Once Upon an Ogre

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I know I should probably be putting a more Londony post up, but I've had this saved and now seems as good a time as any. See I can do both travel and silliness! So here we go.

There's something about Shrek that will always have a place in my heart. When did this come out? Like 10 years ago? Have you seen it recently? Because it still has everything I want in a movie whether it's a "kid's" film or not. I just remember my life as a series of what came before Shrek and what came after. Before I was always like Dreamworks who? And after they were forever the people who did Shrek. They got the perfect balance of kid humor with Adult attitude. I'm pretty sure it was the first movie (that wasn't Disney) that I can still quote from enemy. There are just so many great lines that are pretty applicable to everyday life. "And in the morning, I'm making waffles" is seriously a part of my everyday lingo. I think I almost prefer the second one to the first, but this is the real deal.

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Shrek starts off with the title character Shrek the ogre (Mike Meyers) as he happily lives by himself. Shortly though, hundreds of fairy tale creatures appear on his property by the command of one Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow). He's a person of very short stature who has become drunk with power. It's never really revealed why he hates mystical creatures, but he banishes them to the ogre's land. Determined to remain a hermit he decides to go to Du-Loc to talk with the Lord. He is then sent on a quest to rescue a princess because surprise! Farquaad is looking for a pretty new wife. We find this out due to the talking magical mirror, but the real gem of the setting is Gingy the gingerbread man. Gingy is being interrogated by Farquaad in what ensues as this playful banter.

I cannot tell you how any times my sister and I have repeated this dialogue on a constant loop. It never is not funny. So Shrek starts the quest with his companion a talking donkey named Donkey (Eddie Murphy). They converse about onions and parfaits as they get closer to a dragon's keep that is every bit like a generic fantasyland castle. Through a series of errors, Shrek finds the Princess Fiona (Carmen Diaz) while the Dragon falls madly in love with Donkey. When the princess realizes the true identity of her rescuer she does the typical freak out and continues to insult Donkey!

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After a few short jokes at Lord Farquaad's expense, the gang sets up camp for the night. Fiona mysteriously goes to sleep in a cave Donkey gets Shrek to open up about his social problems. The audience then realizes that there's more than meets the eye with this green monster. People hate him, so instead of reaching out to people, he's mean and pushes them away. But already we see Donkey breech the realm into friendship. The next morning the princess strolls in the woods ends up killing a bird and stealing its eggs. This is not very princess-like behavior but everyone seems to let it go. They then come face-to-face with Robin Hood and his band of merry man. Fiona shows that she can in fact take care of herself by opening up a can of karate.

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Through a fantastic example of montage, the two soon realize that they might actually like each other which is normally great, but Fiona has to marry the Lord and Shrek doesn't think she could every love a monster like him. Fiona tries to postpone her future as they spend another night near a windmill. That's when we find Fiona's big secret. She's cursed so that at night she becomes a beautiful princess ogre instead of a beautiful princess. Is it just me or wouldn't you rather be an ogre than a plain human? I feel like you could do so much more as an ogre that would be wrong for a human. And she still kept her awesome hair so that's all that matters. 

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Fiona goes on to marry Lord Farquaad but Shrek comes in to break it up after waiting for the right moment. They express their love and with their "true love's kiss" she becomes an ogre indefinitely. They all very happy and live together at the swamp with Donkey still there to annoy them. This movie is so great. It ends on a happy note, has a lot of different references, uses the right amount raunchy comedy, and is full of all kinds different celebrities. What I really love about all of the Shrek movies is the music. Every single soundtrack is amazing and I've listened to them for the past 10 years. They just make me so happy and make me think of childhood. It doesn't really matter how old you are, you can still enjoy this gem. I'm lucky enough to have younger sisters so when I suggest we watch Shrek, it's not weird if I watch it with them. If forced I could always say it was their choice and I had absolutely no say in the matter. Shrek has all the elements that we love about a traditional Fairy Tale with a bunch of zest and contemporary jokes thrown in. This film will never not be funny and appropriate for all occasions. While you contemplate re-watching the classic that is Shrek, I'm going to go listen to the soundtrack. Rufus Wainwright's Hallelujah gets me every single time.