Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson’s blockbuster film “Shrek”, depicts a story of how fairy tale creatures live amongst humans. This society of humans and fairy tale creatures is disrupted by Lord Farquaad, who places wanted fairy tale creature signs and buys these creatures in order to resettle them away from human society. The scene of fairy tale creatures being sold commences with images of dwarves chained in a row one by one, and then carried off by horse in prison carriages. There is a table set up for Farquaad’s knights to examine these creatures as they are presented by their human masters, one after the other is sold for a price determined by his men. All is going according to plan for the humans until a donkey does not want to abide by …show more content…
This scene opens up with an eye level view of a gnome, which gives us an in-depth view of his emotional departure away from the camp at which he was just purchased from. The viewer is than kept at eye level and faced with seven mourning dwarves that are dejectedly singing a song as they are chained and lead on to the next barred carriage. As the scene progresses, more dejected fairy tale creatures present themselves, as for the humans portrayed at eye level they seem content to get the little money offered to them for selling their fairy tale creature. The saddened emotions are seen as if the viewer is directly engaged with them evoking emotion on the audience’s part while when put at eye level with the knight’s feelings of distrust present themselves. However, as the scene carries on the movie’s first major protagonist reveals itself, as an emotionally nerve wracked donkey becomes eye level with the viewer and promotes sympathy. The next action of the scene is presented at a low angle as the donkey rises in the air with the service of fairy dust to give him flying capabilities, the audience sees him at a powerful angle, while Farquaad’s head knight is captured from a high angle giving the observer a feeling of power and control. The subcultures of humans and creatures are depicted in two different lights, humans are depicted as greedy and weak,
Film analysis with a critical eye can give the viewer how animation giant Disney uses literary element to relay key messages to the audience. Walt Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog” is a perfect example how different literary theories like ‘the Marxist theory’ and ‘Archetypal theory’ can be embedded in the simplest of the fairy tales. The different literary elements in the movie, shows a person how characters like ‘the banker’ and the setting of the houses helps to portray the socio-economic differences in New Orleans at that time. Applying ‘the Marxist theory’ and ‘the Archetypal theory’ to the plot, characters and the setting, shows how movies can be a medium to confront social issues and to prove that all fairy tales are of the same base.
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
A fairy tale story can easily establish rhetoric devices in order to enhance its storyline or give some character development. The movie Shrek is about an ogre named Shrek and a donkey named Donkey who is ordered by a prince named Farquaad to rescue a princess named Fiona so he can get his swamp back, but Shrek ends up falling in love with the princess himself (Adamson, Jenson, 2001). The movie Shrek breaks the norms of a typical fairy tales, reversing the role of who would be the hero and who would be the villain. This film adopts rhetoric devices like the four cognitive schemata to construe the perception of the characters towards Shrek, the Social Penetration Theory to show the growing relationships Shrek has with Donkey and Fiona, and verbal
Native Americans have been mistreated and taken advantage of as time went on in United States history. I remember when I was a kid sitting down eating my Cheetos watching Peter Pan and Pocahontas singing along to all of the songs in the movie. Since taking diversity classes in high school, I rewatched those movies and realized how awful they make Native Americans look and act. It’s been throughout the whole United States history that we have treated them unfairly from the Dawes act, stealing their land, and the way we use them in movies. We have falsely portrayed their views for our entertainment, which is wrong. The Native population are an important part of United States history that has been misrepresented due to pop culture being shown
...n” is a great example of an old myth or tale reconstructed and adapted for a modern audience in a new medium. It is a progression on one hand in its use of modern language, setting, and style but it is also the product of the old myths in that it is essentially the same on the thematic level. In addition, the level of self-awareness on the part of the narrator and, by extension, the author marks it out as an illustration of the very notion of evolutionary changes of myths and fairy tales. Adaptation is the solution to the fairy tale, and fairy tales have been endlessly changing themselves throughout history and, by some strange transforming or enchanting power endlessly staying the same.”
If children or adults think of the great classical fairy tales today, be it Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or Cinderella, they will think Walt Disney. Their first and perhaps lasting impression of these tales and others will have emanated from Disney film, book, or artefacts (Zipes 72)
Parents play an important role in a child’s life so it is only natural that these roles are portrayed in fairytales meant for children. This is evident in the tale Donkeyskin by Charles Perrault and Cinderella by the Grim Brothers. The differing roles of the fathers in these tales, along with the similar roles of mothers, establish two different beliefs to impart on a child. Donkeyskin reminds a child that his/her parents love is undying and wants what is best for them; while Cinderella stresses the importance of becoming independent. Both of these beliefs recognize and address a child’s simple desires and fears.
Produced in 2009, The Frog Princess is a Disney animation inspired by the Grimm Brothers’ fairytale, The Frog Prince. Both The Frog Princess and The Frog Prince deal with a multiplicity of issues, all of which contribute to supporting positive messages and morals (Ceaser, 2009). However, though The Frog Princess is based on a classic fairytale, it is far from being the same. The writers at Disney have taken a classic fairytale and created a “Monster” (Prince, 2001). This essay will examine the evolution of the original Grimm Brothers’ fairytale, the messages both main characters represent, and how the adaptation to fit a modern child readership diminishes a classic fairytale. Through discussing these arguments, this paper will prove that Disney’s adaptation into The Princess and The Frog is counter-productive in representing the original story’s messages, morals, and values.
The movie Shrek is a 3D animated adventure involving the protagonist by the same name and his sidekick, Donkey, as they embark on a journey to save a princess from her castle for Lord Farquaad. On the outside, Shrek is a mean and scary ogre, but underneath his “onion-like” personality lies a sad, lonely soul. Shrek is not a typical, Disneyesque fairytale; it is a fairytale that parodies every “once upon a time” and “happily ever after”. By making an ogre the main character, the film breaks the typically boring, fairytale pattern. As said in the movie Shrek, “sometimes things are not always what they appear to be”. One of the recurring themes in the movie is the idea that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, challenging people’s tendencies toward bias.
In addition to the previously mentioned elements, Shrek's unusual plot provides entertainment for almost everyone. Shrek combines average fairy-tale stories and adds its own twist. The comedy has been described as "a wonderful parody of every fairytale story that you can think of." The characters in Shrek are classic heroes, heroines, sidekicks, and antagonists, yet their wit and humor save the film from being just another children's movie. Shrek's plot aims to keep its audience engaged with every twist and
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.
Leprince de Beaumon. “Beauty and the Beast.” Folk & Fairy Tales. Matin Hallett and Barbrar Karasek. Canada: Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication, 2009.
The fairy tales that we have become so familiar with are embedded with love, imagination and enchantment. In truth, these are just common archetypes; originally fairy tales had a much darker backdrop. They were once symbols of sexualisation and brutality as not everything ended happily ever after. Deriving from promiscuous and overlooked on goings from the 19th century (such as molestation), these ideas were later suppressed when they became children’s tales. John Updike described traditional fairy tales as ‘The pornography of their day’, hence they contained elements of wish-fulfilment and gratification such as rape, pleasure and attainment. This is true to a certain extent but they also consisted of violence, mutiny and injustice. An exploration
The animated film Shrek is a Dreamworks fairy tale that teaches us to look beyond what we expect to see, by completely subverting the traditional fairy tale concepts of gender, appearance and beauty. The characters in Shrek are vastly different from what we would expect to see in their appearance and behaviour. With unexpected plot twists, the directors of Shrek create important messages and morals that would not usually be conveyed, using techniques such as humour. The techniques have been placed strategically to result in an entertaining and educational film.
The 1992 Disney film Aladdin represents an analysis of the social inequalities. Society ranks individuals consciously into certain class statuses such as being rich or poor. The class status acts as a barrier or a wall, preventing the individuals from escaping the social norms of what class they were placed in. Every individual is placed into one of the classes through appearances, skills and wealth. The individual is given a title and they must then comply with the norms according to the class they have been assigned to. There is a clear distinction between the two class status that separates one from another. The owning class and the working class. The film demonstrates an understanding of how each class are represented in the eyes of society.