Shrek 2 - Could Use A Little Change

Three years after the success of the Academy Award-winning Shrek (2001), Dreamworks released the inevitable sequel, Shrek 2 in 2004. I had seen this in the theater when it first came out and loved it at the time, though I would later become burnt out on it due to overexposure. Having seen it again years later, shortly after re-watching the original Shrek, it seems to have held up well in some areas and aged poorly in others.

While on their honeymoon, Shrek (Mike Myers) and Fiona (Cameron Diaz), accompanied by Donkey (Eddie Murphy), are summoned to the kingdom of Far Far Away to celebrate their marriage with a royal ball. Upon arrival, however, things immediately get off to a rocky start when Fiona’s parents, King Harold (John Cleese) and Queen Lilian (Julie Andrews), have differing feelings about their daughter marrying an ogre. At the same time, Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), originally meant to marry Fiona, had arrived too late to rescue her from the dragon. As a result, he becomes part of a somewhat complex revenge scheme to make sure that he’s the one wed to Fiona instead of Shrek.

King Harold and Queen Lilian are surprised
to see that Fiona has married an ogre.

By comparison to the original film, Shrek 2 has a more complex and comparatively original plot with a larger cast of characters, more interesting villains and subplots which all contribute to the main plot. A major twist that comes near the end of the movie, and also contributes to the ultimate failure of the villain, is also set up with a surprising amount of foreshadowing and changes how the viewer looks at certain scenes. As the film explores life beyond the initial happy ending, its lesson is ultimately that you can be yourself and still make a relationship work, even a marriage. While rather simple, it’s pulled off rather effectively. Some of the humor in Shrek 2 is also still genuinely funny, though the cruder jokes seem to only exist to reinforce just how different Shrek was from its competition.

As befitting an animated sequel, the actual animation is a real improvement and has aged far better than the original Shrek. The character models are generally more detailed and the hair and liquid physics are comparatively closer to the real world. There’s also more detail in the backgrounds, along with improved lighting and a greater variety of locations.

With all of that said, however, it seems that Dreamworks truly did take a wrong lesson from the success of Shrek. Where the original had a rather minimal use of pop culture jokes and anachronistic references in its obviously medieval setting, Shrek 2 is absolutely filled to the brim with such references, so many, in fact, that it’s at times distracting. While some of the pop culture references predate the movie, including Alien (1979), The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Flashdance (1983), others were very contemporary at the time, including Spider-Man (2002), Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Mask of Zorro (1998). Other pop culture references, however, either come out of left field, such as the O.J. Simpson murder case of all things, or feel incredibly forced, such as one throwaway reference to Garfield’s catchphrase, “I hate Mondays.”

The anachronisms, as well, are far more numerous and harder to ignore. The most noticeable ones involve Far Far Away, as its modeled after Los Angeles and Southern California in general. The kingdom has its own equivalent to the Hollywood Sign and there are fairy tale versions of several real-world businesses, including, but not limited to, Starbucks, Burger King, Gap, Old Navy, Bob’s Big Boy and Tower Records (now defunct in the US). A particular anachronism that stretches the setting further relates to the original Shrek as well. In the first movie, the Magic Mirror could be controlled similarly to a recording, but still fit within the setting. In Shrek 2, however, television just straight-up exists, including a scene where a handful of side characters watch the show Knights (itself a parody of the show Cops) and another where Joan Rivers plays an announcer at the royal ball as though it were a live broadcast.

Notably, the home video release (not viewed for this review) contains yet another reference, an extended parody of American Idol called Far Far Away Idol which not only loosely follows the format of the show, but also literally includes Simon Cowell voicing an animated version of himself as a judge. There was even a way for viewers to vote on a winner of the competition (the official winner was Doris). Since American Idol was new at the time, it only made sense that Shrek 2 would want to reference it, but nowadays it only contributes to the “Early 2000s” vibe that permeates the film.

The home video release features an extended American Idol
parody in which Shrek (Mike Myers), Fiona (Cameron Diaz)
and Simon Cowell (Simon Cowell) are judges.

On that note, as with Shrek, Shrek 2 includes a good number of licensed songs. However, the ones performed in the movie are predominantly covers, including one for “Funkytown” by Lipps Inc. and two (yes, two) for “Holding Out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler. However, it does include some original material, including “Accidentally in Love” by Counting Crows, which would receive Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Song, as well as a Grammy nomination for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.

While Shrek 2 has arguably had less of a lasting impact on internet culture compared to the original Shrek, its presence as a pop culture powerhouse for the time cannot go unstated. Due to how well it stood out compared to its contemporaries, Shrek 2 was highly successful at the box office, making about $920 million against a budget of $150 million. As Dreamworks’ most successful film to date, it was the highest-grossing animated film of all time until Toy Story 3 (2010), the highest-grossing animated film in the US until Finding Dory (2016) and was the highest-grossing film of 2004. It was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature but lost to The Incredibles (2004).

The most lasting part of this film’s legacy, however, is the introduction of Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas). His popularity eventually led to a spin-off film, Puss in Boots (2011) and the Netflix series The Adventures of Puss in Boots, which lasted for 78 episodes across six seasons between 2015 and 2018.

Shrek 2 introduces the popular Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas).

While Shrek 2 improves on its predecessor in terms of story, character and humor, the higher concentration of pop culture nods and anachronistic elements are nearly a distraction. It’s easy to see why the movie was such a juggernaut on release, but now it’s a little harder to see where the movie truly shines without consciously peeling back the outer layer of dated references that haven’t aged as well as they could’ve. After 14 years, Shrek 2 is still an enjoyable film that’s worth viewing today, partly due to its historical significance, although the original Shrek gets a slight edge for its balance of story and references.

Shrek - It Ain't The Sharpest Tool In The Shed

Originally released in 2001, the original (Academy Award-winning) Shrek came out at a time when the Disney Renaissance had recently ended (and Pixar was not yet owned by them), shaking up the animation scene and putting DreamWorks Animation on the map. Shrek, based on a book by William Steig, has since become a multimedia franchise that set the tone for many of the studio’s follow-up films until the release of Kung Fu Panda in 2008, when the Shrek style of humor was falling out of favor. Though I first saw this movie when I was a kid, I had not seen it again for several years due to an overexposure to Shrek 2 and not getting around to my desire to rewatch the original until recently. While it has held up fairly decently in spite of its age, some aspects of the movie cause it to come off as rather dated.

While trying to enjoy his life of solitude in peace, Shrek’s (Mike Myers) swamp has become overrun by various fairy tale creatures who were thrown out of their homes by the ruler Lord Farquaad. Wanting to settle things with Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow), Shrek is accompanied by Donkey (Eddie Murphy), a talking donkey who knows the way to Duloc, Lord Farquaad’s residence. Shrek ends up winning a brief tournament and making a deal with Lord Farquaad to retrieve the princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz), whom Farquaad wants to marry, from a castle guarded by a dragon, in exchange for Shrek regaining the deed to his swamp.

The story of the original Shrek follows a more simplistic plotline, though this isn’t really a bad thing as it makes things easier to follow. I don’t know how much it differs from the original book, though the movie essentially takes the story beats of Disney movies at the time and places a different twist on them, with the title ogre character not exactly being your typical prince charming and yet still finding love in the end. While Shrek himself, like an onion, has a lot of layers to his character (a metaphor actually used in the movie), as does Princess Fiona, I can’t exactly say the same for Donkey or Lord Farquaad. While Donkey does have some emotional range aside from his wit, he comes off as more of an annoying chatterbox, leading characters (and possibly the viewer) to constantly want him to stay quiet for more than a few seconds. Farquaad doesn’t have much of a character either, being onscreen for less than ten minutes, though some aspects are evident through background design and visual gags and not entirely shoved in your face.

Shrek (Mike Myers; right) explains to Donkey (Eddie Murphy; left)
how ogres, like onions, have layers.

The animation hasn’t really stood the test of time, looking more or less unfinished by comparison to modern standards, however it is still watchable. This can be attributed to all-CG animation being in its infancy at the time (the last Pixar movie to come out was Toy Story 2), though it’s evident DreamWorks Animation put effort into making the animation look good for its time. That said, the liquid effects, especially mud, haven’t aged well at all.

As for the fairy-tale setting, while it is clear it’s meant to be a medieval aesthetic, there are some anachronisms such as modeling the façade of Duloc after a modern amusement park (including a parking lot, Farquaad mascot, turnstile and souvenir photo). That said, it otherwise sticks largely true to its art direction. This movie is also surprisingly minimal when it comes to pop culture references (ex. the magic mirror acts like a game show host and there’s a quip about celebrity marriages), though one that stands out is a reference to the (in)famous “bullet time” scene from The Matrix that has been parodied to hell and back. By comparison, its follow-up Shrek 2 contains even more pop culture jokes, which means to me that DreamWorks must’ve taken the wrong lesson from Shrek’s success when deciding to turn it into an ongoing franchise.

One of many anachronisms in the movie.

The voice acting is one aspect that has held up better, primarily amongst the four main characters. Mike Myers, prior to his career nosedive, gives a memorable performance as the titular Shrek character, his iconic Scottish accent allowing him to stand out from most of the other characters. Though his character can get grating, Eddie Murphy’s performance as Donkey makes sure that you won’t forget him anytime soon. Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow also do a good job with their respective roles of Princess Fiona and Lord Farquaar, Lithgow in particular being good enough to let you believe the character has more depth than he actually possesses. Though a bit character in this film, Conrad Vernon admittedly made the Gingerbread Man memorable, which may explain his (somewhat) expanded role in Shrek 2.

Unlike the Disney films it was making fun of, Shrek makes use of a number of licensed tracks, most notably the highly-memetic Smash Mouth song “All Star” during the opening credits and said band’s cover of The Monkees’ “I’m A Believer” towards the end. Rupert Holmes’ “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” is also used briefly in one scene, though the song would later receive more association with Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy. Donkey sings parts of a few other songs at different points in the movie, adding on to the aforementioned anachronistic pop culture references, though as with the other modern references they are brief and don’t really interrupt the narrative.

To say that Shrek made a splash on the internet is an understatement. In more recent years, the first film and its sequels made a resurgence in popularity via an ironic fandom that would become more unironic as time passed, including legitimate discussion on the franchise’s overall quality. Aside from various lines from the movies becoming memes on their own, a more tasteful meme for discussion is the previously-mentioned song “All Star” getting remixed and parodied into oblivion, with Shrek usually having some presence due to association. Chief among these is YouTuber Neil Cicierega creating the “Mouth” trilogy of remix albums that heavily feature “All Star” in some capacity, going so far as to include hidden references to the song that can only be found by digging into the sound files.

Rather notably, this movie takes some influence from some bad blood between DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg and former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Once Katzenberg was booted out of Disney and went on to co-found DreamWorks SKG (of which DreamWorks Animation is a subsidiary), he would later use the Shrek adaptation as an opportunity to get back at Eisner, to the point of having Lord Farquaad act as a caricature of him. The success of Shrek and its first sequel would also indirectly contribute to Eisner being eventually let go from Disney.

Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) is a caricature of Michael Eisner.

After 17 years, the original Shrek holds up pretty well, though the animation quality (by modern standards), crass humor and dated references bog it down a bit. That said, the story and its message are still good and its characters are memorable, which makes the film watchable even today. If anything, this film has become better known for its impact on internet culture, though it’s worth a look for its historical significance in feature animation (it won the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature after all) and makes for a generally enjoyable viewing. If you’re looking for a Disney parody that has better stood the test of time, I would instead suggest The Emperor’s New Groove, ironically made by Disney themselves and released just five months prior to Shrek.