#and also all the princesses in shrek (inc fiona) and the dragon in shrek

[sonicrainbooms]

i sincerely hope this makes sense and im not saying this to be a hater but the virgin disney female characters versus the gigachad dreamworks female characters.

[ladonnareviews]

“Shrek” Film Analysis

Now, I know what you’re thinking and no, I’m not doing this as an outdated joke or to be ironic and edgy. I really, really love Shrek. Don’t get me wrong, the last two were utter garbage. But we’ll get into that later. I thought, as my first real post or review, that I would analyze all of the Shrek films currently available. I’ll add some other Shrek mini-movies and whatnot in there, but they will not be added into the main ranking. I’ll post each individual review separately to prevent this post from taking an hour to read. This will be the longest one, though. So strap in because I’ve got a lot to say!

Shrek is a wonderful, groundbreaking film. Not only was it the first animated film to win an academy award, but it also was the biggest “fuck you” to Disney that they’d ever received, and possibly ever will receive. This film was stunning when it came out, and incredibly refreshing story-wise. Coming out of the Disney Renaissance, the animated film market was over saturated with these fairytale princess “happily ever after” films that followed a very cookie cutter plotline. That’s not to say that Disney princess films aren’t good, but I would consider most of the plots consumable rather than interesting. Shrek is most similar, in my opinion, to “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”. Shrek, however, was infinitely more enjoyable for both young and old audiences alike. The box offices show it as well,  with Hunchback coming in at around $325.3 million and Shrek swooping in five years later with $484.4 million. With the history lesson out of the way, we can move on to the cast.

Shrek stars Mike Myers as Shrek, a swamp-dwelling ogre with a delightful Scottish accent and some self-esteem issues. Mike was an incredible choice for the title character, as a comedic genius fresh off his “Austin Powers” high. His fake accent is rare as an actor, as it is consistent, powerful, and hilarious at the same time. Eddie Murphy returns as an animated sidekick, this time not as a dragon! His voice will never not get a laugh out of me. Cameron Diaz, in my opinion, is not the obvious choice for Fiona. However, she does do a great job here being kind of annoying and a character that I desperately wished as a child would disappear. 

This film’s soundtrack includes not one, but two Smash Mouth songs. Regardless, Rufus Wainwright’s “Hallelujah” and Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation” are two songs that will always be on my list of bops. They were carefully chosen to aid the events in the film and that shows. 

The animation, at the time, was incredible. It was so realistic compared to films in years past. (Side note: Pixar came out with “Monsters Inc.” that same year and totally blew Shrek out of the water in terms of animation, but I digress.) They spent time trying to make “Shrek” look pretty. While Dreamworks employees were banished to working on this film as punishment, it remains one of the best movies to come out of that studio ever.

Overall, “Shrek” is a beautiful children’s cartoon with an interesting, albeit pretty predictable, plot. There are many jokes in there for adults as well that completely go over kids’ heads. For its time, “Shrek” was a triumph for a studio that was desperate to knock down animation powerhouse, Disney. The villain was incredibly funny and almost hard to root against. Having all of the characters being the comedic relief really paid off in the end. It’s meant to be a little goofy, and a little passive aggressive. But that is precisely why I love it so much

Overall Score: 7.5/10