Shrek/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
< Shrek
Revision as of 19:54, 20 July 2016 by Robkelk (talk | contribs) (Reverted edits by No 1 Harmonian (talk) to last revision by DocColress)


Shrek film series

  • Adaptation Displacement: You probably won't find a lot of people who have even heard of Shrek! by Willaim Steig. So much was added to this little story that about the only thing it and the movies have in common is... a grumpy ogre named Shrek, a donkey, and an ugly princess.
  • Badass Decay: Subverted with AU!Puss In Boots. He starts as lazy, fat housecat, but regains his badassery when the time is right.
  • Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Monsueir Hood's appearance in the original movie.
  • Complete Monster: Rumpelstiltskin in the fourth film is easily the most vile and downright cruel villain in the series, with all of his actions taken very seriously even whilst he himself can be Laughably Evil.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The cover of Barracuda. Heck yes.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: The Pied Piper and Rumpelstiltskin in the fourth movie.
    • Puss in Boots is a more traditional example. He even got his own spinoff movie!
  • Fridge Brilliance: Farquaad chose Shrek's swamp for his Fantastic Ghetto because he knew there was an ogre there and decided it's easier to move every other fairy tale creature to his place rather than taking pains to move him anywhere else.
  • Genius Bonus / Parental Bonus: Panicked citizens run right out of one Farbucks...and into another Farbucks directly across the street.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In Russia, Shrek 4 is the second-highest grossing movie OF ALL TIME, losing only to the inevitable Avatar.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Shrek Forever After has AU!Puss being reduced to merely Fiona's pet - but after seeing his origins in the Darker and Edgier Puss in Boots, can we really consider that as the 'bad' dimension?
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In the second movie, Shrek is disgusted by a poster of "Sir Justin" (who looks like Justin Timberlake) on Fiona's ceiling. Come the third movie, where a teenage King Arthur is played by... Justin Timberlake.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Prince Charming. After enduring grief and humiliation now that he no longer has the power his mama gave him, all he wanted was his own Happily Ever After... which he probably would have gotten had he not stayed a villain by choice.
  • Magnificent Bastard: The Pied Piper. Anyone who can capture an army of rebels/insurgents while playing "Shake Your Groove Thing" on a pipe deserves this.
    • The Fairy Godmother is the only Big Bad who comes close to managing this, due to sheer diabolical efficiency.
  • Memetic Mutation: DO THE ROAR!
    • I LOVE YOU DADDY!
  • Memetic Sex God: In-universe, Puss.
    • Shrek also becomes one once he consumes one of Fairy Godmother's potions and transforms into a handsome man. His first scene while transformed even has a group of women fawning over him!
  • Moral Event Horizon: Seen in the flashback in the alternate-universe when Rumpelstiltskin is shown completing the deal with Fiona's parents to make "their problems go away", doing so by making them go away. That would have also happened if the messenger had arrived a few seconds later at the beginning of the movie, but we don't know that at the time. When we see the king and queen's looks of indescribable horror as they realize they're being erased from existence, Rumpelstiltskin crosses the line from just a simple trickster who wanted to rule the kingdom into utterly, irredeemably evil.
    • Don't forget the scene where he summons a council of witches where he first starts out as a loving patron, scolds them about letting Shrek escape and finally snaps into rage, killing one of them on screen by pouring water onto her. We all know what water does to witches... That just doesn't mark him evil, but a batshit insane Axe Crazy.
    • Lord Farquaad is mostly a pompous asshole with a mean streak for most of the first movie, but he really crosses the line during the film's climax when he sees Fiona's ogre form. He freaks out and orders for Fiona to be dragged back to her tower and locked up for life while having his knights Haul off Shrek to be executed via getting drawn and quartered. Thankfully, he gets his when Dragon crashes in and devours him.
    • The Fairy Godmother could be seen as a Jerkass Knight Templar at first...up until she decides to use a potion to make Fiona fall in love with Prince Charming.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Shrek's roar. Video here.
    • Watching the king and queen dissolve into nonexistence unsettled this troper a fair bit.
    • Or Rumplestiltkin's falling into an eternal void...
    • Hell, Rumplestiltkin himself!
    • The dream that Shrek has after he "wakes up" from his other dream in the third movie.
      • DA DA.
    • The DVD menus for Shrek the Third, especially the main menu. A bunch of curtains open, a bunch of fake clouds descend on THOUSANDS of strings (looking eerily like marionettes), and all you see is the blank, gloomy-looking, huge and not quite real-looking stage where Charming's play takes place. No characters, no voiceovers, just that enormous and clearly artificial stage, engulfed in darkness, with sinister music playing in the background. The submenus (for extras, language selection, etc.) sort of subvert this by having some of the main characters present, but the huge menu titles meant to look like suspended stage props are still kinda creepy.
  • The Problem with Licensed Games: Many of the games based on Shrek franchise aren't exactly critically acclaimed.
  • The Scrappy: The ogre babies in the third movie; they only appeared near the end of the movie, but many people dismissed them as a kid-oriented Tastes Like Diabetes marketing gimmick. Arguably Rescued From the Scrappy Heap in the fourth movie.
  • Seinfeld Is Unfunny: When the first Shrek movie came out, it was considered a witty and refreshing break from the then-formulaic Disney Animated Canon fare, and it put Dreamworks Animation on the map. Nowadays Shrek's often blamed for killing traditional animated films and starting a trend of rather mediocre CGI fims overly reliant on Anachronism Stew and Getting Crap Past the Radar. It didn't help that Dreamworks would not only give Shrek four sequels, but rehash the formula for most of their other films until they Grew the Beard with Kung Fu Panda.
    • And after Dreamworks themselves grew the beard, other studios followed suit - instead of making Shrek ripoffs, they themselves started more frequently producing original and well-liked CGI movies.
  • Sequelitis: Shrek the Third is widely considered the weakest sequel. Forever After is a Contested Sequel, but reception for it has been much warmer than for Third.
  • Squick: at the end of Shrek 2, Dragon shows up with several of her and Donkey's newborn children. You don't want to think too hard about how that happened.
    • The alternate universe Donkey lampshades this when he asks Shrek about his children.

Donkey: "Are my babies cute, or do they make people feel uncomfortable?"

  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: The Final Chapter gets pretty damn dark sometimes, people. From the malicious Rumpelstiltskin who erased Fiona's parents from existence and murders people (even his own followers) for his own amusement, to the Crapsack World that AU!Far Far Away becomes, there are some dark themes explored in this film.
    • Also a heavily Bowlderized version of Matt White's "Best Days" appears in the credits of Shrek the Third. Parents who bought the song may be shocked when he says "lying naked under the covers"
  • Woolseyism: The Polish version is arguably funnier than the original, at least to Poles.
    • Same applies to the Hungarian version (and every other localization, I'm inclined to believe), with an extremely clever choice of voice actors and well-adapted cultural references.
    • Banderas does the Spanish version too - with an Andalusian accent.
      • That, however, doesn't prevent the Latin American localization from largely being a subversion, as it sports heavy Mexican accents, idioms, and at times jokes a little too localized, which made the movies right down unbearable for many of the non-Mexicans (arguably most of the targeted audience)...
        • The same problem occurred with the French version; while very well-localized for the French, it was considered incomprehensible by people in Quebec and even some parts of France (to the point that one Québécois politician attempted to pass a bill requiring Quebec French dubbing for all movies after seeing Shrek the Third in French).
    • The Hebrew version is god-awful. But, then again, the only thing that's better in Hebrew is Crime and Punishment, and that's because they replaced Crime with Sin.
    • The Dutch version was also pretty good with the Woolseyism. Whether the original is better than the translation is subjective, though.
    • The Austrian version had a different voice Actor for the Fairy Godmother than the German version.

Shrek the Musical

  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: "A musical of Shrek? Oh c'mon! Haven't they milked the franchise enou-- wait, what? John Tartaglia's in it? As a puppet?! Where're they selling tickets?!"
    • Same goes for the new and vastly improved Dragon puppet created for the tour.
  • Crack Pairing: Quite a few. And within the actual show no less!
    • In earlier performances, the White Rabbit and the (female) Ugly Duckling were frequently seen together; in the finale, he'd propose to her.
    • Even Pinocchio and the Shoemaker's Elf - and the Sugar Plum Fairy and Tweedle Dum later - were sometimes given Last Minute Hookups.
    • Later, in one of the promotional materials, it was revealed that Gingy has a crush on the Elf.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: "Who I'd Be", the "Defying Gravity" of Shrek.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Pinocchio. The mere fact that he was originally played by John Tartaglia may or may not have a lot to do with it.
  • Ear Worm: "I think I got you beat, I think I got you beat! Yea-ah! Yea-ah! Yea-ah!"
    • "Sing a song, yes a travel song, when ya' gotta go somewhere~"
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: It wasn't until a friend pointed it out that John Tartaglia, who has been a puppeteer most of his life, realized and appreciate the irony of playing Pinocchio, a literal puppet character.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: The initial reaction to the song "Donkey Pot Pie" being replaced with "Forever." This has died down since then.
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Shrek/YMMV?oldid=1417742"