Shrek

Shrek is a computer-animated movie adaptation of William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture-book of the same name. It was released by DreamWorks SKG in May 2001. It was the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, a category introduced in 2002. more...

It was released on DVD on November 2, 2001.

The name Shrek is taken from the Yiddish word שרעק (pronounced Shreck) meaning 'fear, terror'.

The film features the voices of Mike Myers as a large green troublesome ogre named Shrek, Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona, Eddie Murphy as a talkative donkey, and John Lithgow as the vain Lord Farquaad (whose name is a less than subtle play on an insult that begins with a four-letter word and ends with "wad").

The voice of Shrek was originally recorded by Chris Farley. After his death, Mike Myers was brought on to replace him. After Myers had completed providing the voice for the character and the movie was well into production, he asked to be allowed to re-record all of his lines in a Scottish accent similar to the one his mother used when she told him bedtime stories.

It was critically acclaimed as an animated film worthy of adult interest, with many adult-oriented jokes and themes but a simple enough plot and humor to appeal to children. It made notable use of pop music—the soundtrack includes music by Smash Mouth, The Proclaimers, Jason Wade, The Baha Men, and Rufus Wainwright.

The film was extremely successful on release in 2001 and it helped establish DreamWorks as a prime competitor to Walt Disney Pictures in the field of feature film animation, particularly in computer animation. Furthermore, Shrek was made the mascot for the company's animation productions.

Plot

The story tells how the ogre Shrek is forced by Lord Farquaad to rescue Princess Fiona from a dragon for Farquaad to marry. Along the way, Shrek befriends a talking Donkey, and falls in love with Fiona.

Shrek lives a quiet and lonely life in his small Swamp, until his peace is disturbed by the arrival of a host of fairytale creatures exiled by Lord Farquaad, ruler of the nearby dominion of DuLoc. Farquaad agrees to remove the creatures if Shrek rescues and brings to him Princess Fiona, who is imprisoned in a castle guarded by a dragon, awaiting the knight who will rescue her.

After many (mis)adventures in which Shrek is consistently irritated by the friendly but overly talkative Donkey, Shrek manages to rescue Fiona from the dragon. The female dragon falls in love with Donkey. Fiona, having assumed that her rescuer would be Prince Charming, is shocked to find that Shrek is actually an Ogre. Shrek, underneath his tough and non-caring exterior, develops romantic feelings for Fiona.

On the way back, Donkey discovers that Fiona is under a curse which causes her to turn into an Ogre every night. The only way to break the curse is to be kissed by her true love. While Fiona laments to Donkey that she is ugly, Shrek (who having finally made up his mind to propose is bringing flowers to her) partially overhears and thinks that Fiona is calling him ugly.

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