Shrek takes the ordinary fairytale and wipes its backside all over it; the film starts with Shrek doing his routine, before fighting off a group of angry villagers away from his door with a very wisecracking line ‘ this is the part where you run away.’ Then he meets the very comical donkey, who is running from Farquaad’s men when an untimely collision with Shrek’s buttocks he seems to be safe until Shrek explains why the guards left him alone, enter scary teeth, spit and halitosis, then donkey gives some timely advice ‘ get some tic tac, cause your breath stinks!’ then half way through his dinner a horde of fairy tale creatures; from snow white to three blind mice and three homeless little pigs. In an up rage Shrek heads to Dulok home of the sinister lord Farquaad, seen at this scene torturing the little ginger bread man ‘ run, run, run as fast as you can, you cant catch me I’m the ginger bread man.’ When Shrek and his new sidekick donkey arrive at the very Disney like Dulok in which the camera pulls back and admires the very tall main keep of Dulok, ‘do you think his compensating for something?’ on finding Farquaad Shrek is thrown into a WWE sort of tournament with knights baying for his blood, defeating the group of armour clad knights he strikes a deal with the lord, in that he will rescue a certain lady for his swamp returned emptied and back to normal. Upon finding the castle the so-called lady is in. Shrek encounters one or two tiny problems, a rickety and a fire-breathing dragon that falls in love with donkey. Upon saving the princess and escaping in slow mo and by the rust of a sword they start the long trip home in which donkey, Shrek and princess Fiona start to bond and all those years of living alone finally pay off when kidnapped by robin hood Fiona goes all matrix on their behinds and knocks seven bells out of the lot of them. Then the night before they part company and Fiona becomes Farquaad wife, donkey discovers an indomitable secret about Fiona and Shrek hearing a small section of the conversation, gets the wrong end of the stick and goes off in a hump.
On the return of his swamp Shrek tells donkey to leave, and in doing this puts donkey into the path of dragon who then comes in handy when Shrek and donkey goes on another mission together, but be careful, donkey hasn’t installed the seat belt for the next forthcoming sequel…?
Shrek definitely has many clear morals to the story, which is no mater how bad things get, just keep on trying, and that beauty is only skin deep.
The characters in Shrek blend together to form a solid base for a movie, from the verbal comedy of donkey, to the visual comedy of lord Farquaad, who happens to be in short supply. In the next few paragraphs I will explore the relationships of the characters to each other and then what a few of the characters brings to the film on their own.
I’ll start with my favourite character, donkey and what he brings to the film. The main thing that makes donkey a very important part of donkey is the actor behind the donkey, Eddie Murphy, he brings a sort of jen-a-se-qua about him. And Eddie’s natural wisecracking nature has left him in good stead to play the very comical, one lining donkey we see in the film. Also the writers who think of donkey lines from ‘cake, everyone likes, cake’ when Shrek is talking about his layers and onions to ‘ do ya wanna hold her, please her, then you got to, got to, got to , try a little tenderness. Chicks love that romantic crap.’ Which I bet not just will make your children chuckle but will have you wetting yourself in your seat.
All these brought together not only makes donkey great but also the whole film its self.
Also lord Farquaad is a excellent idea for a baddy, short and quite odd looking, which means in a comedy like this he is the butt of a lot of jokes, from ‘people do think little of him’ to ‘do his think his compensating for something?’ this add another dimension to the film, so not only does it have simple slapstick, catchy one liners, but also Mickey taking humour, which some people may not like, but a lot of people will.
Then comes the point of who the film is for. Being rated a PG, Shrek appeals to all ages with jokes for all ages some which children will love, some that adults will get but not children, then there’s the gags that gets everyone laughing in the audience. So I would recommend this film to anyone and everyone, a really good family film, which even your granny will love.
