Do You Remember... Shrek?

Intro

It's hard to imagine the childhood of many millennials without "Shrek". Entire generations grew up with the four movies, and even today the green ogre is an integral part of our pop culture. Still, why is the first "Shrek" movie so good and why has the film series never lost its relevance? These are the questions we are looking into today, so have fun with our latest Original.

Origins

How did the present-day classic actually come into being? "Shrek" was first released in US theaters on May 18, 2001, and caused a sensation in the world of animated movies, because the US film studio DreamWorks produced the most complex computer-animated film to date. The world-famous studio was founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. Shortly thereafter, Katzenberg already came up with the idea for a "Shrek" film, as producer John H. Williams introduced a book called "Shrek!" to the newly formed studio and caused some excitement. It was quickly decided to turn the story about the iconic ogre into a movie and so the rights to the children's book were bought for 500,000 US dollars; though not from the original author William Steig, but from Steven Spielberg. The latter had already had his eye on the children's book in 1991, a year after its publication, and acquired the rights to be on the safe side. In fact, the story of "Shrek" is only very loosely based on the book. Among other aspects, there the protagonist is covered in warts, has claws instead of human hands and can breathe fire.

Official production finally began in November 1995, and it didn't always go as well as the final result might suggest. For one thing, there was the signing of Chris Farley as Shrek's voice actor. The "Saturday Night Live" comedian was the perfect casting for Shrek, as Farley was not only immensely popular, but his stature was also somewhat reminiscent of the movie character. Unfortunately, Farley tragically died of an overdose in 1997 at a time when almost all the lines were already recorded. DreamWorks was then forced to improvise and hired Farley's longtime friend Mike Myers, however, he insisted on a complete revision of the script, further delaying completion. Myers, for whom "Shrek" was the first animated film, experimented with many different accents during the dubbing process, but without much satisfaction. At the last minute, he decided to dub his lines with a Scottish accent, giving the movie a personal touch, as Myers' mother had always read him stories with a Scottish accent as a child.

In the course of 1999, the dubbing was finally completed at an additional cost of almost 4 million US dollars, although the actors involved did not actually meet in person once during production. John Lithgow, who dubbed Lord Farquaad, was a little disappointed about this, according to his own statement, since he was unfortunately not granted the opportunity to work directly with Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers or Cameron Diaz. Besides the top-class actors, there were other candidates who should have been involved but later opted for another project, including Robin Williams, who had a conflict with Katzenberg, and Alan Rickman, who preferred the role of Severus Snape in "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" to that of Lord Farquaad. 

The movie's eventual success, however, is not only due to the great actors, but also to the subjects covered: For example, the initially chaotic, yet devoted friendship between Donkey and Shrek, loving someone for their character no matter what they look like, or simply accepting yourself for who you are. While these themes are probably as old as the movie industry itself, they are so well and harmoniously put into a script that it just feels original and believable, rather than flat and boring. Paired with a story for old and young, "Shrek" is perhaps even more popular with older audiences today than younger ones, much as it was then. Political scientist and sociologist Chrystian Smith sums it up pretty well, arguing that "Shrek" provides a perfect escape from reality and is a film that is consistently amusing and satisfying. He adds that Shrek shows that you can change your life for the better by opening yourself up to the world and thereby exposing your vulnerability, which leaves a particularly lasting impression on Generation Z. We certainly don't want to disagree with science here - the success of the film speaks for itself.

Movie Content

But what exactly happened in the first Shrek movie again? Shrek is a green ogre who lives in his own swamp, where he is the involuntary neighbor of some fairy-tale creatures. These have been banished there by the evil Lord Farquaad, which is very repulsive to Shrek. He agrees to a deal with him and, together with an extroverted donkey, sets out to find Princess Fiona, who is locked up in a tower and guarded by a fire-breathing dragon. In the end, it turns out that Fiona was hiding a secret, as she too transforms into an ogre after sunset. Fortunately, the subsequent forced marriage between Fiona and Lord Farquaad doesn't last long, as the small wannabe king is devoured by the fire-breathing dragon. Just married, Fiona and Shrek end up going on honeymoon and everything has a happy ending.

Influence on Pop Culture

Let's now look at the impact of the film on pop culture and other movies. First of all, it is evident that "Shrek" used many elements from the pop culture of the time itself, which without question plays a big part in why almost everyone still knows "Shrek" today. This is also due to the very long production period of the film, after all, it needed a total of six years to finish, from 1995 to 2001, which is why those responsible included all sorts of references to other contemporary films, such as "Matrix" from 1999. Even Fiona, who in a scene with little birds tries to sing beautifully yet fails miserably, is strongly reminiscent of a messed-up Disney princess. In general, the movie is bursting with fairy tale allusions and parodies, in the end, the story itself is a caustic commentary on typical fairy tales. This also has to do with the fact that Disney enjoyed its renaissance in the late 1980s and 1990s when it came to releasing animated films. These include "Aladdin", "Beauty and the Beast", "The Lion King" and "The Little Mermaid", which gave Disney immense popularity due to their timeless conception, and continue to do so to this day. Responsible for these films was a movie producer chosen by Disney CEO Michael Eisner with the aim of reviving the flagging animation division: The later DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg. He set himself apart from his former employer not only by using computer animation instead of cartoons, which was revolutionary at the time, but also by parodying the fairy tales he had previously produced for Disney. The latter is a common thread throughout the entire film series, while the computer animation was executed almost perfectly and still serves as a prime example of the technology today, alongside 1995's "Toy Story".

In fact, the influence of the first "Shrek" installment on other movies later reversed into the exact opposite, because instead of continuing to take the established fairy tales for a ride with parodies, the "Shrek" franchise inspired a wave of bad imitations by competing studios. Indeed, what could hardly be replicated at the time were, for one thing, the originality of the story, the perfectly executed animation work, and the darn well-written screenplay.

The best example of the everlasting popularity of "Shrek" among Generation Z as well as Millenials is the constant reproduction of "Shrek" content in memes. Whether it's a trend on TikTok where a giant Shrek dances to "Material Girl", the disturbing as well as popular video for "Shrek is Love, Shrek is Life" or simply currently adapted memes, they all contribute to the green ogre's immortality, among many other factors.

The last and perhaps one of the most important elements is the terrific soundtrack of the first movie. One of the most famous moments is the opening scene of Shrek in his swamp. Set to the sounds of Smash Mouth's world hit "All Star", the ogre first takes a mud shower, which, by the way, looks so extremely authentic because the producers took some themselves to recreate the effect of mud on skin as realistically as possible. Incidentally, you can have quite "the chicken or the egg" discussion with this song: Did "Shrek" give the song a new popularity or did the song help make "Shrek" so popular? Initially, at least, "All Star" was only intended as a placeholder until a better track could be found. But it was in fact so popular with a test audience that DreamWorks decided to keep it as the opening song. No less iconic is "I'm a Believer", also by Smash Mouth, which is played at the end during Shrek and Fiona's wedding and is even covered in the scene by Eddie Murphy aka Donkey.

Sequel

Lastly, we want to address one more important topic: How do things stand with a late sequel? In fact, quite good, a fifth film was at least announced in 2014. What exactly it will be about, however, is unclear. Rumor has it that there could be a reboot, though we are a little nervous about that, after all, this movie would have to be beyond any doubt, and despite DreamWorks' consistently excellent work, that is going to be an almost impossible mammoth task. So far, there is no information whatsoever anyway: Many were expecting a release this year, but that is obviously no longer feasible in the meantime. In any case, we will continue to observe the situation and keep you informed as always!

Outro

And this concludes our latest Original. Have you enjoyed our new "Do you remember...?" format? If so, please leave us a Like and let us know in the comments which film from your childhood and teen years you would like to see next time!