Shrek Review

Overall Rating

Brill!

This essay shall discuss how Shrek balances, but at the same time breaks the rules of a fairytale. The film was released early in 2001 and proved to be a big hit here and in the US. Shrek is a film for all the family. It includes humour with a little help from a donkey. Donkey cracks jokes about the size of Lord Farquaad and just makes funny remarks in general. Although it is still based on a typical fairytale it does not always follow the typical plot. A hansom prince rescues the princess and they get married and live happily ever after
The story goes abit like this; Lord Farquaad wants rid of all the small creature from Duloke. Farquaad banishes all the creatures to Shrek's swamp. To get his swamp back Shrek has to go and rescue a princess for Lord Farquaad. On the way a donkey befriends Shrek to his dismay. On the journey they encounter many things such as a fire breathing dragon and many other fairytale creatures. Shrek over hears a conversation between Donkey and Princess Fiona and thinks that Shrek is ugly but he gets the wrong end of the stick. Donkey tries his best at match making and eventually pays off. The princess has a secret and she confides in Donkey. A spell was cast upon her when she was a little girl and she would wait in a castle for 'true loves first kiss' to come and rescue her. On the wedding day Shrek bursts in when they are about to say the vows and Shrek marries the princess as the sunsets and they both marry as ogres. The fire-breathing dragon comes to the rescue and eats Lord Farquaad.
Fairytales were originally told to warn children of the bad things in life and were often very dark. Today Disney has adapted fairytales for a wider audience. Disney fairytales always have a prince, princess, king, queen and other magical characters such as unicorns. Traditional fairytales that were once books are now made into animated films. Examples of this are 'Snow White', 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'Jack and the Bean stalk'.
The story upon with a traditional beginning, 'Once upon a time there was a lovely princess ' The narrator tells the story of a typical, beautiful princess waiting in a tower, under a spell, for her princess charming to come and rescue her. Then the atmosphere is broken by a hand slamming the book shut and saying, 'Yeah, like that's ever gonna happen'. Then to the audiences surprise Shrek appears from the toilet and modern music is playing and this suggests the film is not a convectional fairytale.
Shrek is a big, ugly, green ogre. But yet he does try and be nasty but it is just not his nature so he can't. Examples of this is when he tries to turn Donkey away as a friend but can't. He puts across a very caring, funny yet sensitive attitude. The only creatures who are not scared of Shrek are the fairytale creatures and Donkey. People judge Shrek before they even know him. Shrek gets upset by this. This is one of the main themes in the film that you sould not judge people by what my look like but by what's inside.

Another main aspect, which is different from a traditional fairytale, is that the prince in Shrek is small, ugly, very vain and mean. We see his nasty side when he tortures the gingerbread man that laughs at what he has done. Lord Farquaad is like the punch bag of all of Donkey and Shrek's jokes as they always laugh at his size. The prince in say sleeping beauty is tall, dark and handsome he is also seen as courageous and the hero. In a traditional fairytale we see the prince whisk the princess off her feet and they ride off into the sunset whereas lord Farquaad has to be lifted onto his horse never mind him lifting the princess.
It is also the same for the princess in Shrek; she is also different in comparison to a traditional fairytale. Princess Fiona fights and answers back to Shrek and Donkey. She tries to behave, as she should but can't. She knows the story as it should be and tries to put it right where it is going wrong but can't. She is disappointed when Shrek takes off his helmet and it not the knight she expected. When Robin Hood and his Merry Men attempt to rescue her from the beast she attacks the men (she moves like Lara Croft from Tomb Raider).
The fire-breathing dragon they encounter on their journey that is meant to guard the castle shows a hard front but later on we see that Donkey sweet talks it and it turns out to be a girl and falls in love with Donkey. This whole image, of the dragon being evil and vicious is shattered when it blows pink smoke love hearts at Donkey.
Fiona is singing in the garden with the birds when her pitch becomes too high and causes a little bird to explode. This is also a scene from Snow White when she sings in a nice voice to all the little animals. This is how we can see the tale of Shrek is twisting other fairytales. Princess then goes and makes breakfast with the eggs from the bird. If this was to happen in another fairytale the princess would start crying and regret what she had done, but Fiona just gets on with it.
As the film progresses, Shrek and the princess begin to fall in love. Shrek is too afraid to tell Fiona how he feels because he thinks he is ugly. In a traditional fairytale the princess would never even dare approach an ogre let alone speak to one. But it is different for Fiona because she knows what it feels like because she is an ogre her self. When Princess Fiona transforms as the sunsets she thinks she becomes ugly and disgusting and a princess is not meant to look like this.
The wedding is about to go ahead but Princess Fiona is not happy and can't stop thinking about Shrek. Yet Lord Farquaad just wants to marry her so he can become King, this is very selfish of him. Traditionally the princess would want to marry the prince and their would be no argument and they would like happily ever after.
The wedding goes on and the ceremony is stopped when Shrek bursts in. Fiona turns into an ogre and this is the first time Shrek has seen her like this but he still thinks she is beautiful. The film ends on a happy note like most fairytales do to the music of 'I'm a believer'. All the creatures are freed and the dragon eats Lord Farquaad. The end of the film ends 'and they all lived ugly ever after'. Which ties in nicely with the ending of the film.

Shrek is a film with a lot of content such as comedy. The main element of comedy in the film is Donkey. Donkey's roll in the film is to keep the audience amused and laughing. Donkey is a helpless little creature really and is quite sweet. He longs to be Shrek's friend and Shrek loves him really but just doesn't want to show it. Donkey and Shrek get along just fine. They laugh together and make funny remarks about Lord Farquaad's stature.
The common theme in the film is 'don't judge people by the way they look' but to like them for what they are. I don't think this is put across that effectively because Shrek doesn't like the way people are scared about the way he looks yet they don't know him. But Shrek and Donkey pull jokes about Lord Farquaad and the way he looks.
I think the film is brilliant and I would recommend it to anyone big or small. It is great the way they have kept it as a fairytale but managed to make it funny as well. My favourite scenes are the wedding where Shrek saves the day and the karaoke at the end with all the characters are singing. My favourite characters would have to been the stars of the film Shrek and Donkey. They are just so funny. I think Shrek is better than a traditional fairytale any day as it makes you laugh and traditional fairytales are babyish. Whereas Shrek maybe classed as a fairytale it is suitable for young child right up to adults.

Members' Comments onkay.'s Review

• Bertie on 5th Oct 2003

  Kay......you put a lot of work into that review and had I read it before seeing the film, I'd have been tempted to save the rental fee! You summed it up beautifully - well done.