25 Years of Shrek
Film
Hard to believe it's been 25 years since Shrek, the lovably disgruntled big green ogre, first yelled at us to get out of his swamp. While it's fitting to release a stunning 4K UHD Steelbook for such an occasion, brimming with behind-the-scenes footage and shorts, which is all delightfully experiential, the real treat is what we already know. That Shrek was a complete misfit of a project. This is going to be my moment where I point at the screen and yell that Viggo Mortensen broke two toes kicking the orc helmet in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, because as I'm sure (it's been 25 years after all) we all know about this.
The Prince of Egypt was Dreamworks Animations big project. The perceived cash cow that would catapult them as an animation studio to the promised land of critical acclaim and box office records. When animators were behind on work, not performing well, and needed to be "punished", they were, internally, referred to as "Shreked." Or even sent to the "Gulag." Shrek was quite literally a corporate imprisonment project. A scrap heap of who-cares, low-budget, afterthoughts. Quite frankly, it feels like that idea was imbued in the underdogness of Shrek, as both a film and a character. It's what makes him so endearing, and to this day, makes it such a damn good movie.
Not only did Shrek outperform The Prince of Egypt at the box office, but it won the first-ever Best Animated Film Academy Award, and has had absolutely insane cultural relevance for 25 years. And it's still going strong. There are Shrek Raves, for crying out loud! Not to mention a fifth Shrek film featuring the original cast along with one of the biggest names working right now (in media and outside) in Zendaya is coming out next year. To think a throwaway animated film that was originally supposed to have Chris Farley as the lead voice could cement itself in society quite like this is hard to fathom.
But it really is a testament to how spectacularly simple a film it is. Reworking the fairy tale ideology, at the peak of Disney's power, into a story that lives in the margins of this magical world is astonishing. Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf, Pinocchio, and the Three Blind Mice are all silly little side characters to a brand new "prince and princess pair" in Shrek and Fiona, but they feel so familiar from the jump. While they are based on William Steig's children's book from 1990, the variations in the film feel unique enough to be fresh. Part of that is the terrific voice acting from Cameron Diaz and Mike Myers, and the other part is the brevity that Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, and Roger S.H. Schulman's screenplay exudes. Shrek is a crisp 90-minute romp with 0 fat to trim, and dare I say that damn near every line is quotable and has surreal staying power. From The Gingerbread Man screaming about his gumdrop buttons, to Donkey (an undeniable Eddie Murphy role) saying anything, to Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) lamenting about how some of the brave knights may die, "but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make." That's just pure gold right there.
The heart and humor of Shrek make it a worthwhile rewatch, and I think I do so at least once a year. Don't even get me started on Shrek 2, by the way. But there's just something about a movie being born in the depths of a studio, believed to be not worth the time or money, and amounting to something extraordinary that makes it all the more amazing. As if the project's conception was reflecting its own themes of finding beauty in the conventionally "ugly" things in life. Maybe that's a touch sentimental, but then again, when a movie like Shrek is celebrating its 25th anniversary, you can't help but feel like that little kid watching it for the first time again. Sometimes you just have to laugh at farts, mud, and onions.
