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.

The name Shrek is taken from the Yiddish word שרעק (pronounced Shreck) meaning 'fear, terror'.

The film features the voices of Mike Myers as a large green troublesome ogre named Shrek, Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona, Eddie Murphy as a talkative donkey, and John Lithgow as the vain Lord Farquaad (whose name is a less than subtle play on an insult that begins with a four-letter word and ends with "wad").

The voice of Shrek was originally recorded by Chris Farley. After his death, Mike Myers was brought on to replace him. After Myers had completed providing the voice for the character and the movie was well into production, he asked to be allowed to re-record all of his lines in a Scottish accent similar to the one his mother used when she told him bedtime stories.

It was critically acclaimed as an animated film worthy of adult interest, with many adult-oriented jokes and themes but a simple enough plot and humor to appeal to children. It made notable use of pop music—the soundtrack includes music by Smash Mouth, The Proclaimers, Jason Wade, The Baha Men, and Rufus Wainwright.

The film was extremely successful on release in 2001 and it helped establish DreamWorks as a prime competitor to Walt Disney Pictures in the field of feature film animation, particularly in computer animation. Furthermore, Shrek was made the mascot for the company's animation productions.

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.

Shrek lives a quiet 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 Lord Farquaad of Duloc a nearby kingdom. 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.

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.

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.

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?"

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.

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.

Box Office Totals

• Budget - $60,000,000
• Marketing cost - $45,000,000
• Opening Weekend Gross (Domestic) - $42,347,760
• Total Domestic Grosses - $267,665,011
• Total Overseas Grosses - $216,744,207
• Total Worldwide Grosses - $484,409,218

Main cast

• Mike Myers - Shrek
• Cameron Diaz - Princess Fiona
• Eddie Murphy - Donkey
• John Lithgow - Lord Farquaad

Songs and performers

• "All Star" - Smash Mouth
• "Meditation" - Antonio Carlos Jobim
• "On the Road Again" - Eddie Murphy
• "Welcome to DuLoc"
• "Friends" - Eddie Murphy
• "Bad Reputation" - Joan Jett
• "Whipped Cream" - Herb Alpert and The Tijuana Brass
• "I'm on My Way" - The Proclaimers
• "Escape" (PiГ±a Colada Song)
• "Merry Men" - Rupert Holmes
• "My Beloved Monster" - Eels
• "Stay Home" - Self
• "You Belong to Me" - Jason Wade
• "Best Years of our Lives" - Baha Men
• "Hallelujah" - Rufus Wainwright
• "Like Wow!" - Leslie Carter
• "Try a Little Tenderness" - Eddie Murphy
• "It is You (I Have Loved)" - Dana Glover
• "I'm a Believer" - Smash Mouth

Sequels

• Shrek 2 was released on May 19, 2004 and quickly overtook Disney's Finding Nemo as the highest grossing opening weekend for an animated feature.

• Shrek 3. A sequel with that title was announced on June 2, 2004. According to the studio, it was originally planned for release in the winter of 2006, (since delayed to 2007), and members of the crew are to include the writing team of Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman and Jon Zack, and the three lead voices from the previous movies: Mike Myers as Shrek, Eddie Murphy as Donkey, Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona, and Justin Timberlake as King Arthur. Shrek 3 is currently in pre-production.

Other media

Original story on which the film is based: Steig, Wiliam (1990). Shrek, Sunburst Paperback. ISBN 0-374-46623-8

Also several video game adaptations of Shrek have been published on various game console platforms.

In late 2005 Shrek will be released on the Game Boy Advance Video format.

There is a show Shrek 4-D in Universal Orlando Resort.

External links

• Shrek at the Internet Movie Database
• DreamWorks SKG Fansite for Shrek
• William Steig's web page describing the original 1990 story book
• Shrek 2 at the Internet Movie Database
• Shrek 3 at the Internet Movie Databasede:Shrek

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