Tweet
Fractured Fairy Tale: Remembering “Shrek” On Its 20th Anniversary
28A0EA93-E1C6-4B30-A383-F798DCFC68A6.jpeg
FRACTURED FAIRY TALE: REMEMBERING “SHREK” ON ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY
By Michael Coate
“Shrek sits alongside Spider-Man, Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter as one of the definitive ‘new’ franchises of the global tentpole era, while making both animated features and rom-coms ‘safe’ for male-centric protagonists and PG ratings.” – Scott Mendelson, box-office analyst
The Digital Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship are pleased to present this retrospective commemorating the 20th anniversary of the release of Shrek, PDI and DreamWorks Animation’s popular, award-winning animated film based upon William Steig’s picture book and featuring the voice talent of Mike Myers (Wayne’s World, Austin Powers), Eddie Murphy (Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America) and Cameron Diaz (The Mask, There’s Something About Mary).
Shrek, directed by Andrew Adamson (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and Vicky Jensen (Shark Tale) and also featuring the voice talent of John Lithgow (The World According to Garp, 3rd Rock from the Sun) as Lord Farquaad, was released to theaters twenty years ago this month. For the occasion The Bits features a package of statistics and box-office data that places the movie’s performance in context, along with passages from vintage film reviews, a reference/historical listing of the movie’s Digital Cinema presentations, and, finally, a film historian interview who reflects on the movie (and franchise) two decades after its debut.
In 2020 the Library of Congress selected Shrek for preservation in the National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant,” and earlier this month, Shrek was released for the first time on 4K UHD (and was recently reviewed here).
SHREK NUMBERS
1 = Box-office rank among animated movies released during 2001
1 = Number of Academy Awards
1 = Number of weeks nation’s top-grossing movie (Week 1)
1 = Rank among DreamWorks’ all-time top-earning movies at close of run
1 = Rank among top-earning movies during opening weekend
2 = Number of Academy Award nominations
2 = Rank among top-earning movies released during 2001 (calendar year)
3 = Box-office rank among Shrek movies (adjusted for inflation)
3 = Rank among top-earning movies starring Cameron Diaz (adjusted for inflation)
3 = Rank among top-earning movies starring Mike Myers (adjusted for inflation)
3 = Rank among DreamWorks’ all-time top-earning movies (adjusted for inflation)
4 = Rank among top-earning movies starring Eddie Murphy (adjusted for inflation)
4 = Rank among top-earning movies released during 2001 (legacy / lifetime / retroactive)
6 = Number of months between theatrical release and home video release
13 = Peak all-time box-office chart position
33 = Number of weeks in release
3,587 = Number of theaters playing the movie during opening weekend
$42.3 million = Opening-weekend box-office gross
$60.0 million = Production cost
$90.5 million = Production cost (adjusted for inflation)
$216.7 million = Box-office gross (international)
$267.7 million = Box-office gross (domestic)
$326.9 million = Box-office gross (international; adjusted for inflation)
$403.8 million = Box-office gross (domestic; adjusted for inflation)
$484.4 million = Box-office gross (worldwide)
$730.9 million = Box-office gross (worldwide; adjusted for inflation)
A SAMPLING OF REVIEW PASSAGES
“Two big thumbs up!” – Roger Ebert & Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper and the Movies
“It’s impossible to ogre-state the sheer fun of Shrek.” – Glenn Kenny, Premiere
“The characters are perfectly cast with stellar vocal talents. John Lithgow brings silken arrogance and iron-willed petulance to his effective voicing of Lord Farquaad. As Fiona, Cameron Diaz winningly conveys more than sufficient spunk and sensitivity for the movie’s revisionist take on the archetypical fairy-tale princess. Mike Myers – who, you may recall, played an even surlier Scottish-accented fellow in the last Austin Powers movie – hits all the right notes, light and dark, enabling Shrek to be likeable in spite of himself. And Eddie Murphy proves here, as he did in Mulan, that his sassy and brassy motor-mouth jive-talking qualifies as a special effect all by itself. Does Donkey steal the movie? You bet your… well, never mind, see and hear for yourself.” – Joe Leydon, San Francisco Examiner
“This animated fractured fairy tale is much like the little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead: When it’s good, it’s very good, and when it’s bad, it’s horrid. Full of industry jokes (for all those 6-year-olds who read Variety), the movie is gratingly ‘hip.’ It’s also clever, imaginative and fast-paced. If it only had a heart.” – Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, The Atlanta Constitution
“As swift and sophisticated as it comes.” – David Ansen, Newsweek
“The most enjoyable animated movie since Toy Story burst out of its box.” – Susan Wloszczyna, USA Today
“Shrek is a world-class charmer that could even seduce the Academy when it hands out the first official animation Oscar next year.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
“A gleeful piece of wisenheimer computer animation, Shrek doesn’t have much patience for traditional once-upon-a-time fairy tales: The only time one appears, its pages end up as reading material and then some in the hero’s outhouse…. Smarty constructed to appeal to children and their parents, this fractured fairy tale not only knows there’s no substitute for clever writing, it also has the confidence to take that information straight to the bank.” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
“Beating up on the irritatingly dainty Disney trademarks is nothing new; it’s just that it has rarely been done with the demolition-derby zest of Shrek.” – Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times
“Shrek, which outdoes PDI/DreamWorks’ own Antz, has a beautifully sharp, realistic look. But beyond that, it’s a gas to watch.” – Desson Howe, The Washington Post
“With Shrek, DreamWorks stakes its claim to Disney’s cutting-edge animation crown while blowing a raspberry in Mickey Mouse’s face.” – Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune
“The movie is wall-to-window-to-door noise, babbling and jokes, and demographically it’s a hard-sell shotgun spray.” – Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice
“With scintillating animation, [Shrek] needles the Disney magic while honoring its spirit.” – Jay Carr, The Boston Globe
“Shrek is an instant animated classic. Rudely sending up even the most beloved fairy tale traditions while at the same time effectively embodying them, this spirited and often very funny lark accomplishes something that most films in the bygone Hollywood studio era used to do but is remarkably rare in today’s world of niche markets: It offers entertainment equally to viewers 4 to 104. This story of an ogre’s odyssey from contented oblivion to unexpected love will make out like a Prince Charming wherever it plays, repping a bonanza for DreamWorks theatrically and forever after in home-viewing markets.” – Todd McCarthy, Variety
THE DIGITAL CINEMA PRESENTATIONS
Shrek opened in North America in 3,587 theaters in 35mm. Eleven of the bookings were in the nascent Digital Cinema format.
ARIZONA
Peoria – Harkins Arrowhead Fountains 18
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Richmond – Famous Players SilverCity Riverport 19 [unpromoted]
CALIFORNIA
Burbank – AMC Media Center North 6
Irvine – Edwards Irvine Spectrum 21
San Francisco – AMC 1000 Van Ness 14
FLORIDA
Lake Buena Vista – AMC Pleasure island 24 [unpromoted]
ILLINOIS
South Barrington – AMC South Barrington 30
NEW YORK
New York – Loews 42nd Street E-Walk 13
OHIO
Valley View – Cinemark Valley View 24
ONTARIO
Toronto – Famous Players Paramount 14 [unpromoted]
TEXAS
Plano – Cinemark Legacy 24
THE Q&A
Scott Mendelson is a box-office analyst for Forbes.
Scott kindly spoke to The Bits about the appeal and legacy of Shrek. (He was previously interviewed for this column’s retrospectives on Batman Returns, Howard the Duck and The Matrix.)
Michael Coate (The Digital Bits): How do you think Shrek ought to be remembered and/or celebrated on its 20th anniversary?
Scott Mendelson: Shrek was the first full-fledged theatrical animated franchise. Yes, we had some “were supposed to be on VHS or DVD” sequels (Peter Pan: Return to Neverland, Toy Story 2) and a couple of Disney toons that got theatrically-intended follow-ups (The Rescuers Down Under andFantasia 2000), but Shrek popped up on the scene right as Hollywood was going all-in on globally-viable, four-quadrant fantasy franchises, and Shrek was absolutely it for a generation in terms of animated properties. When viewing the early 2000s as the start of Hollywood’s tentpole fever, Shrek belongs alongside Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter and Spider-Man as the “ones that started it all,” for better or worse. It was also arguably the first animated franchise that was explicitly intended to appeal as much to adults as to kids. It wasn’t just “this Disney feature is so good that you’ll like it too,” it was half snarky grown-up satire, half mature grown-up romantic comedy, all massaged into a still kid-friendly PG-rated package (back when most toons were still G-rated) featuring grown-up movie stars (Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Mike Myers).
Coate: When did you first see Shrek?
Mendelson: I saw the film on its domestic opening night and was quite fond of it. Again, with all the talk of how it was a sarcastic jab at Walt Disney and the consumerism of the fairy tale IP landscape, it worked primarily because it remembered into be a thoughtful and nuanced “human” character comedy as well, a film that could be enjoyed whether or not you “got” or cared about the Disney barbs or the “adult” humor. Likewise, the sequels (the terrific Shrek 2 and the not-so-terrific Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After) put the romantic melodrama between Shrek and Fiona front-and-center, with the in-jokes and pop culture references acting as a seasoning rather than the main course. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, but we should remember that the MCU works as well as it does because it makes the interlocked continuity a “bonus” amid a character-driven character dramedy/action fantasy, rather than the core reason for existence.
Coate: In what way is Shrek a significant motion picture?
Mendelson: Its blow-out success changed the course of DreamWorks Animation, and Hollywood animated films in general. First, it cemented the fact that a PG rating was no longer “dangerous” for a toon. Second, it along with Toy Story led to the comparative “bro-ification” of animated films. Like the Judd Apatow films a few years later, Shrek took a genre that was generally considered “female-driven” and made it “safe” for men. Of course, the bad news is that once Hollywood realized they could score big bucks by centering rom-coms and animated flicks around male protagonists, they did so to the near-extinction (for a decade anyway) of female-led toons and (for much, much longer) female-led romantic comedies.
As for DreamWorks, the perceived reasons for its success (the pop culture references, the modern music, the PG-rated jokes, the all-star cast) became the template for modern American animation. Of course, I’d argue DWA’s Madagascar cemented this trend and cemented popular critical consensus about DWA. No matter, DWA went from offering a darker, more mature and more boundary-pushing animated film (Antz, Prince of Egypt, etc.) to being known as a lesser “funny animals spouting hip lingo” studio, no matter how good some of those films (How to Train Your Dragon, Over the Hedge, Kung Fu Panda, etc.) turned out to be.
Coate: Why do you think Shrek was so successful?
Mendelson: Because, and I cannot repeat this enough, DreamWorks didn’t rely on the marketing hooks (the cast the Disney jokes, the PG-rated content) to take over the movies. Audiences liked Myers’ Shrek, Diaz’s Fiona and Murphy’s Donkey, and they absolutely wanted to see them in another adventure. Shrek 2 benefited by (A) bringing Antonio Banderas’ Puss in Boots and Rupert Everett’s Prince Charming to the table as added-value characters and (B) having a hook “What happens after Happily Ever After?” that was both universal and specific to these specific characters. Shrek 2opened huge ($128 million over Wed-Sun, including a then-record $44 million Saturday) because audiences saw and loved Shrek.
Shrek 2 legged out to $440 million domestic (and $919 million worldwide) in 2004 because it was a terrific movie and played well alongside Spider-Man 2 in a more adult-skewing (Bourne Supremacy, Troy, Collateral, etc.) summer. Shrek the Third opened with a $122 million Fri-Sun debut (a then-record for a toon) because audiences loved Shrek and Shrek 2. But it flatlined (a still huge $321 million domestic) because it wasn’t very good (and had plenty of kid-friendly summer competition alongside Pirates 3, Spider-Man 3, Transformers and Harry Potter 6), and thus Shrek Forever After opened “soft” with $70 million in 2010. Beyond quality, it was the first ongoing animated franchise after Toy Story with marquee characters whom audiences wanted to follow from theatrical movie to theatrical movie.
Coate: Acting in animated productions rarely gets the credit I think it deserves. Can you discuss the performances in Shrek? Where do you think Shrek ranks among the body of work of Myers, Murphy, Diaz and Lithgow?
Mendelson: It wasn’t good news for actual voice-over actors, who have spent 25 years or so fighting off A-list (and frankly often D-list) celebrities for prime voice-over roles. However, Shrek really was the first big animated franchise which was sold on the alleged grown-up bankability of its cast. In terms of performances, their voice over work is as good as anything they’ve ever done in live-action or otherwise. It helps that the films are character-driven and mostly dialogue-driven, so the stars could treat it as a conventional live-action romantic comedy. Still, the core performances are absolutely essential (at least where it wasn’t dubbed overseas) to the success of both the first Shrek and the sequels. I won’t begin to speculate how it would have played with Chris Farley’s original vocals, or if Myers hadn’t convinced DWA to let him re-record his entire role with a Scottish accent, but the specificity of the characters were essential to the films’ success.
Coate: What is the legacy of Shrek?
Mendelson: It sits alongside Spider-Man, Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter as one of the definitive “new” franchises of the global tentpole era, while making both animated features and rom-coms “safe” for male-centric protagonists and PG ratings. Its pop culture impact completely altered the narrative for DWA while setting a template for countless copycats, none of which (save maybe for the middle Ice Age sequels) would match its global success until it closed its book in 2010, months before Illumination’s Despicable Me would launch Illumination into the stratosphere. Its success may have been defined in the media and the zeitgeist as being a bawdy, star-studded grown-up cartoon with sharp satirical arrows aimed at Disney, but Shrek and its sequels worked in spite of those easily-dated elements, and because the film made sure to work as a singular animated franchise that works as one of the more thoughtful and realistic portrayals of marriage and parenthood in any mainstream Hollywood biggie, animated or otherwise.
Coate: Thank you, Scott, for sharing your thoughts about Shrek on the occasion of its 20th anniversary.
IMAGES
Selected images copyright/courtesy DreamWorks Animation, DreamWorks Pictures, PDI (Pacific Data Images), Paramount Home Entertainment.
SOURCES/REFERENCES
The primary references for this project were regional newspaper coverage and trade reports published in Boxoffice, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, and interviews conducted by the author. All figures and data pertain to North America (i.e. United States and Canada) except where stated otherwise.
SPECIAL THANKS
David Ayers, Don Beelik, Beverly Carver (University of Texas at Arlington), Sarah Dana (Carlsbad City Library), Matthew Nye (San Diego Public Library), Mary Schaff (Washington State Library), Laura Ruttum Senturia (Denver Public Library), Adam (Cleveland Public Library).
IN MEMORIAM
Kathleen Freeman (“Old Woman”), 1919-2001
William Steig (book on which Shrek was based), 1907-2003
Peter Dennis (“Ogre Hunter”), 1933-2009
Kelly Asbury (story artist [and co-director of Shrek 2]), 1960-2020
Originally posted by The Digital Bits/Michael Coate
28A0EA93-E1C6-4B30-A383-F798DCFC68A6.jpeg
FRACTURED FAIRY TALE: REMEMBERING “SHREK” ON ITS 20TH ANNIVERSARY
By Michael Coate
“Shrek sits alongside Spider-Man, Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter as one of the definitive ‘new’ franchises of the global tentpole era, while making both animated features and rom-coms ‘safe’ for male-centric protagonists and PG ratings.” – Scott Mendelson, box-office analyst
The Digital Bits and History, Legacy & Showmanship are pleased to present this retrospective commemorating the 20th anniversary of the release of Shrek, PDI and DreamWorks Animation’s popular, award-winning animated film based upon William Steig’s picture book and featuring the voice talent of Mike Myers (Wayne’s World, Austin Powers), Eddie Murphy (Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America) and Cameron Diaz (The Mask, There’s Something About Mary).
Shrek, directed by Andrew Adamson (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and Vicky Jensen (Shark Tale) and also featuring the voice talent of John Lithgow (The World According to Garp, 3rd Rock from the Sun) as Lord Farquaad, was released to theaters twenty years ago this month. For the occasion The Bits features a package of statistics and box-office data that places the movie’s performance in context, along with passages from vintage film reviews, a reference/historical listing of the movie’s Digital Cinema presentations, and, finally, a film historian interview who reflects on the movie (and franchise) two decades after its debut.
In 2020 the Library of Congress selected Shrek for preservation in the National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant,” and earlier this month, Shrek was released for the first time on 4K UHD (and was recently reviewed here).
SHREK NUMBERS
1 = Box-office rank among animated movies released during 2001
1 = Number of Academy Awards
1 = Number of weeks nation’s top-grossing movie (Week 1)
1 = Rank among DreamWorks’ all-time top-earning movies at close of run
1 = Rank among top-earning movies during opening weekend
2 = Number of Academy Award nominations
2 = Rank among top-earning movies released during 2001 (calendar year)
3 = Box-office rank among Shrek movies (adjusted for inflation)
3 = Rank among top-earning movies starring Cameron Diaz (adjusted for inflation)
3 = Rank among top-earning movies starring Mike Myers (adjusted for inflation)
3 = Rank among DreamWorks’ all-time top-earning movies (adjusted for inflation)
4 = Rank among top-earning movies starring Eddie Murphy (adjusted for inflation)
4 = Rank among top-earning movies released during 2001 (legacy / lifetime / retroactive)
6 = Number of months between theatrical release and home video release
13 = Peak all-time box-office chart position
33 = Number of weeks in release
3,587 = Number of theaters playing the movie during opening weekend
$42.3 million = Opening-weekend box-office gross
$60.0 million = Production cost
$90.5 million = Production cost (adjusted for inflation)
$216.7 million = Box-office gross (international)
$267.7 million = Box-office gross (domestic)
$326.9 million = Box-office gross (international; adjusted for inflation)
$403.8 million = Box-office gross (domestic; adjusted for inflation)
$484.4 million = Box-office gross (worldwide)
$730.9 million = Box-office gross (worldwide; adjusted for inflation)
A SAMPLING OF REVIEW PASSAGES
“Two big thumbs up!” – Roger Ebert & Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper and the Movies
“It’s impossible to ogre-state the sheer fun of Shrek.” – Glenn Kenny, Premiere
“The characters are perfectly cast with stellar vocal talents. John Lithgow brings silken arrogance and iron-willed petulance to his effective voicing of Lord Farquaad. As Fiona, Cameron Diaz winningly conveys more than sufficient spunk and sensitivity for the movie’s revisionist take on the archetypical fairy-tale princess. Mike Myers – who, you may recall, played an even surlier Scottish-accented fellow in the last Austin Powers movie – hits all the right notes, light and dark, enabling Shrek to be likeable in spite of himself. And Eddie Murphy proves here, as he did in Mulan, that his sassy and brassy motor-mouth jive-talking qualifies as a special effect all by itself. Does Donkey steal the movie? You bet your… well, never mind, see and hear for yourself.” – Joe Leydon, San Francisco Examiner
“This animated fractured fairy tale is much like the little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead: When it’s good, it’s very good, and when it’s bad, it’s horrid. Full of industry jokes (for all those 6-year-olds who read Variety), the movie is gratingly ‘hip.’ It’s also clever, imaginative and fast-paced. If it only had a heart.” – Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, The Atlanta Constitution
“As swift and sophisticated as it comes.” – David Ansen, Newsweek
“The most enjoyable animated movie since Toy Story burst out of its box.” – Susan Wloszczyna, USA Today
“Shrek is a world-class charmer that could even seduce the Academy when it hands out the first official animation Oscar next year.” – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
“A gleeful piece of wisenheimer computer animation, Shrek doesn’t have much patience for traditional once-upon-a-time fairy tales: The only time one appears, its pages end up as reading material and then some in the hero’s outhouse…. Smarty constructed to appeal to children and their parents, this fractured fairy tale not only knows there’s no substitute for clever writing, it also has the confidence to take that information straight to the bank.” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
“Beating up on the irritatingly dainty Disney trademarks is nothing new; it’s just that it has rarely been done with the demolition-derby zest of Shrek.” – Elvis Mitchell, The New York Times
“Shrek, which outdoes PDI/DreamWorks’ own Antz, has a beautifully sharp, realistic look. But beyond that, it’s a gas to watch.” – Desson Howe, The Washington Post
“With Shrek, DreamWorks stakes its claim to Disney’s cutting-edge animation crown while blowing a raspberry in Mickey Mouse’s face.” – Mark Caro, Chicago Tribune
“The movie is wall-to-window-to-door noise, babbling and jokes, and demographically it’s a hard-sell shotgun spray.” – Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice
“With scintillating animation, [Shrek] needles the Disney magic while honoring its spirit.” – Jay Carr, The Boston Globe
“Shrek is an instant animated classic. Rudely sending up even the most beloved fairy tale traditions while at the same time effectively embodying them, this spirited and often very funny lark accomplishes something that most films in the bygone Hollywood studio era used to do but is remarkably rare in today’s world of niche markets: It offers entertainment equally to viewers 4 to 104. This story of an ogre’s odyssey from contented oblivion to unexpected love will make out like a Prince Charming wherever it plays, repping a bonanza for DreamWorks theatrically and forever after in home-viewing markets.” – Todd McCarthy, Variety
THE DIGITAL CINEMA PRESENTATIONS
Shrek opened in North America in 3,587 theaters in 35mm. Eleven of the bookings were in the nascent Digital Cinema format.
ARIZONA
Peoria – Harkins Arrowhead Fountains 18
BRITISH COLUMBIA
Richmond – Famous Players SilverCity Riverport 19 [unpromoted]
CALIFORNIA
Burbank – AMC Media Center North 6
Irvine – Edwards Irvine Spectrum 21
San Francisco – AMC 1000 Van Ness 14
FLORIDA
Lake Buena Vista – AMC Pleasure island 24 [unpromoted]
ILLINOIS
South Barrington – AMC South Barrington 30
NEW YORK
New York – Loews 42nd Street E-Walk 13
OHIO
Valley View – Cinemark Valley View 24
ONTARIO
Toronto – Famous Players Paramount 14 [unpromoted]
TEXAS
Plano – Cinemark Legacy 24
THE Q&A
Scott Mendelson is a box-office analyst for Forbes.
Scott kindly spoke to The Bits about the appeal and legacy of Shrek. (He was previously interviewed for this column’s retrospectives on Batman Returns, Howard the Duck and The Matrix.)
Michael Coate (The Digital Bits): How do you think Shrek ought to be remembered and/or celebrated on its 20th anniversary?
Scott Mendelson: Shrek was the first full-fledged theatrical animated franchise. Yes, we had some “were supposed to be on VHS or DVD” sequels (Peter Pan: Return to Neverland, Toy Story 2) and a couple of Disney toons that got theatrically-intended follow-ups (The Rescuers Down Under andFantasia 2000), but Shrek popped up on the scene right as Hollywood was going all-in on globally-viable, four-quadrant fantasy franchises, and Shrek was absolutely it for a generation in terms of animated properties. When viewing the early 2000s as the start of Hollywood’s tentpole fever, Shrek belongs alongside Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter and Spider-Man as the “ones that started it all,” for better or worse. It was also arguably the first animated franchise that was explicitly intended to appeal as much to adults as to kids. It wasn’t just “this Disney feature is so good that you’ll like it too,” it was half snarky grown-up satire, half mature grown-up romantic comedy, all massaged into a still kid-friendly PG-rated package (back when most toons were still G-rated) featuring grown-up movie stars (Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Mike Myers).
Coate: When did you first see Shrek?
Mendelson: I saw the film on its domestic opening night and was quite fond of it. Again, with all the talk of how it was a sarcastic jab at Walt Disney and the consumerism of the fairy tale IP landscape, it worked primarily because it remembered into be a thoughtful and nuanced “human” character comedy as well, a film that could be enjoyed whether or not you “got” or cared about the Disney barbs or the “adult” humor. Likewise, the sequels (the terrific Shrek 2 and the not-so-terrific Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After) put the romantic melodrama between Shrek and Fiona front-and-center, with the in-jokes and pop culture references acting as a seasoning rather than the main course. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, but we should remember that the MCU works as well as it does because it makes the interlocked continuity a “bonus” amid a character-driven character dramedy/action fantasy, rather than the core reason for existence.
Coate: In what way is Shrek a significant motion picture?
Mendelson: Its blow-out success changed the course of DreamWorks Animation, and Hollywood animated films in general. First, it cemented the fact that a PG rating was no longer “dangerous” for a toon. Second, it along with Toy Story led to the comparative “bro-ification” of animated films. Like the Judd Apatow films a few years later, Shrek took a genre that was generally considered “female-driven” and made it “safe” for men. Of course, the bad news is that once Hollywood realized they could score big bucks by centering rom-coms and animated flicks around male protagonists, they did so to the near-extinction (for a decade anyway) of female-led toons and (for much, much longer) female-led romantic comedies.
As for DreamWorks, the perceived reasons for its success (the pop culture references, the modern music, the PG-rated jokes, the all-star cast) became the template for modern American animation. Of course, I’d argue DWA’s Madagascar cemented this trend and cemented popular critical consensus about DWA. No matter, DWA went from offering a darker, more mature and more boundary-pushing animated film (Antz, Prince of Egypt, etc.) to being known as a lesser “funny animals spouting hip lingo” studio, no matter how good some of those films (How to Train Your Dragon, Over the Hedge, Kung Fu Panda, etc.) turned out to be.
Coate: Why do you think Shrek was so successful?
Mendelson: Because, and I cannot repeat this enough, DreamWorks didn’t rely on the marketing hooks (the cast the Disney jokes, the PG-rated content) to take over the movies. Audiences liked Myers’ Shrek, Diaz’s Fiona and Murphy’s Donkey, and they absolutely wanted to see them in another adventure. Shrek 2 benefited by (A) bringing Antonio Banderas’ Puss in Boots and Rupert Everett’s Prince Charming to the table as added-value characters and (B) having a hook “What happens after Happily Ever After?” that was both universal and specific to these specific characters. Shrek 2opened huge ($128 million over Wed-Sun, including a then-record $44 million Saturday) because audiences saw and loved Shrek.
Shrek 2 legged out to $440 million domestic (and $919 million worldwide) in 2004 because it was a terrific movie and played well alongside Spider-Man 2 in a more adult-skewing (Bourne Supremacy, Troy, Collateral, etc.) summer. Shrek the Third opened with a $122 million Fri-Sun debut (a then-record for a toon) because audiences loved Shrek and Shrek 2. But it flatlined (a still huge $321 million domestic) because it wasn’t very good (and had plenty of kid-friendly summer competition alongside Pirates 3, Spider-Man 3, Transformers and Harry Potter 6), and thus Shrek Forever After opened “soft” with $70 million in 2010. Beyond quality, it was the first ongoing animated franchise after Toy Story with marquee characters whom audiences wanted to follow from theatrical movie to theatrical movie.
Coate: Acting in animated productions rarely gets the credit I think it deserves. Can you discuss the performances in Shrek? Where do you think Shrek ranks among the body of work of Myers, Murphy, Diaz and Lithgow?
Mendelson: It wasn’t good news for actual voice-over actors, who have spent 25 years or so fighting off A-list (and frankly often D-list) celebrities for prime voice-over roles. However, Shrek really was the first big animated franchise which was sold on the alleged grown-up bankability of its cast. In terms of performances, their voice over work is as good as anything they’ve ever done in live-action or otherwise. It helps that the films are character-driven and mostly dialogue-driven, so the stars could treat it as a conventional live-action romantic comedy. Still, the core performances are absolutely essential (at least where it wasn’t dubbed overseas) to the success of both the first Shrek and the sequels. I won’t begin to speculate how it would have played with Chris Farley’s original vocals, or if Myers hadn’t convinced DWA to let him re-record his entire role with a Scottish accent, but the specificity of the characters were essential to the films’ success.
Coate: What is the legacy of Shrek?
Mendelson: It sits alongside Spider-Man, Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter as one of the definitive “new” franchises of the global tentpole era, while making both animated features and rom-coms “safe” for male-centric protagonists and PG ratings. Its pop culture impact completely altered the narrative for DWA while setting a template for countless copycats, none of which (save maybe for the middle Ice Age sequels) would match its global success until it closed its book in 2010, months before Illumination’s Despicable Me would launch Illumination into the stratosphere. Its success may have been defined in the media and the zeitgeist as being a bawdy, star-studded grown-up cartoon with sharp satirical arrows aimed at Disney, but Shrek and its sequels worked in spite of those easily-dated elements, and because the film made sure to work as a singular animated franchise that works as one of the more thoughtful and realistic portrayals of marriage and parenthood in any mainstream Hollywood biggie, animated or otherwise.
Coate: Thank you, Scott, for sharing your thoughts about Shrek on the occasion of its 20th anniversary.
IMAGES
Selected images copyright/courtesy DreamWorks Animation, DreamWorks Pictures, PDI (Pacific Data Images), Paramount Home Entertainment.
SOURCES/REFERENCES
The primary references for this project were regional newspaper coverage and trade reports published in Boxoffice, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, and interviews conducted by the author. All figures and data pertain to North America (i.e. United States and Canada) except where stated otherwise.
SPECIAL THANKS
David Ayers, Don Beelik, Beverly Carver (University of Texas at Arlington), Sarah Dana (Carlsbad City Library), Matthew Nye (San Diego Public Library), Mary Schaff (Washington State Library), Laura Ruttum Senturia (Denver Public Library), Adam (Cleveland Public Library).
IN MEMORIAM
Kathleen Freeman (“Old Woman”), 1919-2001
William Steig (book on which Shrek was based), 1907-2003
Peter Dennis (“Ogre Hunter”), 1933-2009
Kelly Asbury (story artist [and co-director of Shrek 2]), 1960-2020