hrek too several is just a funny good-hearted kid’s movie, that almost any child has seen. Shrek is not comparable numerous of the traditional fairy tales that people learn about as a child. Shrek did not date back to centuries ago, it was not told orally, then someone wrote it down, and it has not been rewritten in other countries and changed due to different cultures. While Shrek is a unique modern tale about Ogres, talking animals, magic and more surprises it is also a spoof and audience should recognize common characters. In the article “Shrek and Shrek II” by Jessica Tiffin, she presents the fairy tales that have the biggest relevant in the film Shrek, not only are they the biggest relevant they are also the highly incorporated. These
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 people would pick up on. There are also scenes throughout the movie, however, that are mixed in 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 Farquaad who is evil such as the queen has the mirror, and similar lines are even recycled as the queen has said. They are also having Farquaad participate with the mirror since he too is the villain in the movie as the Evil Queen is. In this scene is when the mirror presents to Farquaad who his options are to marry. His three options which are other fairy characters are Cinderella, Snow White, and Fiona. While there are a large number of people who already know who Cinderella and Snow White are, Fiona is the one
Shrek’s endeavor closely follows the structure of the journey of the hero, as he departs from his swamp, initiates an adventure of saving his wife, and returns to his old life with new developments. After saving Fiona, Shrek does not gain anything physically; however, he gains knowledge that he originally did not have, and grows emotionally. He is able to accept Fiona’s parents, and learns that they are actually kind hearted people, despite their royal demeanor. Shrek understands what Fiona has gone through on her parent’s side, helping him strengthen his love. The journey of the hero may follow the heroes’ physical steps and accomplishments, but it also assists heroes in transcending and breaking through their old barriers into new ones of knowledge and confidence.
In the essay i am going to focus on the characters of Shrek and lord Farrquaad, the fairytale genre is subverted from the usual ogre being a man eater and the prince saving the princess to the ogre becoming the rescuer and the prince being evil person who sends the ogre to do his dirty work and rescue the princess.
Faerie Tale follows the tale of the Hastings family and their move to a rural mansion in New York. The Hastings family includes; Phil Hastings, a screenwriter working on a novel and his wife, retired actress, Gloria Hastings, Phil's daughter, Gabbie, a wealthy heiress from Phil's previous marriage, and twin boys, Sean and Patrick, who are particularly targeted by the “bad thing” in the story. The “bad thing” is a minion of the evil faerie king who is attempting to re-enter the mortal world before the “moving” closes the temporary portal between worlds on midnight on Halloween. Throughout the story different characters help the Hastings in different ways. Most helpful are the Irish immigrant Barney Doyle who eventually tells Sean how to save Patrick from the faerie realm, and Mark Blackman, an author who provides information along the way every time a new secret about the mansion is revealed. In the end the Erl King is killed only to be replaced by the fairy that kills him, revealing the cyclical nature of the fairy realm and how the creatures are not truly immortal but trapped in a predestined loop that forever repeats the same story; the queen and king to be fall in love, a child is stolen, it is fought over resulting in a demi-war between two factions, with the new king to be sometimes killing the evil king to become a good king or siding with evil king to become an evil king and killing the queen. Various “plot twists” can occur but the faeries know that the end result will always be the crowning of a new king and queen through the shedding of blood.
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)
I believe that fairy tales are a big part of child’s life and they can make his or her childhood memorable. These fairy tales usually have a positive moral that teaches a lesson like the ones I was told as a child. Most tales teach against dangerous behavior. A good story teller, like the ones who passed down the tales and my grandparents, can really have a positive impact on a child. These tales were also a big source of entertainment, both in the present and in earlier days. Hearing stories as a kid taught me important lessons like not to talk to talk to strangers from “Hansel and Gretel”. These fairy tales are also very memorable part of my childhood with my grandparents.
Shrek, an enormous, disgusting green ogre falling in love with a beautiful princess (later turning into a nasty ogre) is a perfect example of a stereotypical fairytale, right? Well in the movie Shrek, the voice over in the trailer talks about a “hero” attempting to rescue a “fair princess” with the help of “his trusty companion." Besides the fact that the hero is a voluptuous green ogre and the companion is a donkey, everything fits in normally to the definition of a traditional fairytale (Diaz). Also according to Mary Kunimitsu, in fantasy films “There may be characters with magical or supernatural abilities such as witches, wizards, superheroes, mythical creatures, talking animals, and ghosts” (Kunimitsu). In Shrek, there are many of these different characters. Therefore, by explanation, a traditional fairytale with the beautiful princess getting saved by the prince and falling in love is exactly what happens in the movie Shrek, just with a twist. The voice over in the trailer for Shrek states it perfectly as he says “Shrek is a highly irreverent take on the classic fairytale” (Adamson). As an untraditional fairytale, and a parody, the movie Shrek poses the breaking of stereotypes of gender and film fairytales all the while keeping the criteria of a fairytale.
In my opinion, Shrek The Musical was a great play that brought the childhood fairytale story of Shrek to life on stage. The costumes, props, and backgrounds on the set were well made and it was obvious that much time and effort were put into the play. The story of Shrek was brought to life on Broadway and was very realistic and produced very well.
While we are all aware of the Disneyfied versions of fairy tales and folklore, however, long before Walt Disney, the stories were not so
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
In this chapter, the author explains how many stories relate to fairy tales, like a parallel. Themes and storylines from popular fairy tales are often reused and made into newer and sometimes slightly different versions of the tale. A prime example of this would be the 2013 movie production of Jack the Giant Slayer or the 2011 production of Red Riding Hood. One characteristic of fairy tales is that they all have a plot and a solution which makes the story easy to connect to. This characteristic makes it possible for there to always be a way to connect a story to the fairy
The first scene of Shrek starts off with him in his swamp having fun to an upbeat track (All Star by Smash Mouth), which presents Shrek to be a laidback, peaceful character. After the opening scene, there were a bunch of nearby villagers, who have negative stereotypes about ogres, headed towards Shrek’s swamp to try to drive him away from there (Constructivism). The usage of stereotypes set a theme for the film, to never judge a book by its cover. Once Shrek met Donkey and Fiona, neither one of them assumed that because Shrek was an ogre, it meant he is an evil monster. In addition, everyone else in the movie does not call him Shrek. Everyone calls him “Ogre” instead, further confirming the stereotype. In another scene after Fiona goes into a cave at night to sleep, Shrek and Donkey have a conversation of the aftermath of their quest to rescue Fiona. Shrek goes off on a tangent about how people hate him despite not even getting to know him. Donkey shows an example of personal construct by telling Shrek that he never thought of him as an ugly monster. This scene shows the bipolar dimensions aspect, where people who never tried to know more about Shrek would have a default negative view about him. Donkey, who learned more about Shrek during their journey, does not characterize him as any type of villain and
This is noticeable when the fairytale creatures were banished to the swamp by Lord Farquaad. Since they were not normal human beings, they were seen as outcasts and thus banished away from the kingdom. This is also obvious when the townspeople go to kill Shrek with pitchforks. Shrek, being an ogre, is seen as different from the townspeople and a threat to them. This causes them to want to kill him to ensure security. The second thing I noticed in Shrek ties along with in-group and outgroup, which is prejudice. Prejudice is seen in Shrek during the scene when Shrek has a conversation with Donkey explaining why the world doesn’t understand him. Shrek spoke of the prejudice people had towards him. He told Donkey that people judge him before they even get to know him. People view him as a big, ugly, stupid ogre who wants to do nothing but eat them. This is the reason why Shrek is so isolated and avoids becoming close with anyone. The townspeople are prejudice towards Shrek because of his appearance which is similar to how certain people are prejudice based on skin color. Right after this, friendship formulation occurs between Shrek and Donkey. Like Shrek, Donkey has been treated
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 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 fairytale is not just about her journey to grandma’s house, or everyone knowing Little Red Riding Hood because she is a sweet little girl, the fairytale is giving us messages that we should help our elders and we should kind.