Analysis of Shrek the film

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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 ‘Shrek’ use presentational devices to reverse this tradition, to reveal the ogre as good, and the prince as evil?

In traditional fairy tales the prince is the hero of the story. The princess is usually the damsel is distress and the ogre is the man-eating monster. There are also animals that are behaving strangely, handsome princes and the beautiful princesses and settings in exotic faraway places. In ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ the giant is horrible and vulgar, “I’ll grind your bones to make my bread”. Some examples of traditional fairy tales are ‘Snow White’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty’ where a handsome prince awoke them from an enchanted sleep by true loves first kiss.

In the film ‘Shrek’ it all begins with the traditional “once upon a time”. When Shrek told the story of a princess, he spoke softly and calmly. The pictures and words in the book that Shrek was reading out aloud were medieval. The music they used at the start was non-diagetic, peaceful and magical. However when Shrek ripped a page out of the book and used it as toilet paper the music suddenly changed from fairly tale, to modern pop music. The viewers would be shocked by Shrek’s actions and the change of music; all this suggests that this film will not be a traditional fairy tale.

At the beginning of the film a group of villagers grab their torches and pitchforks to attack Shrek at sun down. When the villagers are in the woods looking for the ogre the music is non-diagetic, scary and tense. One man in the group of villagers says that the ogre will grind their bones for his bread and at the time he said that Shrek came up behind the group and said that ogres make soup out of freshly peeled skin, shave their livers and squeeze the jelly from their eyes. Suddenly Shrek roars and then reminds them to run. In some ways Shrek seems like an ordinary ogre because he’s threatening, big and revolting; however we know that is not the case because he jokes and doesn’t take everything seriously.

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In the scene where Shrek meets Donkey he tries to scare him by roaring but he responds by saying Shrek needs tic-tacs because his breath stinks. Donkey is chatty, flattering, not overawed and persistent. He says to Shrek he feels safe with him because he’s big and threatening and he calls him a “mean green fighting machine”. Suddenly Shrek bellows “why are you following me!” and strangely Donkey answers that Question by song, Donkey irritates Shrek by singing and telling stories which are irrelevant to the subject, he wants to stay with Shrek after only just meeting him. ...

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