like Donkey, normal orge’s would probably have eaten the Princess not rescued her, Shrek also falls in love with the Princess and Shrek and Princess Fiona get married.
Although Lord Farquaad looks like a Lord, his actions suggest that he is evil. Examples of Lord Farquaad’s evil side is when he tortures the gingerbread man, when he dumps all the fairytale creatures in Shrek’s swamp, he gets the knights to try and beat up Shrek and when he sees what Princess Fiona looks like when the sun goes down he says ‘Get that out of my sight’ and because he wants to become king so bad he says the marriage is legal.
The story of Shrek uses presentational devices to reverse our expectations, so that by the end of the film the viewers know that ‘Shrek’ is a modern fairytale, because the characters of Lord Farquaad and Shrek have been switched.
What I learnt from this story is that the times are changing and that fairytales are becoming modern and all the characters are switched or the story plots change.
