Shrek review
Shrek is a comedic, fairy tale that follows Shrek an ogre, Princess Fiona, and Donkey, that challenges your expectations of a fairy tale, but also has a positive underlying message that tells everyone that they are beautiful. The movie opens by reading a fairy tale that roughly explains the overarching plot of a knight rescuing a cursed princess from a castle that's guarded by a dragon and she can only be cured of her curse by “true love's first kiss.” At the end of the scene Shrek’s hand rips the page of the book and he mocks the story. From the start of the film it continually subverts the viewer’s expectations by making the main character an ogre which are usually the antagonists of the story. More examples of these differences include: the dragon that guards Fiona's castle falling in love with Donkey, The king wearing stilt legs to appear taller, The kingdom being closer to an amusement park than a castle, and even the ending of the film.
The characters in Shrek are well written and well developed and add a lot to the enjoyment of this movie. Each of the main characters are well established in the movie and have unexpected qualities that are outside the norms for these types of characters. An example of this comes from the second act, when the group coming from the castle is ambushed by Robin Hood and his Merry Men who believe they are saving the princess from an ogre. Robin Hood and his men sing a song that explains who they are, but Fiona interrupts them by fighting them showing her to be a capable independent character. This trait of Fiona’s character is in stark opposition to the traditional role of the helpless princess who needs to be rescued.
The writing in Shrek takes advantage of its animation by creating visuals to match the facial expressions of the characters to convey the emotion of the scene. These scenes are most common at the end of the movie when it is revealed that Fiona is cursed to turn into an ogre at night and when the curse is lifted by Shrek she becomes an ogre at all times. The character development in this story depends on these scenes to be able to show the viewer how the characters feel. Along with the visuals the soundtrack plays upbeat classics such as Smash Mouth’s All Star and emotional like Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah that really assist in setting the mood of each scene.
At the end of the movie Shrek bursts through the doors of a church to stop the wedding, and ends up lifting Fiona’s curse with a kiss. She looks surprised when she realized that she is still and ogre and asks why she isn't beautiful. Shrek then tells her she is beautiful and the movie ends. This ending challenges the traditional narrative where a curse being lifted would turn her into a human full time. This ending tells the viewer that all people are beautiful and that people should love themselves for who they are. 8/10
I enjoyed reading this because Shrek is a classic film especially for the kids of our generation who grew up watching it, as well as the sequels. I also liked the idea the author brought up about every character having there own unexpected qualities, as this is a major point in the grand scheme of the plot. Lastly it's interesting to hear the opinion of the author regarding animation, as I never considered how facial expressions during animation can have such a large effect on the quality of the film overall.
ReplyDeleteI really like your movie review! I like how you kind of summarized it without spilling all the details, because I've seen this movie tens of times, but I don't remember a lot of it. I think you did great with mentioning the writing style the movie producer used and what you think is compelling.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great review. I liked all of the examples of how this fairytale was not the stereotypical fairytale. I really liked how you included the music and described how it helped set the tone of the movie. Also, you did a great job identifying the message of the movie.
ReplyDeleteThis was a great review. I feel like shrek is written off as a joke of a movie, but you really did a good job giving it the credit it deserves. You also summarized the film very well.
ReplyDeleteI loved the movie review. I think we all agree that Shrek is a fantastic movie. Your review did the movie justice by laying out the plot. I also like how much attention you paid to the animation in the movie. It's something that seems so simple but can make all the difference in the world.
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