Somebody once told me, the world is going to roll me, that Shrek’s 25th Anniversary is coming up next month. This month’s film analysis isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but it’s going to break the mold, like a shooting star. Since today is Tuesday, I’m gonna do one on DreamWorks’ most famous film franchise.
Right now, there are four Shrek films, but the fifth one is going to come out at the end of the year. Last decade, I complained about how sequels ruined Shrek and used it as an example of how sequels don’t live up to the expectations of the original. However, judging by how the stories went, even I have to admit that the sequels worked. It’s not like Ice Age or Cars.
So let’s talk about the impact this famous ogre of the 21st Century did. First, Smash Mouth’s most famous song, “All Star”, has been strongly associated with Shrek due to the first movie’s use of it as the intro song. Second, the success of Shrek (2001) further brought the end to traditional animation in cinema. Third, being a parody of Michael Eisner and his poor management decisions, it helped sink Michael Eisner’s career as CEO. Fourth, it had several quotes that stick to society. The one that comes to mind the most is “ogres are like onions”.
While I could focus on the entire film franchise, the first movie gets a special mention in today’s entry.
The Domino Effect:
So what is the driving force behind all of the Shrek sequels? The answer is his love with Fiona. As shown in the sequels, it was foretold that Fiona is supposed to marry Prince Charming, who will break the spell of her becoming an ogre every night. But this is part of the plan of the Fairy Godmother. If Prince Charming, her son, marries Fiona, the princess of Far Far Away, then she can rule Far Far Away through Prince Charming. She is a wicked fairy who is bigoted against ogres and wants control of everyone. The King and Queen of Far Far Away also have made a deal with a shady man named Rumplestiltskin, who made a contract that he will set Fiona free, under the condition that they will be wiped from existence. The fact that Shrek married Fiona before Prince Charming could come rescue her foiled the Fairy Godmother’s plan to take control of Far Far Away. The events of the second movie led to her death, which that (and Fiona’s rejection of him) embittered Prince Charming, who became a villain. And the fact that Shrek rescued Fiona has voided the deal between Rumpelstiltskin and the King and Queen of Far Far Away, thus making him an outcast.
But here is a question. Who is ultimately responsible for the events in the Shrek sequels? It wasn’t Shrek, nor was it Fiona. The answer is Lord Farquaad, the leader of Duloc. The reason is because he ordered Shrek to rescue Fiona from a haunted castle in a volcano, guarded by a scary dragon. He and Donkey went to rescue her anyway. But he wasn’t doing it for himself. He was doing it for Farquaad, who wanted to marry the princess so he can become king of Duloc. Going even further, the missing nail to the horseshoe wasn’t even the fact that Shrek rescued Fiona. It was the fact that Farquaad used Shrek’s swamp as a prison for fairy-tale creatures, which he rounded up and deported because of his hatred towards them. So it was Farquaad’s bigotry towards fairy-tale creatures that was responsible for everything that happened in the Shrek franchise.
Before Shrek got involved in Farquaad’s business, he was just an outcast who lived alone in his swamp, being feared by everyone. This was the life he wanted. But then, he saw that fairy-tale creatures were being put under arrest for existing. They were all sentenced to his swamp, where they will be executed in the most terrifying way – being eaten by an ogre. But this is not what Shrek wanted. All he wanted was privacy. Therefore, he went up to Duloc to talk with Lord Farquaad, the one who sentenced the fairy-tale creatures to death. He made a deal. If Shrek and Donkey can go up to the castle and rescue Fiona, and then bring her back, he will clear his swamp. So Shrek and Donkey went to the castle and rescued Fiona.
By sending Shrek to save Fiona, Farquaad foiled the plans for every villain in the franchise. For Prince Charming, he doesn’t get to marry Fiona. For the Fairy Godmother, she couldn’t get control of Far Far Away since her son can never become king. For Rumpelstiltskin, his deal became pointless. The fact that they couldn’t get what they wanted was what set the plots in motion. Their involvement in saving Princess Fiona also set the dragon free. It’s because Donkey, Shrek’s sidekick, was gullible enough to interact with the dragon. This disrupted both Farquaad’s marriage and the brawl in response to Fiona’s curse, because the dragon came in and ate Farquaad. So he didn’t just foil the sequel villains’ plans. He foiled his plans too.
Meanings of All Star and Layers:
Throughout the entire first movie, I found two things that were worth mentioning and how they relate to the movie. One was the use of “All Star” as the intro song, and the other is the very famous quote – “Ogres are like onions”.
All Star:
Starting with the song, it was supposed to be a placeholder of the real intro song, but because the executives liked the use of it, they went with it as the intro song. It may sounds like a weird choice, but it actually resonates with Shrek. The song is about how someone, who is unpopular or frequently bullied, can gain confidence, defy what most people think, and become one of the most popular ones. It’s also about how the world is harsh and is changing at every time. It’s not just a catchy song. It helps underappreciated people feel confident in themselves and their abilities.
This is exactly what Shrek was about. He started out as an outcast that everyone feared. But after his visit to Duloc, his quest in rescuing the princess, and all of the other adventures he went through, he became loved by many. The villagers of Duloc were glad that Farquaad got eaten and accepted Shrek’s marriage with Fiona. All of the fairy-tale creatures that Farquaad tried to execute became his allies. His ugliness as a celebrity made others feel confident in their looks (it was even at the point that Queen Lilian accepted her husband’s transformation into a frog).
Shrek also appears to be the right person to rescue Princess Fiona. If you paid attention to details in the dark castle (the armor pieces and skeletons), you can tell that in reality, knights would be unable to fight against a giant, fire-breathing monster. The reason why Shrek escaped at all is because he outsmarted the dragon, not fought against her. She also became an ally instead of a threat because of Donkey’s newfound relationship with her. Had anyone else came to rescue Fiona, their attempts would’ve failed.
Speaking of Dragon, Shrek wasn’t the only monster that became a hero. Dragon was this too. She was imprisoned in the castle, feared by all. Not even a valiant knight could defeat her. It took love and rescue from a single Donkey to become good. Fiona was freed, but so was Dragon. In many fairy-tales, creatures like Shrek and Dragon, as well as the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, are evil. This was not the case in the Shrek franchise.
The real monsters in the series were not the ones that look like them, but the ones that are. I’m talking Lord Farquaad, the Fairy Godmother, Prince Charming, and Rumpelstiltskin. Farquaad may had the intentions of feeding fairy-tale creatures to a monster. Guess who get eaten in Shrek 1. King Harold was only trying to kill Shrek because he feared the Fairy Godmother. Guess who King Harold got killed instead in Shrek 2.
Ogres are like Onions:
During Shrek’s quest to save Princess Fiona, he picks and onion to demonstrate to Donkey about what ogres are like. Shrek said that ogres are like onions because ogres have layers and onions have layers. But when Donkey brings up cakes and parfaits, Shrek points out that ogres are not like either of them. In a way, Shrek is right, because cakes and parfaits are top to bottom, while ogres and onions are surface to core.
What this means is that ogres are complex, and when you look on the inside, you can see what they’re really like. On the outside, Shrek is seen as a fearsome monster that everyone feared. But as the franchise moves on, we started seeing more of what he was. Throughout most of the movie, he was rather selfish. He fought the knights that Farquaad pinned on him solely to defend himself, and he only rescued the princess to get his swamp cleared. But if there’s anything Shrek had, it was true love. In the second movie, he tried to do something to make Fiona happy, only to learn that he was deceived. By the third movie, he stopped only caring about himself. He started caring for others. The movies have shown the many layers of Shrek. Ogres are like onions after all.
Donkey also appears to be right about ogres being like parfaits. The inner layers of an onion are basically the same as the outer layers of the onion. But parfaits have different flavors at different layers. If Shrek was like an onion, he would be a monster on the inside like he was on the outside. But given what he was in the franchise, he was more like a parfait in this context. Donkey said everyone likes cakes. This is how popular Shrek became, both in the movie and in reality.
Lessons:
In film and TV, there are two types of morals. One of them are basic lessons that everyone can learn, like being kind to others, no doing harm, and to play fair. The other type of moral challenges everyday norms and traditions, pointing out what’s wrong with them. The lessons Shrek provided were from the latter group.
First of all, Shrek deconstructed many fairy-tale tropes, which can teach people some lessons. Even though it’s supposed to be a parody, mocking Michael Eisner and his management of Disney, it did have a few points. The portrayal of commonly good characters as villains (Fairy Godmother and Prince Charming) teach these two lessons. One is that power corrupts people, and the other is to look into the inside of people. The portrayal of common monsters as heroes (Shrek and Dragon) teach people that if you give someone a chance, you’ll learn about who they really are. I also pointed out in the above section that in reality, a knight wouldn’t be able to fight against a dragon alone.
There are also some accidental lessons taught in the Shrek franchise. Examples include, but not limited to:
- Depreciating yourself can hurt others, not just yourself.
- If you try to overcompensate your flaws, you can make them more obvious.
- If you need time for yourself, you should seek privacy instead of saying or doing something bad.
- It’s a good thing to have someone that supports you, but you also need to support them.
I would also like to mention that Lord Farquaad made several mistakes. Had he made the right decisions, he would’ve been better off. One of them is that he chose Shrek’s swamp to deport the fairy-tale creatures. Not only did that lead to all of the events in the entire story, but also the events in the sequels. Had he chose to deport them elsewhere, despite making him look like a villain, he would’ve succeeded. Second, he could’ve listened to the magic mirror when he told him about the curse surrounding Fiona. He refused to listen, thus not finding out about the curse until the end of the movie. If he did listen, he would’ve ignored saving Fiona, and thus the events of the sequels would never happen.
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