With rumors of Shrek 5 on the rise, I decided to take it upon myself to provide an in depth analysis of every single Shrek movie. I have elected to leave out Shrek’s Spooky Swamp Stories, Shrek the Halls, and Scared Shrekless and just analyze the main four films. This is not to say that those shorts are not fantastic themselves, just that they don’t provide true character development and advance any main character’s story further than we already knew. Note: there will be spoilers for the movies below, but I imagine that you wouldn’t be reading this article if you haven’t watched these movies yet. Let us begin with the first Shrek, all the way back in 2001. This is a fantastic film about regaining your land from the corrupt government and finding love along the way, not to mention your best friend. This movie’s overall message is about accepting your own flaws, and realizing that appearances don’t matter. We have the introductions to our favorite relationships, Shrek and Fiona, as well as Donkey and Dragon, and finally Farquaad and death. The soundtrack as well is just immaculate, with the opening song of All-Star and then closing with a Smash Mouth cover of Believer, and a haunting Hallelujah throughout the entire movie. Don’t forget Bad Reputation as Shrek is beating the crap out of some knights to impress Farquaad. Overall, a fantastic film created by animators who referred to being forced to work on this masterpiece of a movie as “getting Shreked”, which means they had to be moved from working on The Prince of Egypt and were essentially demoted to this. Everyone knows that it is impossible to achieve perfection, but in 2004, Dreamworks tried again with the release of Shrek 2, which is the most well-loved Shrek movie. In fact, I conducted an informal survey in the Among Us chat rooms before playing a round, and all five people who responded with actual answers stated that Shrek 2 was their favorite. But why? It could be for many reasons, such as Puss in Boots and his kitty eyes, the amazingly handsome human Shrek and his noble steed Donkey, or maybe even the dinner scene with Fiona’s parents. But, they would be lying if they said those reasons over the main one. The Holding Out For A Hero attack on the castle sequence is a legitimate cinematic masterpiece in itself, with a fantastic mixture of Mongo the giant gingerbread man attacking the tower intermixed with Prince Charming sweeping Fiona off her feet as the Fairy Godmother performs the best song in movie history. In my own opinion, this is the best battle sequence in a movie, beating out the portals scene in Endgame. As far as the message of this movie goes, I would say that it is about accepting who you are, and that you don’t need to change for others. This plotline would prove to be a fan-favorite, which is why they brought back Prince Charming for Shrek the Third. Now we are entering the era of fever dreams. People, when asked if they knew there were four Shrek films, normally nod and say they simply haven’t watched them, or that it was a long time ago. No one really knows the exact plot, so this gave me an excuse to rewatch these two, because I also didn’t really remember the plot. So, just another warning, there will be spoilers for both Shrek the Third as well as Forever After coming up. Shrek the Third begins with the death of Fiona’s father, and thus Shrek and Fiona become the rulers of Far Far Away. Shrek doesn’t want that kind of pressure, so he goes in search of Fiona’s teenage cousin, Arthur Pendragon. Fiona learns she’s pregnant, and Shrek has to cope with the knowledge that he will have to be a father soon. This movie really highlights that growth with his relationship to Arthur. While this is the least well-known Shrek film, I think that this is the most pivotal to his character development. In the other movies Shrek lives his life like everyone should adjust to his needs, but now Shrek becomes more considerate of his actions towards his friends and family. As far as the villain goes, Prince Charming is back again - not to try and woo Fiona again, but to start a revolution with the rejects and villains of society, like the witches and cyclops. In a cinematic parallel, Fiona has to save Shrek from being slain, similar to how he saved her. This movie ends with the apparent death of Prince Charming being crushed by a tower on set, and Shrek and Fiona having triplets as Arthur takes the crown. The theme of this movie is more about learning how to be a father. While this movie doesn’t have a huge amount of fantastic scenes, the best running joke out of the whole film is when Puss and Donkey magically switch bodies through a mix-up of Merlin’s magic. Finally, we have Shrek Forever After, where Shrek makes a deal with Rumpelstiltskin and accidentally signs away his entire life as he knows it. Shrek has to journey through a world where Rumpelstiltskin is king, witches terrorize the world, his best friend doesn’t know him, his wife doesn’t know who he is, and his kids don’t exist anymore. And who could forget the fact that Shrek will die in 24 hours unless he gets True Love’s kiss? This movie is all about falling in love again and appreciating what you had before you lose it. This Shrek film has the most climactic ending, with Shrek only getting his True Love’s kiss as he is slowly fading from existence, until he vanishes, destroying this reality until we return to hours before the deal was made. This movie shows that true friendship can transcend different realities, similar to how the Avatar can be friends with the same people in different lives. As for why this movie gets skipped over by so many Shrek fans, I would say that it is just because people didn’t like the fact that instead of expanding the Shrek universe, they told a new and different story, which I applaud them for doing. This movie is underrated, and I believe that it is considered the worst Shrek film because it has to compete with Shrek 1 and 2. Overall, these four fantastic films are the epitome of an animation film series, due to the fact that they work for both adults and kids. The bottom line is, if you even have the smallest sense of humor, Shrek is one of the best franchises, and I personally believe that it deserves more than a 4D ride at Universal Studios. Hopefully after the release of Shrek 5, this will be a reality. - Vincent Bottaro If you want to write for the Crescent Crier, we would love to see you at one of our meetings, which are every Wednesday at 1:30pm! To come to a meeting, fill out this form: https://forms.gle/TrQ5PqFcDqeE2yiB9, and we’ll send you a link ASAP. If you would like to submit a single article - or anything else like creative writing, an opinion, an art piece, photo or photo series, or something else entirely - then you can do that using this form: https://forms.gle/WAHSoWJuVwK3q5du6. If you want to contact us for any reason, you can email
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