Shrek

Shrek is a computer-animated film adaptation of William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture book of the same name. It was directed by New Zealander Andrew Adamson and animated by DreamWorks Animation SKG in May 2001. more...

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It was the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, a category introduced in 2001. It was released on DVD on November 2, 2001.

The name Shrek is taken from the Yiddish word שרעק (pronounced Shreck) meaning 'fear', 'terror', or (in its closest sense) 'fright', and the German "Schreck" with the same meaning. The film features the voices of Mike Myers as a large, strong, peace-loving green ogre named Shrek, Cameron Diaz as the beautiful and feisty Princess Fiona, Eddie Murphy as a talkative donkey named Donkey, and John Lithgow as the villainous Lord Farquaad. Chris Farley was originally going to do the voice for Shrek and did at least half of the audio for the voice, but died before the project was completed. Dreamworks then re-cast the voice role to Mike Myers. 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. Myers had also employed this character voicing for a skit during his Saturday Night Live tenure, and also for the character Stuart MacKenzie in the motion picture So I Married an Axe Murderer.

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, Joan Jett, 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.

This film is third on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". Shrek was also ranked second in a Channel 4 poll of the 100 greatest family films, losing out on the top spot to E.T..

Plot

The story tells how the ogre Shrek is forced by Lord Farquaad to rescue Princess Fiona from an amorous dragon for Farquaad to marry. Along the way, Shrek befriends a talking Donkey, and falls in love with Fiona. The film is set in a fairytale, with funny appearances from commonly known fairytale characters.

Detailed synopsis

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" (like the Gingerbread man and Pinnochio), who were exiled from the nearby dominion of Duloc by its ruler, the vain (and exceedingly short) Lord Farquaad. One creature who escaped Farquaad's purge is the extremely-talkative Donkey; he and Shrek travel together to Duloc in an attempt to rid Shrek's swamp of the intruders. After defeating many of Duloc's knights in a tournament, Shrek accepts a bargain wherein Farquaad agrees to remove the creatures if Shrek rescues and brings to him Princess Fiona, a princess who is imprisoned in a castle guarded by a dragon, awaiting the knight who will rescue her. Only if Farquaad is able to marry a princess may he assume the title of King.

Read more at Wikipedia.org