Shrek

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Information about Shrek

Shrek is a 2001 (11 years ago) computer-animated American comedy film, directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, and starring the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz (31 walls), and John Lithgow. Based on William Steig's 1990 (22 years ago) fairy tale picture (wallpaper) book Shrek!, the movie was produced by DreamWorks Animation. Shrek was the first movie to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, a category introduced in 2001 (11 years ago). It was released on DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) and VHS on Nov. 2, 2001 (11 years ago).

The movie stars Mike Myers as a large, strong, solitude-loving, intimidating ogre named Shrek, from the German word "Schreck" meaning "terror" or Yiddish word שרעק, meaning "fear". Shrek also features Cameron Diaz (31 walls) as the beautiful but very down-to-earth and feisty Princess Fiona, Eddie Murphy as a talkative donkey named Donkey, and Lithgow as the villainous Lord Farquaad.

The movie was extremely successful on release in 2001 (11 years ago) and it helped establish DreamWorks as a prime competitor to Walt Disney pictures (wallpaper) in the field of feature movie animation, particularly in computer animation. Furthermore, Shrek was made the mascot for the company's animation productions. It was critically acclaimed as an animated movie 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, Eels, Joan Jett, The Proclaimers, Jason Wade, The Baha Men, and Rufus Wainwright (covering Leonard Cohen).

In Jun. 2008 (4 years ago), the American movie Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten"— the best ten movies in ten "classic" American movie genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. It is also third on Bravo's 100 funniest movies. Shrek was acknowledged as the eighth best movie in the animated genre, and the only non-Disney-Pixar movie on the top ten. 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

Shrek, an ogre that has always enjoyed living in peaceful solitude in his swamp, finds his life disrupted when numerous fairy tale beings, including the talkative Donkey, are forced into the swamp by order of Lord Farquaad. Shrek decides to travel the country to see Farquaad to try to regain his privacy, with Donkey tagging along. The two make it to Farquaad's palace in DuLoc, where they find themselves in the midst of a tournament; the winner will have the "privilege" of attempting to rescue Princess Fiona from a castle surrounded by lava and protected by a fire-breathing dragon so Farquaad may marry the princess and become king. Shrek and Donkey easily best the other knights, and Farquaad agrees to remove the fairy-tale creatures from the swamp if Shrek goes on to rescue Fiona.

Shrek and Donkey travel to the castle and split up to find Fiona. Donkey manages to encounter the dragon. While he sweet-talks the beast to save himself when he finds out the dragon is female, she takes a liking to Donkey and carries him to her chambers. When Shrek finds Fiona, she is appalled at his lack of romanticism. As they are leaving, Shrek manages to save Donkey, caught in the dragon's tender love, and causing the dragon to become irate, chasing Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey out of the castle. At first, Fiona is thrilled to be rescued but quickly becomes disgusted to find out Shrek is an ogre. The three make their return journey to Farquaad's palace, with Shrek and Fiona finding they have more in common with each other along the way, and falling in love. However, at night, Fiona refuses to camp with them, taking shelter in a nearby cave until morning.

The next night, Fiona takes shelter in a nearby windmill. When Donkey hears strange noises coming from the windmill, he finds Fiona has turned into an ogre. Fiona explains she was cursed as a child and turns into an ogre every night, which is why she was locked away in the castle, and that only a kiss from her true love will return her to her proper form. Shrek, about to confess his feelings for Fiona, overhears part of their conversation, and misinterprets her disgust at her transformation into an "ugly beast" to be disgust with him. Fiona makes Donkey promise not to tell Shrek about the spell, vowing to do it herself, but when the next morning comes, Shrek has brought Lord Farquaad to Fiona. The two return to the castle, while Shrek returns to the now-vacated swamp.

Shrek finds that despite his privacy, he is miserable and misses Fiona. Donkey shows up to tell him that Fiona will be getting married shortly, urging Shrek into action to gain Fiona's true love. They are able to travel to DuLoc quickly thanks to Dragon, who had escaped her confines and followed Donkey. They interrupt the wedding before Farquaad can kiss Fiona, but not before the sun sets, which causes Fiona to turn into an ogre in front of everyone. While her transformation causes Shrek to fully understand what he overheard at the windmill, Farquaad is furious. Disgusted over the change, he orders Shrek killed and Fiona imprisoned, but Dragon bursts in and gobbles up Farquaad whole. Shrek and Fiona admit their love for each other and share a kiss; Fiona is bathed in light as her curse is broken, but is surprised to find that she has remained an ogress. Shrek calms her by assuring her that she is still beautiful. The two of them get married in the swamp and depart on their honeymoon, while Donkey and Dragon continue their relationship.

Voice cast

• Mike Myers - Shrek
• Eddie Murphy - Donkey
• Cameron Diaz (31 walls) - Princess Fiona
• John Lithgow - Lord Farquaad
• Conrad Vernon - Gingerbread Man
• Chris Miller - Geppetto/ Magic Mirror
• Cody Cameron - Pinocchio / The Three Little Pigs
• Michael Galasso - Peter Pan
• Christopher Knights and Simon J. Smith - Three Blind Mice / Thelonius
• Aron Warner - Big Bad Wolf
• Jim Cummings - Captain of the Guards
• Jerome De Guzman - Blind Mouse
• Vincent Cassel - Monsieur Hood (a French rendition of Robin Hood (8 walls))
• Kathleen Freeman - Old Woman (Donkey's ex-owner)

Production

Robin Williams, who had worked for Jeffrey Katzenberg before in Aladdin and had had a bitter falling out with him and The Walt Disney Company over marketing agreements, has hinted in an interview that he refused a role in Shrek, because it would mean working for Katzenberg again. He would not state which role he had refused.

Chris Farley was originally going to do the voice for Shrek and recorded at least half of the dialogue for the character, 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 re-record all of his lines in a Scottish accent similar to the one his mother had used when she told him bedtime stories. Myers had also employed a Scottish accent for a Saturday Night Live skit, and also for the characters Stuart MacKenzie in the motion picture (wallpaper) So I Married an Axe Murderer, and Fat Bastard in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me and Austin Powers in Goldmember.

Donkey was modeled after Pericles, a real miniature donkey from Barron Park, Palo Alto, California.

Soundtrack

1. "Stay Home" - Self
2. "I'm a Believer" - Smash Mouth
3. "Like Wow!" - Leslie Carter
4. "It Is You (I Have Loved)" - Dana Glover
5. "Best Years of Our Lives" - Baha Men
6. "Bad Reputation" - Halfcocked
7. "My Beloved Monster" - Eels
8. "You Belong to Me" - Jason Wade
9. "All Star" - Smash Mouth
10. "Hallelujah" - Rufus Wainwright
11. "I'm on My Way" - The Proclaimers
12. "I'm a Believer (reprise)" - Eddie Murphy
13. "True Love's First Kiss" - John Powell

Source: en.wikipedia.org

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Linked to Shrek

• Male Celebrities / Justin Timberlake
• Movies / Day After Tomorrow
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• Movies / Shrek 2
• Movies / Shrek Forever After
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