The beginning of the film already suggests that Shrek is not the typical perception of what we expect from an ogre because his behaviour is more of a human than an ogre. When the audiences saw Shrek having a shower, it probably would have come as a surprise to most viewers. This is because normally our perceptions of ogres are meant unclean beasts. They are meant to be monsters crashing every little thing that they see, but in Shrek’s case he likes his swamp nice and tidy. The beginning of the film already suggests that there is going to be a lot of controversy and travesty.
Shrek is peaceably enjoying life within his swamp. This is crushed when he by accident rescues a stubborn and a very chatty Donkey from soldiers sent by the merciless and ruthless ruler of the Duloc, Lord Farquaad. Lord Farquaad is obsessed with ruling a "perfect kingdom". He wants every fairy tale creature on his land to be banished. He pays the people of the town to turn in all fairy tale creatures to him. He then sends them unto a deserted land. On this occasion it was Shrek’s swamp. Shrek is outraged and decides to go to the kingdom Duloc and speak to Lord Farquaad.
The parody continues when Shrek arrives in Duloc. Duloc is set very much like Disneyland. I think that this was done on purpose; I think Jeffrey Katzenberg did that to infuriate the people of Disney. The audience might probably not realise this at first but as the setting of Duloc is less discrete the audience will realise what the directors and producers of Shrek are trying to generate.
Duloc is a beautiful and a quiet town with fairytale- like castles and towers. However, Shrek treats Duloc in a pessimistic way as if it was an ordinary place. The audience will be getting a clearer idea at what the film is trying to create. They will also quickly realize that the story is not going to unfold as a typical fairytale. There is also a clear message in this scene from the directors that Jeffrey Katzenberg, like Shrek has not been taken in by the magic of Disney Land.
The low camera angle of the castles in Duloc make the town look very majestic. I think that Jeffrey Katzenberg is trying to create his own Disneyland.
When Shrek and Donkey were wandering through Duloc, they quickly find out that the town is empty and very quiet. Shrek in turn becomes very paranoid. He probably believes the town’s people are expecting him and have gone to hide. This is probably due to his previous encounters with the towns people. Normally when he meets a human, he is very quickly judged; people automatically assume he is an ogre and is therefore dangerous, so they run away from him or chase him away with pitchforks and other weapons. Shrek is very wary of this and that is probably the reason why he is probably paranoid. The people are in fact no were to be seen because they are all present at a battle going on.
Farquaad, the Lord of Duloc, wants to become King and in order for him to be King he has to marry a Princess. He uses the Magic Mirror on the wall to select a Princess bride he can marry. This causes parody because; the mirror is a resemblance of the one in snow white. The mirror shows contestants like a game show such as blind date. This is interesting as it shows the viewers, the similarities between Disney’s fairytale princesses and the game show, blind date. This also lets the audience know that Lord Farquaad is not interested in love but is simply choosing a princess that fits his needs, to become King. Some viewers might begin thinking that this is true of every tale prince. Lord Farquaad decides on a very beautiful Princess named Fiona, who is held in captivity in a castle surrounded by lava and other volcanic productions. The castle is also guarded by a fire-breathing dragon.
When Shrek enters into the main town centre, at first the whole crowd is quick to judge him; they all jeer and whistle at him. He asks Lord Farquaad, for a request, his request was to get all the fairy creatures off his land/ swamp. Lord Farquaad then replies saying his request would be granted only if he wins the battle. Shrek does win but is offered with a second proposition, to go rescue Princess Fiona. He inevitably agrees. He is desperate to get the creatures of his land.
Normally in Disney stories there is a dashing, handsome, compassionate prince who ends up happily married to a princess, but in the film Shrek, that is not the case. Instead of a dashingly handsome Prince, we have Lord Farquaad who is short, ugly and mean. First of all he captures all of the fairytale creatures and sends them to Shrek’s swamp; this gives an early indication to the audience that he is cruel. Lord Farquaad also tortures the gingerbread man by pulling off his buttons and throwing him in the rubbish bin. He also mocks the gingerbread man by stealing his phrase “run, run as fast as you can…” and he uses it against him.
When lord Farquaad first meets Princess Fiona he uses a formal language with poetic features such as “beautiful, fair and flawless”. This proves to the audience that he is two-faced as they already know he is not interested in her. Later in the film he again shows how superficial his feelings are for Princess Fiona are by rejecting her when her face changed from the beautiful Princess to an ogre. He is not prepared to go ahead with the wedding but he still declares himself king. Therefore in the film we see Lord Farquaad as sadistic, insincere, foolhardy and opportunistic. He is the complete opposite of a traditional Disney hero or prince.
The characters in Shrek parody Disney characters. In traditional Disney fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, the princesses are kind, pretty and sweet, and they are normally victims of someone else’s cruelties. They usually need to be rescued. In contrast to Princess Fiona, she is pretty feisty, and likes to be in control of her own actions. When she and Shrek were going back to the castle, Robin Hood tries to rescue her from what he thinks is a monster (Shrek), she in turn fights back instead of letting Shrek do all the hard work.
Donkey is also used to cause tragedy in the film a lot. He is mostly used to cause havoc. Normally in traditional fairytales donkeys are not animals who like to talk a lot, even though they cause a lot of chaos. They don’t really feature much in films and are normally not used as a main character. Donkey also flies at one point during the film, and as he was flying, he says, “you may have seen a house fly maybe even a super fly, but I bet you’ve never seen a Donkey fly!” The message to the audience made by Donkey’s use of the term “super fly” is that this is a very modern film as super flies started habituating on Earth recently.
The producers of Shrek also caused parody when sleeping beauty slapped Cinderella to get the wedding bouquet; this signifies some of the action shown in the film ‘The matrix’. Traditional Princesses are normally locked up in a tower or have been mistreated one way or another in the past. The Prince comes in, rescues them and they almost always have a happy ending. Princess Fiona is no different; she has also been locked up in a tower and she has been long waiting for a handsome Prince to come rescue her. After a very long and eager anticipation, for a handsome prince she is very surprised to find an ugly ogre as her rescuer.
The name Duloc came from the university of Notre dame; this is where many Disney animators studied. The university is officially called University of Notre Dame Duloc. Disney also produced the film, the hunchback of Notre dame. Shrek is a hideous horrifying and a scary looking ogre, but unlike any other ogre, he likes to keep himself isolated. He feels that if he tries to interact with others it would be very hard for him. This is because he is quickly judged because of whom he is. The people of the town are terrified of him. Every time they came in an encounter to Shrek they either run away or they try to kill him. Although there is no reason for them to do this, the people of the town still are terrified of him. He responds by making gruesome threats and he roars at them which results in them normally running away from him.
We also see an extreme close-up of Shrek’s frightening mouth. This creates a terrifying effect to the audience. When they see this, they start questioning themselves about why he might be doing that. Although it is unclear at that specific moment why he was acting like that towards the town’s people, the audience later find out when he speaks to donkey. Before he tells donkey about the encounter with the town’s people he tries intimidating donkey but donkey is unimpressed and just comments on Shrek’s bad breath.
As Donkey tirades Shrek with questions about his life we start to see Shrek as vulnerable and very sensitive. Shrek seems to be confused about his identity as an ogre. He tells donkey why he is always frightening the town’s people away.
In Duloc, Shrek’s character continues to rebel against been stereotyped. Although he tries to use violent language against all that come up against him such as “cut open their spleens”, the audience knows that he can’t even fight. This is known as dramatic irony when the audience knows what is going on but the characters do not know what is going on.
Finally the way Shrek deals with Princess Fiona is another type of parody aimed at Disney. This is because he did not show affections as a normal Prince would show to a Princess in a traditional fairy tale. He does not manage to create any type of romance during their hike back to Lord Farquaad. The only time he showed any affection for Princess Fiona was just before she was going to bed. This was quickly changed when he overhears Princess Fiona and donkey talking. He misinterprets what they were actually saying. This tells the audience that Shrek is unlucky.
The audience could always tell that Shrek like Princess Fiona but could not physically show it because it was probably a long time since he fell in love or spoke to anyone like him. Princess Fiona’s sense of humour and habits are unlike typical princesses because she belches with no shame and is verbally abusive. This very much resembles Shrek and it draws him even closer to liking Princess Fiona.
At the end of the film you might expect her to blossom but she ends up looking like Shrek. This is another parody, that is because Jeffrey Katzenberg is trying to send a message to Disney, the message might probably be in the lines of this is not a traditional fairytale and we do not have an everyday prince nor princess, we are creating a new film that will literally flash olden style fairytales down the drains. We are not going to use traditional songs; we will be more updated and modern. We are making modern day fairytales.
To sum up, Shrek is very much a Disney story but it is a modernised version. Right from the opening scene we can tell that this was not going to be your everyday fairytales from movies such as Snow white and sleeping beauty. The idea that Duloc very much resembles Disney Land is some thing made to disrespect Disney and its makers. Princess Fiona and Shrek are not like your everyday fairytale princesses or princes in both the way in which they are presented to the audience or the way hey dress and behave. Lord Farquaad is neither a suitable prince nor a king but is put in that role to try and send a message across to Disney yet again. Shrek is an ogre but really has a soft centre and is kind and gentle.
Jeffrey Katzenberg parodies Disney in almost every shape and form during the film. I think the reason why the film has been such a success is because the audience can relate to it. The audience can believe that you don’t always have to be handsome and charming to be the hero of the day. Even the fact that the type of music been played parodies other Disney productions make the music such a big hit. The audience can also relate to it because the music is more recent and most of them listen to these sorts of music that they would normally listen to during Disney movies. Even though the music was pretty controversial, it added to the beauty of the movie.
