Shrek

Shrek is a computer-animated movie adaptation of William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture-book of the same name. It was released by DreamWorks SKG in May 2001. It was the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, a category introduced in 2002. It was released on DVD on November 2 2001.

Plot

The story tells how the ogre Shrek is forced by Lord Farquaad to rescue Princess Fiona from a dragon for Farquaad to marry. Along the way, Shrek befriends a talking Donkey, and falls in love with Fiona.

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Shrek lives a quite and lonely life in his small Swamp, until his peace is disturbed by all creatures of fairy tales settling down in his swamp, exiled by Farquaad. Farquaad agrees to call back the creatures if Shrek rescues and brings to him Princess Fiona, who is imprisoned in a castle guarded by a dragon, waiting to be rescued by Prince Charming.

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After many (mis)adventures where Shrek is consistently irritated by the friendly but overly talkative Donkey, Shrek manages to rescue Fiona from the dragon. The female dragon falls in love with Donkey. Fiona thinks that Shrek is Prince Charming, before being shocked to find that her rescuer is actually an Ogre. Shrek, underneath his tough and non-caring exterior, devolops romantic feelings for Fiona.

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On the way back, Donkey discovers that Fiona is under a curse because of which she turns into an Ogre every night. The only way to break the curse is to be kissed by her true love. While Fiona laments to Donkey that she is ugly, Shrek (who having finally made up his mind to propose was bringing flowers to her) partially overhears and thinks that Fiona is calling him ugly.

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The misunderstanding causes a bitter split as Shrek and Donkey go back to the Swamp while Fiona and Farquaad make wedding arrangements. At the last moment Shrek realises his mistake and travels on the back of the dragon they previously battled (who is now Donkey's girlfriend) to the wedding hall and crashes the wedding party. After the dragon eats Farquaad a moment after his marriage to Fiona, Donkey makes the cheeky remark "Celebrity Marriages never last, do they?"

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Meanwhile the Sun sets and Fiona is turned into an Ogre again. Shrek now kisses Fiona, but instead of this turning her back to a human being, she stays Ogre. When Fiona says that the kiss was supposed to turn her beautiful, Shrek says that she was beautiful. This ending stresses the relativity of beauty, thus lending the allegory its moral.

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The film contains parodies of many fairytale stories and classic Disney films, and even The Matrix. Lord Farquaad's face visually resembles Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who fired current DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg from Disney in 1994.

Related Topics:
Fairytale - Disney - The Matrix - CEO - Michael Eisner - Jeffrey Katzenberg - 1994

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