There are three blind mice who tease Shrek by talking about the smell of cheese when they are near Shreks ears this is funny because the mice are blind but still manage to offend the ogre.
ELLIOT COOPER BRINE HOWE
Donkey and Shrek visit Duloc, to try to reclaim Shreks’ swamp from Lord Farquaad. Donkey thinks that Shrek is too kind and should not have to ask for his swamp to be returned to him. Donkey tells Shrek to kick out the fairy tale creatures with force from
his swamp if he needs to. Shrek offers to solve the dispute over a pint, which shows Shrek is trying to settle the dispute without using violence.
When Shrek breaks into the castle to rescue Princess Fiona, he acts like an ogre when he greets the princess and shakes her to wake her up instead of kissing her like he should have done. She is shocked and doesn’t want to leave with out being kissed by her rescuer.
Although shrek appears violent, when we learn that he has failed to slay the dragon because he doesn’t like to kill things, this shows he isn’t a normal ogre.
At the beginning of the film Shrek tries to threaten the characters that he meets, but Donkey, the mice, the story book characters and Princess Fiona are not intimidated by Shrek or his appearance. He tries to make them frightened by reminding them that he is a big scary ogre that kills things. Although Shrek is an ogre, he is harmless. Shreks kindness endears him to the other characters and the audience.
In contrast to Shrek, lord Faquaad is cruel. He watches the torture of the gingerbread man, and then makes jokes trying to intimidate him, for example “run, run, run as fast as you can”, this shows that he isn’t a kind prince that try’s to help everyone but that he is cruel. He threatens to pull the gingerbread mans buttons off if he doesn’t tell him where the other fairy tale creatures are. When he looses his patience with the gingerbread man he throws him in the bin.
Lord Faquaad is all set to marry Princess Fiona, until he sees that when the sunsets she turns into an ogre like Shrek. Lord Faquaad speaks to her in a cruel way, and he orders his knights to “get that out of my sight”. Lord Faquaad call off the wedding, but he still proclaims that he is now the king. Lord Faquaad is deceptive because he should only become king if he marries a princess, which he never does. It is clear that he does not love the princess but wants to marry her only to become king.
When a director is making a film it s important that he/she uses a variety of camera angles to create certain effects. At the beginning of the film, the director scares the story book characters away by using a close up of Shreks mouth showing green teeth with bits of saliva dangling off them. This shot has created a feeling of fear for the audience.
Close up shots are also useful for focusing the viewers attention on the characters’ emotions for example when Princess Fiona and Shrek are smiling it shows emotion and romance.
ELLIOT COOPER BRINE HOWE
Tension is created when Lord Faquaad is introduced. Instead of focusing on his face, the camera shows that he is very small and insignificant making you laugh at him. This is achieved on screen by the camera starting at his feet and then rises up showing the perspective of height with the background.
When Shrek visits Lord Farquaad’s castle the camera angle moves from ground level upwards to reveal the tower. This is called a high angle shot. It is useful because it makes Lord Farquaad seem large, and Shrek and Donkey appear small.
Low angle shots are effectively used because they show Lord Farquaad looking down on Shrek and Donkey.
Mid angle shots are used when Shrek and Donkey are relaxing together, and when Shrek has cooked Princess Fiona a meal. These shots show both of the characters at the same time and have the effect of showing the comparison between Shrek and Fiona.
Sometimes a character’s back is shown rather than their face. This is used to suggest isolation from other characters. For example when Princess Fiona leaves Shrek and goes inside the cave Shrek is turned away from the camera and you can only see a silhouette of him.
Presentational devices are also used to influence the viewer, and to make them see a particular character in a certain way. The story begins in Shreks’ swamp the viewer expects it to be dirty instead you see Shrek washing and the house is warm and cosy which shows Shrek isn’t a normal ogre. Donkey goes to the swamp because his owner tries to sell him and he escapes but the knights chase him and Shrek helps him by scaring them away. Lord Faquaad lives in a castle but it is not the type of castle you expect the prince to live in because it is square and basically a large concrete council home.
When we first meet Shrek, it is obvious that he is supposed to be an ogre because he is large, fat, ugly and green. He lives in a swamp, which is normal for ogres, and he bathes in mud and sludge.
Lord Farquaad seems like a typical lord because he wears expensive looking robes and large gold jewellery. He lives in a castle and if he marries a princess he will become king.
Lighting is also used to persuade the viewer to think of a character in a certain way. When Princess Fiona leaves Shrek, Shrek sits with his back to the camera and stares at the moon. The director uses this to show that Shrek feels lonely and insignificant compared to everything else, he feels isolated.
ELLIOT COOPER BRINE HOWE
The images of light are used thoughtfully too. Shrek and Princess Fiona are often pictured walking through meadows and they walk through the woods on a sunny day with the birds chirping and the princess singing. The director uses this to relate the story back to a traditional fairy tale and create a happy, romantic feeling in the audience. The ray of brilliant light at the end of Shrek suggests that it is a magical moment and that the princess is godly.
When we firsts meet Lord Faquaad and the hooded figures there is marching music and a large organ music which gives the impression to the viewers that someone in royalty is coming or something bad is about to happen.
When Shrek overhears the conversation between Donkey and Princess Fiona, he misinterprets the conversation. At this moment, the music is slow which suggests that Shrek is upset and hurt because he loves the princess and he thinks she doesn’t love him. There is a song about broken dreams and broken promises to show how Shrek has had his dream of marrying the princess broken by misplaced words.
Donkey is an important character in the film, as he helps us to understand the character of Shrek. When Donkey refuses to listen to Shrek, ignores the ‘beware of ogre’ sign and follows him back to the swamp, this shows that Donkey sees past the ugly, green top layer of Shrek and sees what’s inside him.
When shrek and Donkey go to Duloc they have to fight the knights before they can speak to Farquaad which in the film is turned into a comedy scene because they perform wrestling moves on the knights and the crowd are on their side during the fight. This shows the audience that Shrek is powerful enough to be a real ogre but doesn’t use his strength advantage against others unless there is no option.
Shreks relationship with Donkey is one based mainly on Donkey’s sense of humour as he makes jokes about shrek to try and get to know him better. Their relationship could be described as a love, hate relationship because they are friends one minute and in fights the next. One other way to describe their relationship would be, insecure, as their relationship could break apart at any minute leaving them both alone. Donkey trusts Shrek because we get the impression Donkey doesn’t think he is a typical man eating ogre because he says things like,
“You know what Shrek, you’re alright”.
After analysing the characters of Shrek and Lord Farquaad, I have come to the conclusion that although Shrek seems like a traditional ogre because of where he lives, how he bathes in mud and unclean conditions; he is not into hurting people or using his physical size against people who upset Shrek. Most ogres don’t rescue princesses and then fall in love with them leading to get married. Shrek has friends which traditional ogres don’t which proves he is not a traditional fairy tale ogre.
ELLIOT COOPER BRINE HOWE
Although Lord Farquaad looks like a lord, his actions suggest that he is evil because he starts off by stealing Shreks swamp to put a lot of fairy tale creatures in. He makes the knights fight Shrek when he comes to Duloc to ask for his swamp back civilly. He rejects the princess when he finds out she turns into an ogre at night time and then proclaims that he is king even though he needs to marry a princess to achieve that.
The story of shrek uses presentational devices to reverse our expectations, so that by the time the end of the film you can tell that the roles of Shrek and Lord Farquaad have been swapped from a traditional fairy tale because Shrek is the good guy when he should be the evil one.
Lord Farquaad acts nothing like a lord because if he wanted to marry a princess he should have had to rescue her himself like most lords would in traditional fairy tales.
Perhaps the message of the story is that you can’t judge a book by its cover.
