Not So Great For: Disney's image, anyone annoyed by Myers' Scottish accent What else should I watch? Great For: kids and adults alike, challenging Pixar's dominance, generating money for the studio Bright and breezy, the film is an impressive riposte to Disney's blanketing monopoly of fairy-tale filmmaking and still remains an essential watch for young families today - not least because of the endless sequels. Technical limitations aside, this is a fantastic slice of fantasy spoofery led by performances from Myers and Murphy that remind you of their comic timing and skill. Lithgow's Lord Farquaad is a thoroughly unlikeable baddie but also illustrates the film's depth of character and spearheads the film's parody of other fairy-tale pictures. It is, however, among the best of the rest so it shouldn't get too down-hearted. These may seem like minor points against an otherwise excellent film but I have never recognised this film at being at Pixar's level. It's the same with the endless jabs at Disney's theme parks - fine if you've experienced them first-hand but possibly perplexing for children yet to visit the so-called Magic Kingdom. While the fight sequence imitating The Matrix raises a smile with viewers familiar with it, younger viewers will be confused as to why the action suddenly stops. The other problem with its age is that some of the in-jokes have dated as well. While the original Toy Story also suffers from technological fatigue, I felt it does a better job of making you forget about such things. Even compared to its sequels, the film looks almost crude in its design and visual appeal. By contrast, the films released at the dawn of the medium look much more basic than the films of today and Shrek falls into that trap as well. As time passes, technology improves which means the processing power of the computers behind the visuals get ever better at animating complex sequences. However, this is a coincidence as Facebook didn't launch until 2004.Īs amazing as CG animation is, there is an inherent issue with it that doesn't trouble traditional hand-drawn animation. Farquaad's logo has been noted as looking very similar to Facebook's.To this day, she has no idea why and no explanation has ever been given. Janeane Garofalo was initially cast as Fiona but was subsequently fired after the death of Chris Farley during production.It took so long, in fact, that they included references to films that weren't released at the start of production like The Matrix, for example. Computer animation on the film started in October 1996 and took more than four years to complete.
According to producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, this cost an additional $4 million although Myers disputes this. After Myers replaced him, he suggested using a Scottish accent for the role which meant some scenes needed reshooting. The role of Shrek was originally filled by Chris Farley who had recorded nearly all of the dialogue before he tragically died in 1997.
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