“Shrek” turns 21: the saga that the world loves despite its decline

In the universe of computer animation, few currently compare to the wave of popularity unleashed by the ‘Minions’ of “Despicable Me”, both in the preference of the youngest, as well as its cultural ubiquity. But at the beginning of the new millennium this wave was not yellow but green, and its protagonist was a grumpy ogre named Shrek.

How did this character, voiced by then quintessential comic actor Mike Myers, stop being a cultural icon and get relegated to some corners of the internet as a joke? In this note we will explore the rise and fall of an unconventional fairy tale.

THE ORIGIN OF THE OGRE

Shrek’s roots go back to 1990, when cartoonist William Steig published a children’s book titled, of course, “Shrek!” It was the story of a disgusting green monster who is kicked out of his house by his parents and ends up, after a series of adventures, saving a princess with whom he lives “horribly forever.”

The cinematic potential of the 30-page book was seen by film director Steven Spielberg (“Jaws,” “ET”), who purchased the rights to the work in 1991 with intentions of turning it into a traditional animated film with Bill Murray as the lead. titular ogre and Steve Martin as Donkey. But the project would remain on hold until 1994, when Spielberg founded the DreamWorks SKG studio with former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg and businessman David Geffen (ergo the SKG in the company).

By 1995, producer John H. Williams would bring the book to Katzenberg’s attention and a project would be put together involving comedian Chris Farley in the title role, being replaced after his death in 1997 by his colleague Mike Myers. As a curiosity, actors like Nicolas Cage, Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio were also considered for the role of the green monster.

Although “Shrek” had initially been conceived as an animated film, preliminary tests did not give the results expected by Katzenberg. In the end they decided to opt for computer animation, so the studio hired Pacific Data Images (PDI), the same animation company with which they worked on the film “Antz” (1998) and which would be acquired by DreamWorks itself in the 2000.

In addition to Myers, actress Cameron Diaz and comedian Eddie Murphy would join the project.

UGLY, BUT WITH ‘JALE’

When “Shrek” was released on May 18, 2001, it was a smash hit, garnering both critical acclaim and box office success ($484.4 million worldwide). His then-revolutionary humor, which mixed current references and hidden adult jokes, captivated audiences; while his clever revision of the fairy tale formula (the Disney formula with which his main producer Katzenberg had so bitterly parted), were a breath of fresh air in the aging animation industry. Its success would be demonstrated in 2002, when the green ogre would win the first animation Oscar, beating the Pixar film “Monster Inc.” and to “Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.”

Three years later, in 2004, Dreamworks would revisit this franchise with “Shrek 2,” which, escaping the curse of bad sequels, was a bigger hit both at the box office and with critics, including the cast and Antonio Banderas in Puss in Boots character. And while it didn’t win the gold statuette that year, it garnered a hitherto unheard-of $928 billion at box offices around the world. The green ogre seemed unstoppable and DreamWorks was already ready to continue his saga.

Shrek’s success was partly the reason for his downfall. When the franchise began, few movies used their style, but given the popularity of the franchise, other studios began to copy the formula of referential humor mixed with the inclusion of great celebrities. And its rivals were not only external, as in the case of the “Ice Age” franchise by 20th Century Fox and Blue Sky Studios, but also internal, with DreamWorks itself releasing films such as “Shark Tale” (2004), “Madagascar ” (2005) and “Bee Movie” (2007).

When “Shrek The Third” came out in May 2007, it did so before a saturated market already tired of the adventures of the green ogre. Although a success at the box offices with $813 million grossed globally, critics lambasted the film. The cold reception of the third part, as well as the success of new franchises such as “Kung Fu Panda” (2008) and “How to Train Your Dragon” (2010), led DreamWorks to decide to abandon its plans to make five films and try go out through the big door with the fourth installment in 2010, appropriately called “Shrek Forever After”. Unfortunately, the green ogre’s already dubious audiences led to the saga’s conclusion being even less successful, reaching only $752 million.

DreamWorks would attempt to keep the franchise alive with a Puss in Boots-centric spin-off, but “Puss in Boots” would be a bigger flop, closing the ogre tale (seemingly) forever.

HOPE COLOR

By November 2018, various media reported that Chris Meledandri, the mind behind “Despicable Me” and the “Minions”, I was working on reviving Shrek. The circumstances occurred after DreamWorks was acquired by Comcast in 2016, a conglomerate that also owns Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment, a Meledandri company.

However, despite much talk of bringing the old team of Myers, Diaz, Banderas and Murphy back together, there has been no new news on the case to date. But that doesn’t mean the world has forgotten Shrek. Perhaps because of his disappearance from the big screen, Shrek began to gain a following in the darkest corners of the internet, with memes about the character becoming popular even after his last appearance.

This is how fans of the character continued to express their love -mixed with a lot of irony- for it as of 2010. The so-called ‘Brogres’ (ogre brothers) have kept the name of Shrek alive, with sites like the now defunct Shrekchan or groups in social networks like Facebook as their meeting points, as well as events like the annual Shrekfest, where attendees celebrate their beloved character by eating onions, are organized every year.

It’s hard to explain the love these corners of the internet have for Shrek. For writer Brian Feldman, a regular explorer of the Shrek forums, the franchise is “a rundown for everything that was popular in the early days, before the internet consumed itself”, he states for a note for the Atlantic. “This was one of the first cases of a postmodern kids product that ended up selling itself… it’s this weird mix of admitting so much affection (for the franchise) to admitting that it’s relatively bad.”.

Meanwhile, fan-related projects of the green ogre have popped up consistently over the past decade, from horror video games with Shrek as the antagonist to attempts by various animators to recreate the first movie. In one of Shrek’s last unauthorized appearances, the ogre was included in the video game “Resident Evil 3” replacing Nemesis, an unstoppable monster who, like the beloved character, never seems to die.

PERU LOVES SHREK

The data does not lie. Shrek was one of the most watched films in Peru when it was released in 2001. According to El Comercio, United International Pictures, distributor of the saga, the film was the eighth most watched in the country that year, with 239,300 viewers. By comparison, first place garnered 611,322 viewers.

The love for Shrek remains despite the past decades, and recently the green ogre reunited with Mike Myers in the Netflix series “The Pentaverse”, demonstrating the incredible bond that unites the actor with the character that gave him life.

But that is not all. There are those who have seen “Shrek” more than once, twice or 10 times; but also more. Some time ago Netflix reported that in 2017 a Peruvian saw “Shrek” 227 times. That’s love. That’s life.