This essay will expand on the differences between Shrek and normal more traditional fairytales.

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In traditional fairy tales, ogres are man-eating beasts. The prince usually rescues the princess; they marry and live happily ever after.

How do the makers of shreak use presentational devises to reverse this tradition, to reveal the ogre as good and the prince as bad?

Introduction

This essay will expand on the differences between Shrek and normal more traditional fairytales. In things like Jack and the beanstalk, it has a giant who chases and tries to kill the good guy (Jack). In other fairytales such as Cinderella and snow white the princesses marries the prince. In this essay, I will analyse the characters of shreak and lord farquad and how they are different to the stereotypes of there kind of characters in other films.

The Character of Shrek

The film opens as if it is a traditional fairy tale story which nice soft music and the well-known beginning “once upon a time.” Then a hand ripping a page out of the book interrupts this and a voice saying “yeah right like that would ever happen.” Then Shrek appears, stepping out of the toilet. Modern rap music begins and this suggests that the film doses not go along the lines of the typical fairytale stereotype. When the villagers come to try to kill Shrek, he threatens and scares them by saying, “shave your liver,” and “squeeze the jelly from your eyes.” He frightens them by sneaking up on them and telling them that ogres are “much worse” than giants. This causes all the men to become very scared and run away in fear. Shrek seems like a traditional ogre because he scares the villagers and the traditional stereotype of ogres is big and scary.

When donkey and Shrek meet, Shrek tries to get rid of donkey by roaring at him but he is not intimidated and he makes fun of Shrek by saying “your breath stinks.” Donkey does not seem to get the hint that Shrek does not want him around and he keeps asking him questions. Shrek tries to show donkey that he is an ogre by shouting, “look at me, what am I?” However, donkey does not see to be impressed. He keeps irritating Shrek by bursting into his house and jumping on his sofa. This suggests that Shrek is not as scary as he first thought. When the three blind mice turn up, Shrek is ridiculed as he fails to catch them and is bitten on the ear. He shouts, “I’m a terrifying ogre” but they still are not scared. The behaviour of the donkey and the mice tell the viewers that Shrek is not as scary as the start of the movie suggests.

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When Shrek and donkey visit duloc, they are attacked by lord farquad’s knights, instead of fighting them Shrek offers to “settle this over a pint” which is something a normal ogre probably would not do. After they leave duloc to rescue Princess Fiona, donkey continues to annoy Shrek and says that he should not have to put up with lord farquad and he should “pull some ogre stuff” to sort him out. However, Shrek is too soft. He jokes saying that he should “decapitate an entire village” and “cut open their spleens.” Viewers feel like Shrek is not capable of ...

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