The opening notes of Smash Mouth’s “All Star” have a spiritual significance to fans of DreamWorks’s 2001 masterpiece, Shrek. Like many songs in the movie, it endorses being your own person and taking risks—core tenets of the Shrek philosophy. As Smash Mouth reminds us that “only shooting stars break the mold,” Shrek ignites a fire by belching and a hoard of angry villagers prepares to confront him.
We quickly understand that while Shrek is brazenly unhygienic by human standards, he is a nonetheless an ogre who appreciates the finer things. He simply wants to light a couple of earwax candles, sit by the warm fire, and unwind. Instead, a slew of magical creatures invade his home. In his quest for permanent peace and quiet, Shrek becomes an unwitting savior to this cast of recently displaced fairy tale creatures.
The history of Shrek has always fascinated me. DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg had recently departed Disney on acrimonious terms, and as one of the first films produced by DreamWorks, Shrek‘s humor took inspiration from the situation. For instance, Lord Farquaad is allegedly a parody of Disney’s former CEO Michael Eisner, who had blocked Katzenberg from becoming President of Disney. Another example is the town of Duloc, which carries an uncanny resemblance to Walt Disney Land.
On the production side, animators were assigned to Shrek after doing poorly on other projects, a process known as being “Shreked.” While this was seen as a demotion at the time, I can only imagine it’s a source of pride today. Especially since many of the iconic voices you hear in Shrek (think Pinocchio, the Gingerbread Man, and the Big Bad Wolf) were provided by members of the production team.
Over 20 years after its release, Shrek remains very much in the public consciousness. The choice to incorporate pop culture references into the dialogue was bold at the time, but now feels like a given. Shrek memes are a currency that some of us still deal in, and “Shrek Raves” have popped up across the country, where partygoers wear ogre accessories and dance to hits from the franchise.
Shrek is an undisputed classic. It was the first non-Disney animated film to be selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, and is one of two animated films from this century to be preserved (Wall-E also holds that distinction). Shrek competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2001, a rare honor for an animated film. It’s easy to take for granted the massive influence Shrek has on pop culture, but for every iconoclastic grump who graces the big screen, there’s a Scottish ogre who had to fight for his swamp so they could get there.
Shrek
2001
dir. Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson
90 min.
Screens Tuesday, 7/19 @ Coolidge Corner
Part of the ongoing series: Big Screen Classics
