Shrek at 25: Why the Original Movie Is Still an All-Star
It has been 25 years since Shrek first burst onto our screens, but as the years have gone by, one thing has become clear: our love affair with the film is far from ogre.
The 2001 movie features the vocal talent of Cameron Diaz (Princess Fiona), Eddie Murphy (Donkey), John Lithgow (Lord Farquaad) and, of course, Mike Myers himself, who voices the titular character with an inexplicably Scottish accent.
At the time, the film was a huge success, even winning a BAFTA and the inaugural Best Animated Feature Oscar. Still, if you’re like me and your brain has rotted thanks to all the Shrek memes online, it’s actually pretty easy to forget that Shrek is actually… pretty great? So, here’s a reminder as to why the film is still worth your time, a quarter of a century later.
Shrek Isn’t Just Funny - It’s Subversive
As well as its fire soundtrack, the main reason Shrek remains memorable is because of how subversive it is. It starts like any other fairytale movie, telling us about the princess in the tower, before immediately transitioning to Shrek in the bog. It’s certainly a way to bring us back down to earth, and as the film goes on, it relentlessly roasts fairy tales at every opportunity (my favourite example being the Magic Mirror being turned into a The Bachelor-type show).
You have to remember that 2001 was just after the Disney Renaissance, in which people were still high off of conventional fairytales. Shrek dismantles each and every one of these tropes. The title character is positioned as the ‘romantic hero’, his sidekick Donkey as the ‘noble steed,’ and his romantic interest Princess Fiona as a damsel in distress who, based on her karate moves, isn’t actually in a lot of distress. As this trio bumbles their way through a world that clearly caters to a narrow type of person, this film posits the idea that maybe fairytales aren’t what they’re cracked up to be. If anything, it's an anti-fairy tale, and that actually makes the film and its characters all the more endearing.
It also definitely helps that the movie is genuinely funny, whether that be through crude gags, Donkey annoying Shrek, and, most of all, the biting satire underpinning the film. Without this satire, Shrek wouldn’t be half as funny — but it does it so well that it’s more than a typical nostalgia trip for older audiences. It ensures that there’s plenty to laugh about once you understand some of the mature jokes a little more, making it something that gets even better with age.
Shrek’s Positive Message Still Holds Up
As I mentioned before, Shrek isn’t your typical romantic hero, and Fiona isn’t your typical princess. By dismantling these fairy tale tropes, Shrek also puts a middle finger up to beauty standards (again, a very pertinent theme for 2001), making us question why we ostracise certain people from society.
When we meet Shrek, he is something of an outsider and has learned to relish his outcast status. But deep down, like all of us, he desires connection. His growing relationship with Fiona sees him slowly learn to open up, as does she, with the guarded pair having more in common than you might think.
It’s why when that misunderstanding happens, you end up almost yelling at the screen, not only because it’s frustrating, but because it causes each of them to think they aren’t worthy of love because of the way that they look. Still, Shrek remains a fairy tale in the sense that there’s a happy ending, with the pair not just accepting each other but embracing each other regardless of how society views them.
Arguably, a movie with a message like this is needed more than ever in this day and age. Between Hollywood’s obsession with Ozempic, the return of diet culture, Instagram filters and the normalisation of cosmetic surgery, maybe we all need a bit of reminding that we aren’t all horrible, ugly beasts. And even if we are, that’s okay too.
In the years since Shrek's release, it has had a pretty impressive legacy. While its latest two films have been of questionable quality, Shrek 2 remains one of the best movie sequels I’ve ever seen. And for some reason, our generation has never been able to quite let go of Shrek, with the ogre being the subject of so many memes; it has surpassed irony and instead fits firmly into the ‘legend’ category.
When it comes to Shrek, I think it’s fair to say that it has stood the test of time, and with another movie on the way next year, long may it continue.
