Donkey is the main character to reinforce “Shrek” as a parody he reinforces our opinions. When donkey is being chased by the knights he approaches “Shrek” and he hides behind him for safety. Donkey shows “Shrek” that he does not even recognise him, as an ogre. Shrek roars at donkey trying to intimidate him but donkey is not frightened. Donkey then says “you need some tic-tacs”. Donkey is relentless and continues to question “Shrek” but then “Shrek” shouts “what am I? “ To emphasise to donkey that he is an ogre but donkey still does not see him that way. Then donkey and Shrek arrive at Shrek’s house and donkey abuses his house but when he finds out this is Shrek’s house he starts to complement it. When Shrek finds out about the mice running over his table and then he fails to catch them he shouts “I’m a terrifying ogre, what do I have to do to get a little privacy?”
Once again the behaviour of donkey and the mice tells us that Shrek is very different to a normal ogre. Other characters also emphasise this example through their parody as well. For example you might expect Lord Farquaad, to be heroic, well mannered, tall and handsome but he is not. He is physically out of proportion; his face is bigger than his legs. Lord Farquaad had to have the table lowered when he was torturing the ginger bread man by pulling his leg off, melting him with the light and threatening him to take of his buttons. Lord Farquaad verbally taunts the ginger bread man by saying “Run, run, run, as fast as you can “.Then Lord Farquaad throws the ginger bread man in the bin as he screams. The guards bring the magic mirror and he refuses to co-operate, one guard smashes another mirror to get the magic mirror to cooperate. Lord Farquaad wants to be prince and the magic mirror does a parody of “Blind Date” he has three choices of beautiful women to choose from. Lord Farquaad holds a tournament to see who will go and collect get Fiona from the castle and Shrek and donkey have to go so Shrek gets his swamp back.
When Shrek rescues Fiona he shakes her violently shouting “wake up now let’s go”. She speaks fairy tale language, saying that Shrek should take her by “valiant steed” and Shrek replies to her in normal language then she starts to speak normal language. She is disappointed that Shrek did not even slay the dragon. On the journey back to duloc, she insisted that they make camp in a quite forceful manner. In the morning when she sings it’s so high the bird explodes and then she steals the bird’s eggs. Then Fiona, Shrek and donkey was approached by Robin Hood and his men Fiona defeats them in a Matrix, kung Fu style plus when she pulls the arrow out of Shrek’s butt very robustly this is not very fairy tale like other fairy tale creatures would pull it out gently all this behaviour suggest that this fairy tale is the complete opposite to a typical fairy tale.
Dragon also is very unusual because when Shrek goes and finds Fiona donkey accidentally approaches dragon. Donkey gets scared and tries to talk his way out of this situation but dragon grabs donkey by the tail and puts him in a nice, comfy place with all the gold by him, donkey is scared and he keeps on babbling on about dragon’s characteristics ; her eyes and teeth. Dragon then blows a puff of pink smoke in the shape of a heart around donkey she then flutters her eyelids. Dragon is also a female dragon; this is very rare in a fairy tale where there are ogres and dragons.
When a director is making a film it is important that he/she uses a variety of camera angles to create certain effects. Close ups can be a part of a face or one particular object. When Shrek tries to scare the villagers with his roar there is a close up of his mouth – to give the impression that Shrek is going to eat them this reveals anger and fury in Shrek. Close ups can also reveal the characters emotions like the close up of Shrek and Fiona smiling romantically. When Shrek and Fiona are about kiss the close up shot is concentrating on one particular shot.
A low angle shot is when donkey for the first time saw Shrek and Shrek looks like a giant to him or when the fairy tale characters arrive with the orders of Lord Farquaad. The low angle shot makes Shrek appear threatening as he looks down towering over the fairy tale characters.
An example of a high angle shot is when Lord Farquaad looks down on Shrek and donkey when he is on his horse or when Lord Farquaad is on the top of the castle ramparts. This suggests that the person that is looking down or is much higher than them is much higher, more dominant, important and to say that I’m better than you. The high angle shot in this occasion makes Shrek and donkey look more vulnerable.
The mid-angle shot is when characters are making eye contact or when they are socialising, when Shrek and Fiona are falling in love is an example of a mid-angle shot plus they are also on a level footing.
Sometimes the characters backs are shown rather than their faces. An example of this is when Shrek gets angry and donkey watches him walking away this shows loneliness and isolation of the character.
Presentational devices include the setting, the lighting, the music and the sound effects. Shrek is a character which you would expect to live in a hut that’s dirty, that has scattered bones or has nothing comfy to sit but he has got a comfy chair to sit on, his got a table and chairs , a comfy bed and some candles. His home feels and looks homely.
Lord Farquaad’s castle you would expect to be bright, to have happy people, to be vibrant, have flags fluttering although it is, very clean suspiciously, he wants it be a perfect town, very dark, eerie, guards in hidden in the shadows of the walls, chains hanging of the roof, weapons on the walls, torture instruments and guards wearing masks hiding their identities. The settings in the film are not traditional because Lord Farquaad’s castle is very different to a normal castle and Shrek’s hut is very unlike to an ogre’s home. The director uses the setting to set their personality or the mood’s of each of the characters.
Lighting is very effective. There is bright light and dark light. When Shrek and Fiona are falling in love the lights are bright. A dark location is when the villagers come to kill Shrek, Shrek blows away the light to emphasise that this is a scary moment or when donkey, Shrek and Fiona are running through the castle.
Music and Sound effects are used to reinforce the mood. When we first meet Lord Farquaad there is marching music this identifies that something bad is going to happen like a battle. Music is also used to lighten the mood like when Shrek fights with the knights a piece of music is played to show how much fun Shrek is having or when donkey and Fiona talk about “how ugly he is” Shrek misinterprets this and the music reflects his unhappiness.
In conclusion, the director can produce parody of a fairy tale using lots of different presentational devices and different techniques to influence the viewers. The director uses devices like the parody of Blind Date, the American wrestling event, the kung fu film style fighting and the opening of the film “Shrek”.
