DreamWorks has released many wonderful and meaningful animations, such as Kung Fu Panda, Shrek and Megamind. All of its work tells story and teach lessons in all these films. Shrek is the most successful series film in history of DreamWorks.
Forever After inherited the style of re-telling fairy tales in its previous movies. Shrek movies do not re-tell fairly tale in a scary or humor way, instead it re-tell them from changing the stereotype of those famous characters. For example, Shrek was not like usual orges. He is tired of being a lovely monster, when his home has became a tourism spot in Far Far Away. He wishes to become horrifying again. That leaves the main villain Rumpelstiltskin has a chance to trick Shrek into a trap. This movie does not only turn its back on other famous fairy tales like its previous three movies but most important is to turn against to its own story. It had almost turned everything upside down of itself. Shrek is not a “hero” anymore (After all he was the one who saved Princess Fiona). Princess Fiona is no longer a princess but a rebel and a leader. She is not rescued by Shrek but break out the tower (which kept her just as many fairy tales do) by herself. She also leads her race to resist the enslavement from the new King. In this world, Princess Fiona is a hero according to the race of ogres. Puss in Boots also becomes a fat cat without any training.
There is no doubt that Forever After is an animation film, but what kind of animation is it? Can it be concluded in the category of fairy tales? But Shrek’s characters are little bit different from their original characters. However, all of the Shrek movies indeed have c
haracteristics of fairy tales. In different fairy tales, there are fairies, magical living creatures such as goblins or giants. Everything they need is in Forever After, almost all the characters are come from other fairy tales, such as Gingerbread Man, Puss in Boots, Three Little Pigs and some Princesses. These are all good and kind characters. There are also villains such as Captain Hook, Evil Queen and some witches. However, these characters could be in the other side of the camp. Some good characters could become a bad character, such as Pied Piper. Originally he was the one who helped the King to get rid of mouse in his kingdom. He became one of the helper of Rumpelstiltskin to control Ogres. And some have been the otherwise, for example, Wolf in Three Little Pigs, he is no longer eating pigs but also be friend with the Three Little Pigs.
Besides the characters in the film, the plot of the film also signifies audience that it indeed is a fairy tale. In many
fairy tales, the story is always educational, that the protagonist usually learns a lesson in the story. Audience and the reader also learn a lesson from the story. In Forever After, it teaches audience a lesson too. It is all about greed. When you want more you will become Rumpelstiltskin who use his magic power, a contract, to get whatever he is dreamt of. And Shrek is greed too. He dreams of not being a lovely monster but a monster that everyone is afraid of. He is not satisfied with his current living, he want more excitements. And that only brought him into a world he no longer familiar, he has to find his way back. The ending of the film tell us that greed will lead us to bad result. Rumpelstiltskin is being captured by Shrek and become an exhibit for tourists who come and see Shrek.
Shrek Forever After maybe considered as fairy tale animation film, but for many children audience it does not matter, they only concern if it is going to be funny and entertaining. I enjoy the series of Shrek. Every Shrek movies introduce some “old” characters from other fairy tale in the story, but present them in a way that we, who had a chance to read or watch the original fairy tale, had not seen it before. My favourite character is indeed Rumpelstiltskin, he is not as annoying as other villains, he is funny and showing off in a musical way.
Student name: Lee Tsz Shan (Apple)
Student ID: 10348690
First of all, thank you for posting the first review! Your article is quite comprehensive, also with a strong sense of personal touch. It’s a wise approach to introduce the style of Dream Works in the beginning, and then analyze a single film text (i.e., Shrek Forever After) in details. In general, you have made some sharp observations on the design of various characters such as breaking stereotypes, re-defining hero (a transformed hero) and re-writing characters from other stories.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you may explore the purpose and function behind the above strategy (everything just for fun? Or it has other implications? Does it reveal some social issues? ). In particular, those characters originated from other fairy tales play a special role in the movie, which can be considered as a kind of culture jamming.
In addition to the educative function of the so-called “fairy tale”, I guess the movie also offers escapism, an outbreak for audiences living an imperfect and complicated world. Personally speaking, I believe the REAL target audiences of the Shrek series are actually young adults instead of kids…they can decode more “hidden messages” behind the screen. What do you think?