Snow White is a sweet, young and beautiful princess dominated by her jealous stepmother, the Queen her plans to kill her due to jealousy forces Snow White to hide in the woods. She ends up taking refuge with seven dwarfs in their forest home. The queen changes into a witch and tempts Snow White with a poisoned apple which puts her into an everlasting sleep, until a prince finds her in a glass coffin and awakens her with Love's First Kiss.
When released in December 21 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first full feature length animated film ever created, and Walt Disney had bet heavily on it. It cost his studio $1.5 million to produce, which was six times the cost of an average feature. More than seven hundred and fifty animators contributed to the film creating more than one million drawings but in the overall film only a quarter of those drawings were used.
Shrek is an ugly ogre, living peacefully in a swamp. One night, he suddenly finds his land has been squatted by a many fairytale creatures, who have been banished by the evil Lord Farquaad. When Shrek confronts him about it he tells him he can have his swamp back if he rescues princes Fiona from a castle guarded by a dragon. Accompanied by Donkey they rescue her and the bond between Shrek and Fiona grows closer. It is then revealed that the beautiful princess Fiona is actually also an ugly Ogre. Fiona nearly marries Lord Farquaad but is saved at the last minute by Shrek. Her and Fiona then get married and live happily ever after.
Shrek was created by DreamWorks in 2001 by using ground breaking computer technology. It took three years and it took nearly three hundred artists and technicians to create. Unlike most animated films, Shrek used popular comic actors to reinforce the comedy aspect, Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and John Lithgow. The basic plot of Shrek is devised from a children’s illustrated book by William Stieg.
Shrek and Snow White are in many ways completely different film genres but they both share a comparison in the ways they portray a typical fairytale. Shrek follows the original fairytale pattern but parodies it and twists the plot making it an enjoyable film.
The two films begin relatively the same with a large fairytale book opening with each page turning one by one and being narrated in well spoken English. Fancy lettering fonts on both books make them undistinguishable apart from the fact that Shrek has included images in the book. Shrek begins with the voice telling a basic fairytale "Once upon a time there was a lovely princess. But she had an enchantment upon her of a fearful sort. Which only could be broken by loves first kiss.” She was locked away in a castle, guarded by a terrible fire-breathing dragon. There she awaits in the highest room in the tallest tower." Shrek then interrupts saying “that would never happen.” He then proceeds to rip the page of the book out and use as toilet paper. Modern music then cuts in and there are different camera angles on Shrek while he jumps into the murky swamp. The opening lines follow a conventional story but the opening also suggests that the movie will be comical and a parody of fairy tales
At the beginning of Snow White when we are introduced to Snow White, she is singing happily with the birds in traditional fairytale style. As Snow White communicates with the animals they responded to her. They help her with her chores and make the scene look very special and enchanted. All the animals and birds sing along with her. The same happens in Shrek when Princess Fiona is dancing in the forest and begins to sing with a small bird, as she sings in a higher and higher note the bird begins to inflate like a balloon and explodes leaving behind three eggs. As the camera zooms into the eggs it cuts to them being cooked as fried eggs for Shrek and Donkey to eat. This creates a lot of comical emotion and I completely unexpected just as the writer planned.
The animals in both the films are completely different. Shrek mimics Disney’s animals by creating a character like Donkey who is very sarcastic, rude, and funny. Shrek gets annoyed by Donkey were as Snow White like the company of the animals. The main difference between Donkey and the animals in Snow White is that he can talk to the other characters. Donkey is a deeply intellectual character, that feels strongly towards loyalty and friendship and soon as he has a dispute with Shrek regarding the princess, he shows all of these emotions and then becomes forgiving and understanding, unlike Disney animals. He helps Shrek complete his mission to save Princess Fiona like the animals help Snow White find somewhere to live in her hour of need. In snow white the animals have very large cute eyes and are all very nice animals, the birds help and befriend Snow White. They help with chores and to put her cloak on her. Shrek mimics this when Shrek tells all the fairytale creatures he is going to tell Lord Farquaad to get them off his land they rejoice and birds fly up to him with a cloak but as the get close to him she just waves his hand in the way of them to force them away from him.
The creators of Shrek changed the style of film it was creating, the film shown that character appearance is not always stereotypical. In Snow White, the good character is Snow White, who is a very beautiful, polite character. As well as having a nice appearance, Snow White has a kind, affectionate character. Her beautiful look is shown by giving her straight black hair and perfect white skin. Where as Having 'Shrek' as the hero defies the law of fairytale writing, because usually in fairytales the hero is young, handsome, popular and usually human, but in 'Shrek' they have turned this around to make Shrek the hero, who is ugly, unpopular and is an ogre. He also lives in a swamp with some spare ground, whereas Snow White lives in a large castle with beautiful gardens and trees.
The bad characters in Shrek are also not stereotypical of fairytales. Lord Farquaad is not like other princes in fairytales, because he like a modern day playboy and is so selfish. In the fairytale genre princes are usually handsome, romantic and loving, but in Shrek, this has been turned around and Lord Farquaad is the evil, baddie who is out to hurt anyone who gets in the way of what he wants. With Lord Farquaad being the bad character it parodies the traditional fairytale because in most fairytales, the hero is usually a prince or a king who is very wealthy, but in this fairytale, the evil character is the one with all the money who has a title. Having Lord Farquaad as the evil villain and Shrek as the good character adds to the humour of 'Shreks' storyline, which makes it more enjoyable to the audience. The prince in Show White is what a classic prince would look and act like. He is tall, handsome and rescues the princess.
Although it is obvious that Shrek is the hero and Princess Fiona is the heroine of the story they do not follow the traditional characteristics expected of a fairytale couple. They both for example are ogres, which are seen as being hideous, emotionless beasts. However, Shrek is full of emotions but initially tries to conceal them and instead tries to live up to his appearance. Princess Fiona is so obsessed with the idea of being the ideal princess that she overlooks what is truly important, inner beauty. These stereotypical characteristics of Princess Fiona and Shrek originate from traditional fairytales.
Both films have talking mirrors in Snow White the evil queen speaks in rhyme to it “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?” the face within the mirror has a very dreary voice with no accent or facial expressions. Shrek parodies this idea by creating a sarcastic talking mirror with an American talk show host voice and a large smile. The mirror doesn’t answer a straight question like on Snow White but a mini dating game show within the mirror for Lord Farquaad, this shows how Shrek has moved into the modern times.
Most of Shrek’s characters have a certain accent. Shrek himself has a very strong, friendly, Scottish accent which adds to the lovingness of the character. Donkey has a typical black American twang in his voice and the magic mirror as I have already mentioned has an American talk show host pronunciation. Were as in Snow White none of the character has even a slight twang to their language, they all speak in traditional well spoken English with no accent at all.
Music plays a large part in the audience’s emotions and feelings towards characters. When we first meet Lord Farquaad, and the hooded figure, there is marching music. The music tells the viewer that something fearful and of importance is coming. When Shrek overhears the conversation between Donkey and Princess Fiona, he misinterprets the conversation and slow music begins. The slow music is suggesting that the scene is sad and upsetting. Disney uses song as speech to make the viewer feel more involved. Modern films like Shrek use modern films to get the point across to the audience.
Between both films there is not a clear cut, Shrek overlaps the Snow White story line. Many Disney characters have cameo appearance thought out the film. This indicates that DreamWorks intended to parody Disney films. Snow white appears in the film along with Pinocchio. In the film Pinocchio is referred to by a guardsman as “The possessed toy,” Which adds to the comical mick taking of Disney films by Shrek. Shrek reversed the tradition of fairy tales right to the end as he took the full advantage and made a fun out of them, so viewers would find it humorous and strange.
Shreks constant references to modern life also help the film appeal to a variety of audiences, it includes modern references in real life like such as Trinity's kick from the Matrix and WWF wrestling is also incorporated which would not be in a typical fairytale. The use of autocue cards in the church, and estate agent talk, "Sure it is big enough but look at the location," would be amusing for all audiences, as it seems slightly odd. The film also shows queuing systems in theme parks as Shrek and Donkey close in on Lord Farquaad castle. These different types of jokes amuse both children and adults. The adults are amused by the humour of Donkey and what he says were as children are amused by the slapstick comedy throughout the film.
When Snow White was created it was the first attempt at animating a fairytale. Many films have done the same thing so when an animation was produced it was common place. Shrek decided to change this and be the first of its kind also and create a new type of fairytale film and take the risks Snow White did.
The media has changed since the release of snow white sixty seven years ago. Children’s film styles have changed dramatically in script and in presentation. Animated films are no longer hand drawn but are produce by computer. A new animated feature length film is released in the UK every couple of months and none have time to have an impact on people. Were as fifty years ago the release of a new film was a major issue and everyone went to see the film. Children’s film no longer deal with issues of jealousy and sharing and concentrate more on the humour side of things. Comedy in recent children’s film s has been a light toilet humour which isn’t really suitable for children. Many films have two level jokes some for the children and some to keep the adults entertained the use of famous voices also helps with this. The media has to constantly change its traditions with the times because children are growing up faster and expect a more “mature” approach to films.
