Analyse the characters of Shrek and Lord Farquaad.

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Lorna Edwards

English media coursework

2002

Shrek

In this essay I am going to analyse the characters of Shrek and Lord Farquaad. I will also explore the different presentational devices used by the film creators of Shrek to craft an unusual fairytale.

This film cost $6 million to produce. It is based on a traditional fairytale type story but subverted.

The film was produced by Dreamworks - Steven Spielberg's production company. Dreamworks make animated films. It has a rival animation company in the form of Disney. It was Disney who first brought out a long animated film which was Snow White in the 1950's.

The first computer generated animation was also brought out by Disney called Toy Story in the 1990's.

In traditional fairy tales princes are tall, strapping, handsome and charming. They are the good natured characters in the story who would ordinarily rescue the princess. Ogres or giants or any general evil being would be big, ugly, horrible, nasty creatures and would be the wicked characters in the story. For example the story of Jack and the beanstalk' where the nasty giant is chasing Jack shouting "Fe Fi Fo Fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman!" and obviously trying to eat Jack. He is evidently an evil character. The prince in 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' is a fine example of a typical classic fairytale prince. He comes to rescue Snow White and kisses her when she was in a deep, everlasting sleep to awaken her.

Language is an important device and I am going to write about how language can create the impression of good and evil in both characters, and in films. The film 'Shrek' begins as if we are reading a book or a fairytale. The character Shrek is reading the fairytale story and roughly halfway through he exclaims "Yeah right!" and rips the page out of the book and consequently uses it as toilet paper! We are astonished as the viewers as we were expecting a conventional fairytale. There is a good use of toilet humour and it is aimed at children or teenagers. We know right from the start that Shrek is a nice character as he has a comical impact on the film. The sort of humour makes it different from normal, conventional fairytales and also the big, ugly ogre would normally be a nasty creature but we know straight away that this is not the case and he proves to be quite the contrary as the story unfolds.

At the beginning of the film Shrek tries to threaten the characters that he meets, but Donkey, the mice, the storybook characters and Princess Fiona are not intimidated by him or his appearance. He tries to make them frightened by reminding them that he's a scary, horrible monster. Although Shrek is an ogre he is really nice deep down.

When the storybook characters arrive Shrek threatens to throw them all out of his swamp and back where they came from. There is a close up shot of his mouth, this implicates that Shrek is going to eat them or kill them and enhances the threat.

Shrek tries to frighten them by threatening them, by shouting at them and the close up shot of his mouth develops the idea that Shrek is trying to be scary. The storybook characters applaud Shrek. Shrek's angry words to threaten them backfired and sounded more like a leader or like a politician who was trying to win votes. Shrek tried to be imposing and scary but he came out more like a leader who's main incentive was to help the storybook characters go back home. When Shrek was trying to be frightening the storybook characters did not react and weren't intimidated.

This suggests that Shrek is actually a caring, loving ogre who believes in justice and fairness to others, equal rights. It also tells us that he is not really a mean character as the storybook characters aren't frightened by him. He is a nice character inside.

When Shrek breaks into the castle to rescue Princess Fiona, he acts like an ogre when he greets the Princess. Instead of kissing Fiona to wake her up he violently shakes her to her senses, appearing to be insensitive, rude and a typical rough ogre. This was not expected and Shrek hardly fitted in with Princess Fiona's strict criteria and she is hardly brimming with happiness when he wakes her. We also know she wasn't really asleep as she had quickly checked her appearance and grabbed a bunch of flowers before she lay down on her bed, pretending to be in a deep sleep. She had been in the castle for years so it was not surprising that she was a little bit annoyed when Shrek spoilt her romantic plan, he hadn't read the fairytale script it appears. This definitely suggests that Princess Fiona had had a lot of time to plan that moment and she was expecting it to follow the conventional fairytale storyline.
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Although Shrek appears violent we soon learn that he had failed to slay the dragon. The reasons he gives are 'it's on my 'to do' list' and 'I have to save my own ass'. This shows us that Shrek is quite a laid back character who is obviously not worried despite the fact there is an angry, fire-breathing dragon hot on their heels.

In contrast to Shrek, Lord Farquaad is cruel. He watches the torture of the Gingerbread Man, taunting him 'run, run, run as fast as you can'. This tells us that Lord Farquaad is an ...

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