Shrek and Donkey visit Duloc to try and get Shrek’s swamp back from Lord Farquaad . Donkey thinks that Shrek is too kind and should not have to ask as the swamp belongs to him anyway. Donkey tells Shrek to “pull some ogre stuff” to get Lord Farquaad to give him back his swamp. Viewers feel that Shrek is not capable of doing this as he isn’t even vaguely frightening. Lord Farquaad then offered Shrek to fight his knights and instead of Shrek accepting the challenge to solve the dispute, he offers to “settle it over a pint” trying to avoid violence. Shrek started to fight the knights and he defeated all of them. As the film progresses we learn that Shrek’s character is not that frightening. He is soft and kind and he can’t take any action over his swamp situation. At this point we now know that Shrek’s character is different from other ogres in traditional fairy tales.
Lord Farquaad orders Shrek to rescue Princess Fiona from the tower so that he will give his swamp back. Shrek does as he is told and goes to rescue the Princess. When Shrek breaks into the castle to rescue Princess Fiona, he acts like an ogre when he shakes her violently saying “Wake up now, lets go”. Princess Fiona is disappointed that there is no “romantic moment” as she expected the rescuer to be charming. This scene suggests that the film is different from other fairy tales as everything is opposite to what it should be. In traditional fairy tales, a handsome Prince slays the dragon, rescues the Princess and they share first love’s kiss. Although Shrek appears violent, we learn that he has failed to slay the dragon because he has to “save his ass!” which also shows us that the film is different from other traditional fairy tales.
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 an ogre and ogres are suppose to be scary. Although Shrek is an ogre he doesn’t act like one . He is kind and he doesn’t kill people for no reason and people aren’t afraid of him because of these non-ogre actions.
In contrast to Shrek, Lord Farquaad is evil and sly. We know this because he tortured the gingerbread man by dipping him in milk and getting the truth out by threatening him by removing his buttons. This shows that he is cruel and ruthless.
Later on we saw a parody of “blind date”. Lord Farquaad has three beautiful women to choose from who are Snow White, Cinderella and Princess Fiona. Lord Farquaad chooses the Princess he wanted who was Princess Fiona. His language is very formal he said “beautiful fair flower Fiona will you be the perfect bride for the perfect groom?” At this point the seems like a traditional Prince as he wanted a Princess to marry.
At the end Lord Farquaad is all set to marry Princess Fiona, until he finds out that Princess Fiona is an ogre at sunset. He treats her badly by calling her names and ordering his guards to lock her in the dungeons. He calls off the wedding, but still proclaims himself as King, even though the marriage has been abandoned. This clearly shows us that he never loved Princess Fiona but he only used her to become King of Duloc. He is a two-faced crook who has features of an ogre instead of a Lord.
When a director is making a film it is important that he/she uses different camera angles or shots to create a variety of effects. There are four main types of angles or camera shots used in the film which are high angle shot, mid angle shot, low angle shot and close up shots.
When Shrek tries to scare the story characters at the beginning of the film there is a close up of his mouth, this suggest that he is going to eat them up. This gives a tense moment for the viewers. The darkness causes further unease and pressure. Close up shots are used to focus the viewers attention on something. They are often used to focus attention on characters emotion. Close up shots are also used when Shrek and Fiona are smiling this gives an indication on the romance between them. They took close up shots so that we can focus on their emotions and the way they move. This way we can focus on every smile and detail on their faces. When Lord Farquaad is introduced to Princess Fiona the camera focuses on his hands instead of his face. This is done to make Lord Farquaad look hostile and unsympathetic.
When Shrek visits Lord Farquaad’s castle the camera moves from the ground level to show his tower, this is a high angle shot. It is useful because it makes Lord Farquaad seem dominant and wicked and make Shrek and Donkey seem vulnerable and pathetic. Low angle shots are effectively used because they show Lord Farquaad looking down on Shrek and his subjects. High angle shots are used when a character is made to seem more helpless and human type. This an important scene because in traditional fairytales this will be the other way round. The ogre will seem wicked and Donkey and Lord Farquaad would be helpless. I think this is the most important angle used because this reverses the whole tradition. The effect of mid-angle shots is that they make the characters seem equal footing. This is shown when Shrek is preparing a meal for Princess Fiona and when Shrek and Donkey are relaxing together.
Sometimes the character’s back is shown rather than their face. This serves to highlight their isolation from the rest of the characters. One such example is when Shrek sits on the edge of the cliff with his back to the camera when Princess Fiona goes to bed. He also turns his back on Donkey to signal the end of their friendship.
In this film the way camera shots are used to create certain effects such as tension on characters, develop characters and maintains attention throughout the film.
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 Shrek’s swamp, which is a dark, dank, gloomy and solitary place. This is the expected home of an ogre as they are suppose to be evil and not live in fine splendid castles or palaces. Donkey only goes into the swamp because he wants to be friends with Shrek. This suggests the owner of the swamp is not scary as he failed to threaten the Donkey and other creatures away.
Lord Farquaad lives in a large walled town with his castle in the middle. I would expect a castle to be very large, grand, happy and splendid place but Lord Farquaad’s is quite different. There is a torture of gingerbread man, hooded figures and a lot of violence for instance when he tries to defeat Shrek in the courtyard, but the place should be a place of splendour.
When we first meet Shrek , it is obvious that he is suppose to be an ogre because he is big, green and ugly. He is bald and has rotten teeth, some of which are missing. He also bathes in mud, not water and for candles he pulls wax from his ears.
Lord Farquaad seems like a typical Lord. He wears tights and tunics. They are both styled and coloured to give a royal effectiveness. He also wears amour to represent him as a Prince. He lives in a castle and when he marries a Princes he becomes a King.
Lighting is also used to persuade the viewers to think of a character in a certain way. When Princess Fiona leaves Shrek, Shrek sits with his back to that camera and stares at the moon. The darkness is used here to show the viewers that Shrek feels alone. The images of light are used thoughtfully too. Shrek and Princess Fiona are often pictured walking through the woods on a sunny day with the birds chirping and Princess Fiona singing which shows that viewers that the two characters feel happy and do not want anything more that they have at the moment of time. At the end of film there is a brilliant light which suggests goodness and a magical fairytale ending. Lighting in the film is used to show the mood of the characters.
When we first meet Lord Farquaad and the hooded figure there is a marching music. The slow music suggests a battle. When Shrek enters the arena there is organ music. The music suggests the importance of Shrek’s entrance and the importance of Lord Farquaad. Shrek misinterprets the conversation that he overhears between Donkey and Princess Fiona. Afterwards there was slow music which reflects that Shrek is unhappy because of what he has heard. There is a song about broken dreams and promises when Shrek goes home which suggest that Shrek’s dreams to be Princess Fiona’s lover has been broken because of what he heard. The film makers use music and sound effects to convey that characters attitude towards each other and to show the happy moments and sad moments of the film.
Donkey is an important character in the film as he helps the viewers to understand the character of Shrek. When Donkey refuses to listen to Shrek, he ignore the “beware of ogre sign” and follows him back to the swamp. This shows that Shrek is not frightened as he is supposed to be. He is too soft to Donkey and Donkey continues to annoy him even though he is an ogre. Donkey also lightens the atmosphere at the tournament, he rolls barrels into knights and this makes the scene funny which suggests the film is also a comedy. Shrek’s relationship with Donkey is not a really happy relationship sometimes, Shrek and Donkey usually argue because Shrek is not impressed that Donkey is not even a little bit afraid of him. In the film Shrek shouted to Donkey saying “ I’m an ogre, I’m suppose to be scary” this is surprising to viewers as we know ogres don’t talk to other characters, the characters are actually afraid of ogres. Donkey also acts as Shrek’s advisor because throughout the film Donkey was the only story book character who used to talk to Shrek and sometimes he used to advise him to do things which are meant to be done by a ’normal ogre’
Shrek used to listen to Donkey when he is having difficulties. Donkey makes us believe that Shrek is not a typical man eating ogre as he used to annoy Shrek and Shrek didn’t do anything about it.
The donkey is an important character because he shows us that Shrek is a nice ogre who doesn’t want to be what he is suppose to be.
After analysing the characters of Shrek and Lord Farquaad, I have come to the conclusion that although Shrek seems like a traditional ogre, by the way he acted in the film showed the viewers that he is not a conventional ogre. Shrek has friends for example Donkey. Also they way he rescues Princess Fiona out of the castle was typically different from what ogres do in other traditional fairy tales , ogres don’t rescue the Princess the Prince does. Ogres aren’t suppose to find love in fairy tales their job is to eat men and scare away characters. In Shrek, Shrek finds love from the Princess and they got married at the end. In normal traditional fairy tales the Prince is the one who finds love from the Princess and they get married and live happily ever after.
Although Lord Farquaad looks like a Lord, his actions suggest that he is evil. Throughout the film we saw that Lord Farquaad is cruel when we watched him torturing the gingerbread man he also steals Shrek’s swamp. During the first scenes when Shrek went to reclaim his swamp he makes his knights fight Shrek which also suggest that he is a hard hearted Lord. He also rejects Princess Fiona because she turned into an ogre and falsely claims to be King. All of the above suggests that Lord Farquaad is different from conventional traditional Prince.
The story of Shrek uses presentational devices to reverse our expectations so that by the end of the film the viewers feel that Shrek was an ogre who doesn’t act like one. He feels that he can’t hurt people when they haven’t don anything wrong to him. His characteristics shows us that he is a kind ogre which is very unusual in normal traditional fairy tales. Also I have came to an conclusion that Lord Farquaad was different from normal traditional fairy tales Prince because he is cruel, arrogant and hard hearted.
Perhaps the message of the story is that you cant judge a book by looking at its cover.
