The widely popular film Shrek, produced and distributed by DreamWorks in 2001, grossed a total of $484,409,218 in worldwide sales (Box Office Mojo). The success of the film has led DreamWorks to create several shorts, companion films, and sequels. From its memorable characters to its whimsical, edgy humor, Shrek was an amazing, highly successful animation that would pave the way for DreamWorks to make billions off the franchise. Shrek’s success can be attributed to three main factors: the range of ages it appeals to, its creative use of intertextuality, and its ability to cover a wide range of the fairy tale functions proposed by Vladimir Propp. According to IDMb, the popular voice actors involved in Shrek were: Mike Myers (Shrek), Eddie Murphy …show more content…
written by William Steig in 1990 (“Shrek!”). The plot of the book and the film are similar in some ways, but the film adaptation creatively incorporates many different fairy tales into its plot to create a new fairy tale. Some of the fairy tales characters included in the plot are the Gingerbread Man from The Gingerbread Man, Magic Mirror from Snow White, and the Big Bad Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood. For the creators to pull multiple elements of different stories into their own, they used intertextuality, as opposed to allusion, to mold the story into a single universe, where each character feels as though they belong in said …show more content…
Vladimir Propp played an integral part in the analysis of the structure that fairy tales typically follow. Born in Russia in 1895, Propp was dedicated to studying folklore and fairy tales (“Propp, Vladimir Iakovlevich”). He studied many folklore and fairy tale stories to break them into individual sections. These individual sections defined what Propp called a “function” of the story that references a common plot device or archetypal character. In 1928, he published a book titled Morphology of the Folktale, written in Russian. It would be another 30 years until the book was finally translated into
The creators of films Shrek and Mulan have clearly shown us the hero's journey step by step through the different film techniques and effects used to represent the hero's journey. This has shown us how Shrek and Mulan formed into hero's through the events of call to adventure, crossing the threshold, challenges, the abyss, transformation, revelation, atonement and the
The fairy tale creatures are seen in the movie when, they are up for sale, when they are in Shrek’s swamp and all together again at the end of the story. “Various references to figures from both fairy tale and children’s nursery rhyme—pigs, wolves, Snow White, Robin Hood, the Gingerbread Man, and the Three Blind Mice. (Tiffin ln 23-25). These are the characters that many would go ahead and pick up on. There are also scenes throughout the movie, however, that are mixed in and used as if they are supposed to be in there. One scene that stuck out after watching the movie closely, is the scene with Robin Hood and Princess Fiona. Princess Fiona fights off Robin Hood and all the men so they do not capture her. Another well-incorporated scene that is from Snow White is when Lord Farquaad is asking the talking mirror who he should marry. Tiffin briefly mentions the magic mirror, and how it is in Snow White, but does not talk about it as closely as she does the other stories. The mirror he is asking and talks to is the talking mirror forms, Snow White. When Lord Farquaad gets the talking mirror, he even starts out by asking it “mirror, mirror on the wall, is this not a perfect kingdom of them all”. In Snow White, the Evil Queen would ask, “mirror, mirror of them all, who is the fairest of them all?” so in Shrek it mimics what is happening in Snow White, having Lord
The first animated movie produced by Pixar, a famous space ranger named Buzz Light-year said, “To infinity and beyond!” and that is exactly where Pixar has taken the animation industry. The success of Pixar is duly noted worldwide and they remain a leader in the animation industry. The company reeled in more than 100 awards and nominations for their work on animated films, commercials, and technical contributions to the animation industry. The trials and triumphs of this company have earned it its spot as one of the leading animation companies in the entertainment industry today. With all this success it is hard to think it was almost over before it ever began. Pixar’s history of trials and triumphs starts with a group of men and their ideas that would revolutionize the entertainment industry.
Walt Disney needed to change his version and many of his other fairy tales and in doing so started a change in the way we see fairy tales. Ask someone today to define a fairy tale and they will tell you along the lines of a beautiful woman put threw hardships that in the end of the story gets the man and becomes a queen of her own castle.
Fairytales express the creative fantasies of the rural and less educated layers of common man (Cuban, 1984). They are characteristically full of magic, often involving upper class characters (Cuban, 1984). In short, Fairytales are organically grown with the creative material of a collective group. The Grimm Brother’s fairytale, The Frog Prince, is no exception. The Grimm Brothers’ fairytale is about a handsome prince trapped in the repulsive body of a frog, but who nevertheless overcomes and transcends this bewitched state through his wit, perseverance, and magic (Prince, 2009). Until the seventeenth century, it was the adult population that was interested in fairytales (Cuban, 2009). Their allocation to the nursery was a late development (Cuban, 2009). This allocation can be credited to the rejection of the irrational, and development of the ra...
Thorslev, writes “The Byronic Gothic Villain (of the novel, at least) is never sympathetic” (Thorslev 22). Neither, Heathcliff nor Shrek has any sympathetic behavior. Both characters do not mind doing what they have to so they feel protected. Also, if they feel they have been wronged by someone, they will not hold back on their wrath when it comes to soliciting revenge. Heathcliff and Shrek carry themselves of being dominant characters, which is important for a Gothic Villain, Thorslev writes that “An air of mystery is his dominant trait, and characteristic of all his acts” (Thorslev 54).
Presentational Devices of Shrek and Reversal of Traditional Roles In this essay, I am going to analyse the characters in 'Shrek'. I will mainly focus on Shrek and Lord Farquuad. I will also write about how the film makers use different presentational devices to create an unusual film. Stereotypically the prince is good and the ogre is evil. In traditional fairy tales ogres are pictured as man-eating beasts, while the Princes are tall, handsome and save the Princess.
In this essay I am going to analyse the characters of shrek and Lord Farquaad, and write about how filmmakers use different camera angles, lighting, music and setting to create an unusual fairy tale. The giant in jack and the beanstalk is what we expect of giants/ogres. In traditional fairy tales ogres are normally man-eating beast, at the beginning of shrek, shrek is what you expect him to be like. When the farmers go to his swamp and the meet shrek. When shrek is shouting at them the low angle camera shot makes shrek look intimidating to the crowd and audience.
In the poem Half Past Two, a young child is in detention, to be let out at ‘half past two’. The room and his detention become a fairytale-like adventure, which Fanthorpe signals in the opening with the phrase ‘Once upon a time’, the typical start of childhood fairytales. The magical experience mostly stems from the boy’s ignorance of the concept of time: completely unacquainted with the idea of numerical time, he uses his own language to make it understandable to himself. Like a fairytale story, he introduces a beast, a clock personified: an alien with ‘little eyes’ and ‘two long legs for walking’, whose language he cannot ‘click’. The fairytale diction used and the imaginative clock-person he conjures is the essence of childhood: creative and magical at once.
Firstly I will be writing about ‘Shrek’. ‘Shrek’ is an animated comedy film about an ogre trying to get everyone out of his swamp. He goes to rescue a princess from a tower guarded by a dragon to get permission from the king to get everyone out of his swamp but instead he falls in love with the princess.
es indeed, animation is fun for children, but it also expresses important ideas for people of all ages. In some ways, ‘Shrek’ is your classic fairy tale for example, it has a hero, a beautiful Princess, and a dastardly villain. But unlike the traditional fairy tales, the hero is an ugly, ill-tempered ogre, the Princess is not all she appears to be, and the villain has some obvious shortcomings. The award-winning animated film, ‘Shrek’, is directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, the viewers learn that being a good person is more important than just being good-looking. It also shows that true friends help each other in difficult situations and that women can be equally as strong characters as men. These ideas are portrayed through characters such as Shrek, Princess Fiona and Donkey. The directors use camera angles and dialogue to express their ideas.
"The Cultural Studies Reader." : Henry Giroux: Children's Culture and Disney's Animated Films – Summary. The Cultural Studies Reader, 6 June 2011. Web. 17 Oct. 2013.
communication to more intimate communication. Shrek is the fairy tale where the ugly, green ogre is the hero, donkey that talks non-stop as his sidekick, and there is a princess who turned into an ogre at night. At the beginning Shrek helped the donkey and as result the donkey tried to be his friend even though Shrek insulted him over and over. But the donkey could not realize why Shrek was trying to avoid him and liked to be isolated from the social life. Every one hated Shrek for his ugly outfit without thinking twice. That is why Shrek was tried to keep himself away from everyone and did not want any friend ever. But the donkey was a following Shrek at his every step after all the insulting from Shrek and he escorted Shrek at his journey of rescuing the Princess Fiona. But in real if anyone misbehaves as Shrek did with the donkey can never be friends as the turned out to be very intimate buddy at the end.
Zipes, Jack. Why Fairy Tales Stick: The Evolution and Relevance of a Genre. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.
Propp, V. (2004) Morphology of the Folk-tale. In: Rivkin, J. and Ryan, M. (2nd ed.) Literary Theory: An Anthology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. pp. 72-76.