May 15th, 2021 
Michael Lyons 
When Shrek opened in theaters on May 18, 2001, Entertainment Weekly’s film critic Lisa Shwarzbaum called the film “A kind of palace coup, a shout of defiance and a coming of age for Dreamworks.”
In retrospect, this was a perfect description. Jeffrey Katzenberg, who had shepherded Disney through that studio’s animation renaissance of the 1990s (with such groundbreaking blockbusters as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King), left Disney in 1994, in a tense and highly publicized exit. Soon after, he partnered with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, forming a new studio, DreamWorks, SKG.
The developing studio immediately began producing its own animated features. However, the first three – Antz, The Prince of Egypt, and The Road to El Dorado lived in the shadow of Disney animated features released at that time.
It was with Shrek that DreamWorks found their voice and ruled the box office.
Hard to believe that this month marks the twentieth anniversary of this landmark animated hit. A fitting milestone to take a look back at the creation, success, and legacy of Shrek, the movie whose poster declared it to be “The greatest fairy tale never told.”
In the mid-’90s, the picture book Shrek! by author and cartoonist William Steig came across the desk of Jeffrey Katzenberg. Producer John H. Williams had heard about the book from his children and brought it to Katzenberg’s attention as a potential animation project.
DreamWorks partnered with the computer animation studio Pacific Data Images (which DreamWorks had purchased in 2000) on the film version of Shrek. As it went into development, there were some changes made to the screenplay, as the book provided more back story, even including information about Shrek’s parents.
Comedian Chris Farley was initially cast as the voice of Shrek and had recorded a majority of his dialogue before his untimely passing in 1997. Mike Myers (Farley’s co-star on Saturday Night Live) was then re-cast as the ogre. Initially, Myers recorded Shrek using a Canadian accent but ultimately decided on a Scottish accent (sounding very similar to his “Fat Bastard” character from his hit Austin Powers franchise of films).
In the film, directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, we meet the title character, a cynical, solitary, grumpy ogre, who finds the comfort of his swamp home threatened when the evil Lord Farquaad of Duloc (John Lithgow) banishes fairy tale creatures (such as the Three Blind Mice and the Three Little Pigs) to the same swamp.
Shrek sets out to persuade Farquaad to give him his swamp back and joining him on this adventure is a talking donkey named Donkey (Eddie Murphy). When the two get to Duloc, they compete in a tournament, which Farquaad has organized.
The tournament winner will have the “privilege” of rescuing Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz), who the Lord wants to marry, in order to become a true king. Shrek wins the tournament and agrees to rescue the princess, as long as he can have his swamp back.
Along the way on this adventure in Shrek, there are some very mature messages about accepting yourself and others around you.
That’s not all that was mature about Shrek, as the film was a pointed satire of the fairy tale stories and theme parks that were very much a part of Katzenberg’s former home at Disney.
The fantasy creatures are all fashioned in a. much edgier way (the Big Bad Wolf is a grumbler and Pinocchio seems to suffer from a generalized anxiety disorder). Fiona warbles in such a high-pitch princess voice (a la Snow White) that one of the birds singing along explodes. When Shrek and Donkey arrive in Duloc, the kingdom greets them with cheerily singing audio-animatronic figures straight out of a cut-rate version of “It’s a Small World’ (there’s even a “souvenir photo” at the end of their performance).
While satire had been a part of other animated films and shorts, it had rarely been so blatantly displayed in a feature like this before. Additionally, there was plenty of contemporary pop-culture humor that was woven into the film. Farquaad finds out about Fiona thanks to his Magic Mirror, who informs him via a Dating Game parody. And Donkey constantly sings, belting out a string of Top 40 hits, including The Monkees’ classic “I’m a Believer,” in the film’s rousing finale.
Murphy does terrific work in Shrek as Donkey, cutting loose a little more than he did as Mushu in Mulan. Diaz brings both strength and sweetness to Fiona (particularly after the film’s plot twist). And Lithgow seems to be channeling his wicked turn as “B.Z.” from Santa Claus: The Movie as he wraps his malevolent tones around the performance of the villain Farquaad.
Audiences responded to all that was shockingly funny and new with Shrek. The film was DreamWorks’ first bona fide blockbuster, grossing $267 million domestically. The movie became the animated film to see during 2001, besting Disney’s traditionally animated adventure, Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
Shrek not only received unanimous critical praise, but it also made history, winning the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in the spring of 2002, the first year the award was presented.
The film has also had quite the legacy, spawning sequels, spin-offs, theme park attractions, TV specials, and a Broadway musical.
Shrek even went on to influence several other DreamWorks animated features that followed, such as A Shark’s Tale, Madagascar, and Megamind, all of which infused adult sensibilities and a barrage of pop culture references and humor into their stories (Disney even saw this influence with the tone of their first computer-animated feature, 2005’s Chicken Little).
With so many similarly minded films that followed, it’s easy to forget just how fresh and innovative Shrek was.
Twenty years later, Shrek still leaves its impact on animation and audiences. In the book Shrek: From Swamp to the Screen by John Hopkins, Jeffrey Katzenberg provided insight on the film’s staying power:
“Each of our characters comes to understand that there’s something wonderful -warts and all- about who they are. I think that’s true for all of us- that the people who ultimately come to know us and love us see the strengths inside us. Whether you’re a princess, a donkey, or even a big, green, stinky ogre, you can find love and happiness.”
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