“Shrek” opens with a swamp, a routine, and a problem. The 2001 DreamWorks film, directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, runs 90 minutes and carries the tagline “The greatest fairy tale never told.” It is an animated fantasy comedy about an ogre who wants to be left alone and does not get to be.
Trailer, via Universal Kids.
An Ogre Who Likes His Swamp
The setup is clean. Shrek lives in a swamp and likes it that way. He fends off mobs and intruders and keeps to himself. Then he saves a talkative Donkey from some soldiers, and Donkey decides to stay. Meanwhile, Lord Farquaad of Duloc is exiling fairy tale creatures to make his land look better. The creatures end up in Shrek’s swamp. Shrek wants them gone.
So he walks to Duloc to demand it. Donkey comes along because he is the only one who knows the way. That is the whole engine of the first act, and it works.
Farquaad and the Magic Mirror
Farquaad asks a magic mirror whether he has the most perfect kingdom. The mirror tells him he is not a king and needs to marry a princess to become one. He picks Princess Fiona, who is locked in a castle guarded by a Dragon. He will not go get her himself. He holds a tournament instead, and the winner gets the “privilege” of rescuing her for him.
Then Shrek and Donkey show up. Farquaad says whoever kills Shrek wins the tournament. Shrek and Donkey beat his knights with relative ease. Farquaad, amused, makes Shrek his champion. He agrees to move the fairy tale creatures if Shrek brings back Fiona.
The Voices Behind the Characters
The cast is the film’s spine.
- Mike Myers as Shrek / Blind Mouse
- Eddie Murphy as Donkey
- Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona
- John Lithgow as Lord Farquaad
- Vincent Cassel as Monsieur Hood
- Chris Miller as Geppetto / Magic Mirror
- Cody Cameron as Pinocchio / Three Pigs
- Kathleen Freeman as Old Woman
The role nearly went elsewhere. Nicolas Cage was offered Shrek and turned it down because he did not want to look like an ogre. In 2013 he explained: “When you’re drawn, in a way it says more about how children are going to see you than anything else, and I so care about that.” Chris Farley was hired first and recorded nearly all the dialogue before he died in 1997. Myers replaced him and insisted on a full script rewrite, leaving no traces of Farley’s version. Myers later asked to re-record every line in a Scottish accent, like the one his mother used for bedtime stories.
Two Performances, One Role
The swap is the most consequential decision in the film’s making. Here is how the two versions sit against each other.
| Chris Farley | Mike Myers | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Recorded nearly all dialogue, died in 1997 | Hired to replace Farley |
| Script | Original draft | Full rewrite at Myers’s request |
| Voice | Not used in the released film | Scottish accent, re-recorded |
| Result | Unfinished | The Shrek audiences know |
Myers said he wanted the part “for two reasons: I wanted the opportunity to work with Jeffrey Katzenberg; and [the book is] a great story about accepting yourself for who you are.”
What Fiona Refuses to Do
Shrek and Donkey reach the castle. The Dragon attacks. Shrek finds Fiona, who is bewildered by his total lack of romanticism. They flee after rescuing Donkey, and the Dragon turns out to be female and in love with him. When Shrek takes off his helmet and shows he is an ogre, Fiona refuses to go to Duloc and demands Farquaad come get her in person. Shrek carries her out anyway.
That refusal is the hinge. Fiona is not a prize waiting to be collected, and the film knows it. The Dragon reveal is a joke, but it is also the movie’s second character who gets to want something on her own terms.
The film is loosely based on William Steig’s 1990 picture book. Steven Spielberg bought the rights in 1991 and wanted a traditionally animated version. John H. Williams brought it to DreamWorks in 1994, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Williams and Aron Warner started development in 1995. It was meant to use motion capture until poor test results sent the studio to Pacific Data Images.
The Casting Gamble That Paid Off
“Shrek” earns its 7.8 out of 10 on the strength of two things: Murphy’s Donkey and the decision to let the fairy tale creatures be petty, tired and funny instead of sweet. The first act is tighter than the middle, and the tournament detour exists mainly to get Shrek and Farquaad in the same room. But the casting gamble paid off in a way the motion-capture plan never would have. Myers’s accent gave the ogre a specific person inside the animation, and Lithgow’s Farquaad is small in stature and enormous in vanity, which is exactly the joke.
The Farley story is the part worth sitting with. A finished performance was erased, then rebuilt from scratch, and the film that resulted became the version nobody argues about. That is not a happy accident. It is a studio spending real money to start over because the first take was not right.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
