On their visit to Duloc, Donkey often argues with Shrek, saying that he should “pull some Ogre stuff” to sort out Lord Farquaad. Donkey tells Shrek that he is too soft and that the swamp belongs to him anyway. Shrek asks Donkey if he should decapitate an entire Village, viewers would feel that Shrek isn’t capable of doing this even if he wanted to. Donkey argues with Shrek more but he is not even vaguely frightened. Instead of accepting the challenge with Lord Farquaads knights, Shrek offers to “settle it over a pint”. As the film progresses we learn that Shrek accepts the challenge from Lord Farquaad and if Shrek succeeds he will get his swamp back.
When Shrek meets Princess Fiona she is asleep so Shrek shakes her violently and says “wake up now, lets go”. Princess Fiona is disappointed that there is no “romantic moment”; Shrek tries to behave in a threatening manner. Other characters see Shrek as a nice kind Ogre, he has to continually remind them that they should be scared because he is a big green scary Ogre.
This film also shows Lord Farquaads evil side, the audience see this as he tortures the gingerbread man, he laughs at him and taunts him. He says “Run, run, run as fast as you can …” and he tries to pull Gingerbread mans buttons of, then finally Lord Farquaad throws him in the bin. Lord Farquaad gets three beautiful women to choose from, he uses very formal language: Perfect bride for the perfect Groom. At the end Lord Farquaad orders the knights to get THAT out of my sight, he is referring to the Ogre. He tells the knights to arrest Fiona when he sees her after sunset, and he still proclaims himself as King, even though the marriage has been abandoned.
The Director of this film has used a wide range of camera angles and shots in this film. When Shrek scares the storybook characters away there is a close up shot of his mouth to give the impression that he is giving to eat them, the darkness creates further tension. Again when the storybook characters arrive with orders from Lord Farquaad telling Shrek that he needs to move out of his swamp, the low angle shot makes Shrek appear threatening as he looks down, towering over these characters, the characters then run away. Tension and unease is built as Lord Farquaad is introduced-his guard wearing a Balaclava, and the first shot we see of Lord Farquaad is of his hands not his face, he is putting on a pair of gloves as if he means business. His elevated position is emphasised when the camera moves from ground level upwards to reveal his tower. The high angle shot makes Shrek and Donkey seem more vulnerable. Low angle shots are used effectively to show Lord Farquaad looking down on Shrek and his subjects. Mid angle shots are used when Shrek and Donkey are relaxing together, and when Shrek has cooked Princess Fiona a meal. Such shots are helpful as they show characters socialising with each other, they are on equal footing. Close up shots are also useful for focusing the viewers attention on the characters emotions. Both princess Fiona and Shrek can reveal their true happiness through close ups of them smiling. The camera moves from one to another and back again , sometimes the characters back is shown rather than their face, this serves to highlight their isolation from the rest of the characters, one example is where Shrek sits on the edge of the cliff with his back to the camera, when princess Fiona goes of to bed. Shrek also turns his back on the fire, later on in the film he turns his back on Donkey to signal the end of their friendship. In this film the camera shots have been emphasised to show emotion and feelings.
Some of the films setting is in Shreks Swamp, it is traditional because it looks like an expected home of an Ogre, yet Donkey follows Shrek into it and even attempts to set up his home there. Another part of the films setting is in Lord Farquaads castle, the torture of the gingerbread man happened there, the hooded figures try to defeat Shrek in the courtyard. There was violence and secrecy.
The lighting in this film has been done very good, when Fiona leaves Shrek at dusk he feels alone. His isolation is emphasised by him sitting away from the fire with his back to camera. He is staring into the black of the night, looking at the moon. After Shrek has met the Princess he is often pictured by the sunset. Shrek and the Princess walk together through the woods-sunny-day-birds chirping-Princess singing-contentment. End brilliant light -suggests goodness/magical fairy tale ending. Lighting in the filmis used to emphasise the mood so if the lighting is bright it represents good and vice versa.
The music and soun effects in Shrek emphasise the film, like when we first meet Lord Farquaad and the hooded figure there is organ music, this suggests the importance of Shreks tournament and the importance of the Lord. In one part Shrek misinterprets the conversation that he overhears between Donkey and Princess Fiona, the slow music reflects his unhappiness. And when Shrek goes home there is a song about broken dreams and promises, even Donkey and the Dragon are crying. The film makers use music and sound effects to show the persons mood and how they feel.
Donkey is a very important character in Shrek, infact one of the main. He follows Shrek back to the Swamp and ignores the "Beware of Ogre" sign, this shows that he isn't scared if Shrek and that he's an Ogre, even after reading the sign he still refuses to heed Shreks advice to leave him alone, Donkey lightens the atmosphere at the tournament by making it look like a comedy/funny scene, when Donkey returns after finding flowers he looks at Shrek and Princess smiling at each other and says "my, isn't this romantic". He also acts like Shreks advisor, Shrek listens to him when he is having difficulties.
In traditional fairy tales, Ogres are man-eating beasts. The Prince usually rescues the Princess, they marry and live happily ever after. The makers of Shrek use presentational devices to reverse this tradition, this time the Ogre is good and the Prince is evil. The producers of Shrek have really challenged the stereotypes by changing their characteristics, such as making the Ogre good and the Prince bad. Shrek has reversed the way people think about fairy tales.
