The lead in “Shrek” is given to an ugly ogre who ‘likes his privacy’. DreamWorks’ decision of Shrek becoming an anti-hero is unheard of in normal fairytales but he ends up the hero in the end instead Lord Farquaad. Shrek’s role at first is a monster that is voiced by Mike Myers. He is disliked by the villagers who live nearby who plan to kill him at the beginning of the film.
Lord Farquaad is seen interrogating the gingerbread man to know where the rest of the fairytales creatures are hidden. This introduces spoofs of other fairytale characters. I think these spoofs are used to propel the story forward. The fairytale creatures are seen, lining up to be taken to Lord Farquaad by his men. This is the first time the audience meet Donkey who is voiced by Eddie Murphy. Donkey appears memorable one-liners, which are quite often shown in conventional films about fairytales, throughout the whole film and seems very out of place against the medieval scenery. Usually fairytales do have sidekicks, which help the main character throughout the journey when they encounter obstacles in which they could use some help from sidekick. Most of the retorts used by Donkey are not subtle, for example: ‘…you need some tic-tacs or something, ‘cos your breath stinks!!’ This is an anachronism because tic-tacs were not made back then in the medieval period so this means modern references have been given in the fairytale to show the time period differs. Donkey possesses many of the characteristics of the typical Disney sidekick, especially the cheeky and innocent personality but he also happens to be very loud, whom most other characters find annoying. Everyone usually gets along in fairytales.
Duloc, the home of Lord Farquaad, is a very exaggerated image of a medieval city. Overhead and close-up shots are used here. Most fairytales are set in medieval times. When Shrek confronts Lord Farquaad about the creatures in his swamp, he walks straight into a tournament of who will save Princess Fiona (whom Lord Farquaad desires). This is not typical of a fairytale as the hero who desires the princess is meant to rescue the princess themselves whereas in “Shrek”, Lord Farquaad prefers to send Shrek to rescue the princess for him. Shrek complains and Lord Farquaad orders the knights in the tournament to kill Shrek. In the fight the follows, punk music is played in the background to accompany the fighting, which consists of modern wrestling moves e.g. “Give him the chair!!” The fighting sequence uses various overhead shots of the wrestling ring. Shrek becomes popular with the audience. Scenes like this do not happen in conventional fairytales. Lord Farquaad decides to send Shrek to save Princess Fiona.
There are different scenes shown in the journey made by Shrek and Donkey on the way to save Princess Fiona. Making them walk together through the lands and sitting by a campfire at night are shown by long shots of Shrek and Donkey. These scenes suggest bonding between these two characters. Very subtle touches like this are not common in animated features. The story so far is not at all similar to any fairytales but as it carries on, the spoofs and clichés broaden. When Donkey and Shrek reach the castle, it is run-down, in the middle of a volcano with a rickety bridge in the middle of a thunderstorm. The camera pans the interior of the castle to show the extent of the building.
When Donkey comes face to face with the dragon, dramatic plays until Donkey starts flirting with the dragon. When Shrek finds Princess Fiona, medieval vocalizing plays in the background until Shrek violently shakes the princess to wake her up. This does not happen in conventional fairytales as the hero wakes the princess much lightly than Shrek. She complains of how Shrek should have saved hr by killing the dragon, kissing her and seeping her down from the window on a rope and onto his valiant steed. This statement sums up what the typical fairytale rescue ought to be, in contrast to Shrek’s unorthodox approach. The escape from the castle uses spoofs from other films rather than fairytales, mainly in terms of style and concept. The chase sequence uses overhead camera shots to show the dragon chasing Shrek, Donkey and Princess Fiona. A slow motion effect is used to show Shrek running away from the dragon, showing a full forward view of him. This is intertexuality within the film. The audience are reminded of Indiana Jones when the three characters are crossing the bridge.
When Princess Fiona sees Shrek properly for the first time, she is disappointed, so disappointed in fact that she vows to stay in the castle until she is rescued properly. However, to her annoyance, Shrek takes her by force, something a typical fairytale hero would never do. The start of the return journey mainly focuses on the hate between Shrek and Princess Fiona and hints at the growth in friendship between Donkey and Shrek, who share jokes with each other instead of being distant. Donkey and Shrek’s friendship is exactly how the hero and princess’ should be. One of the features that make Shrek unlike a fairytale hero is the depth of the character’s emotions. Rarely do fairytales discuss a character’s emotions, which may be due to the fact that they only represent one human characteristic for e.g. wickedness, goodness and stupidity. From this point onwards in the film, the characters emotions play a great part in the storyline.
Shrek and Donkey are taken by great surprise when Princess Fiona seems much friendlier throughout the journey. Whilst they are walking through the forest, they encounter Robin Hood. He sweeps Princess Fiona to a branch on a tree and starts flirting with her and boasting about how he ‘saved her’ from Shrek. The makers have given him a strong and obvious French accent, and a stereotypical French attitude. When she asks him who he is in an angry voice, he clicks his fingers and calls his ‘Merry Men’ who start singing and dancing. When Robin Hood tries to kill Shrek, Princess Fiona kicks him to the ground. A fight sequence ensues which spoofs “The Matrix”. The princess runs up trees, performs various ninja moves and defeats all of the merry men using the same fighting moves used by characters in “The Matrix”. The scene not only spoofs “The Matrix” but also the camera techniques that made the film famous. Whilst Princess Fiona is frozen in air, the camera does a 360-degree turn instead of remaining perfectly still; she moves her fringe to the side of her head. After this incident, Shrek and Princess Fiona’s relationship seems to bloom as Shrek sees some of Princess Fiona’s less civilised manners. Adult humour is also introduced as Donkey stumbles into an awkward situation between Shrek and Princess Fiona.
Despite being more than halfway through the film, the scene during the second night is where most of the emotional storyline lies. Princess Fiona tells Donkey about a curse she has had since she was a child, in which she becomes an ogre during the night. Shrek overhears her talking about herself and assumes she is talking about him when she uses the words ‘ugly’ and ‘horrible’. This complicated love story is very uncommon in fairytales although the idea behind the curse that the princess has is quite conventional. The next morning when Fiona finds out that Shrek overheard the conversation between Donkey and herself, she thinks he knows all about the curse and is quite upset when Shrek tells Fiona that he hates her. Donkey resolves this double misunderstanding later in the film.
When Fiona meets Lord Farquaad, she immediately agrees to marry him as a way of showing Shrek that she doesn’t care about him. Shrek walks off in a bad mood. The hero of the fairytale should be with the princess from the start instead of saving her twice. Shrek starts treating Donkey in the same way when they first met. A slow ballad plays as the characters are seen without each other. Shrek still not happy at his swamp, Princess Fiona at Lord Farquaad’s castle looking miserable and Donkey sitting by a river looking lonely until he notices the dragon that guarded the castle beside him. When Donkey and Shrek finally make up and go and save Princess Fiona from Lord Farquaad, DreamWorks Productions give the cliché of Shrek bursting in just as Lord Farquaad and Princess Fiona are about to kiss. This is a very typical ending for a fairytale where Shrek and Lord Farquaad see the princess in her true form, Lord Farquaad is eaten and Shrek and Princess Fiona get married.
In conclusion, I think “Shrek” is not a conventional fairytale. It may have a happily ever after but it got there in a very different way to other fairytales. It spoofs other fairytales to make the storyline flow better. Most of the humour lies in anachronisms, clichés and exaggerated stereotypes however the camera shots throughout the whole movie make it more realistic. The soundtrack of the movie is very different from Disney’s take where the music was much more fairytale-ish. Using other fairytales was genius because the comedy was appropriate. The comedy can be understood by all ages, which is good because the movie can be watched by all ages. And I also like the way Donkey’s mood can be expressed just by his ears.
