Shrek is an unconventional fairytale, how is this shown and what is its appeal to the wider audience?

Authors Avatar by emmatate1995 (student)

Shrek is an unconventional fairytale, how is this shown and what is its appeal to the wider audience?

Shrek was directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson; it was filmed at DreamWorks Animation and released on the 29 June 2001. The movie has many different genres including Animation/ Adventure /Comedy/Romance. It turns the more conventional idea of a fairytale on its head.

A green ogre called Shrek discovers his swamp has been 'swamped' with all sorts of fairytale creatures by the order of Lord Farquaad, Shrek sets out, with a donkey by his side, to persuade Farquaad to give his swamp back. Instead Farquaad made a deal to send Shrek to rescue Princess Fiona, who is waiting for her one true love. But once they head back with Fiona, it starts to become apparent that not only does Shrek like Fiona, but Fiona is keeping something secret from Shrek and everyone else.

This is a not conventional fairytale, Shrek, opens with a picture of a book and Shrek getting ready for the day in his swamp. At the beginning of the story his voice is pleasant and you immediately like him and enjoy the soft music, Suddenly the ogre’s hand comes and tears a page out and says “Like that’s ever going to happen”, then starts showing the ogre’s day to day life.

In traditional fairy tales the prince would be the good guy and the ogre would be the bad guy. In a fairy tale normally a handsome prince would appear in the story but the prince in Shrek is completely different because lord Farquaad is short and not very good looking, there is another twist to the story because in every fairytale there is a gorgeous princess who wants to live happily ever after, but this princess is beautiful until sunset when she turns into a ogre, She longs to have a fairytale life but she isn’t like other princesses, she is bossy and feisty. It is an unconventional fairy tale so appeals to a wider audience because of many different reasons, including toilet humour, where the ogre does lots of disgusting stuff with mud and different objects.

The use of the camera helps us to see the characters in a certain way and to understand their emotions. Putting the characters into the Shrek environment and animating them with many unique camera moves, they use different camera angles including close up, pulling in and out and high angles and even over shoulder angles. Lighting is the most difficult and important aspects in animating a movie. Like colour, lighting can help shape the mood, environment of the scene.

Join now!

 You become aware of  at moments such as the one when Shrek and Donkey are looking at the stars and Donkey’s head appears at the top of the screen. This makes the  that they are looking through Shrek’s eyes. 

Language is an important device; the language can create the impression of good and evil in both characters. There is also a lot of humour, There are many different types of humour in the film Shrek which include blue humour where jokes are made in reference to the toilet, sarcasm where someone tells someone else something when they don't really mean it, ...

This is a preview of the whole essay