Shrek 2: Fairy Tale Fun with Heart!
Written by Jen (Kru’19)
“I told you ogres don’t live happily ever after!” — Fairy Godmother
The opening of the first film was really iconic. Shrek, who is an ogre, was reading a fairy tale story, and then he tore apart the page about a true love’s kiss and used it to wipe his bottom. He doesn’t give a damn about fairy tales (literally)! I loved the way that Shrek is a unique interpretation of a fairy tale story. They didn’t have a charming prince and a beautiful princess; instead, they had an ugly ogre and a beautiful princess. Even in the first minute of the first film, they just subvert the usual fairy tale trope. Just from that, you know something is different with this film, and you know you will have a good adventure with it.
So what is better than Shrek, the unusual fairy tale? Shrek 2, of course! As a child, I just watched it for the sake of fun visuals and animation (Who didn’t like animation as a child?). But as I grew up and rewatched Shrek 2, I figured out a lot of things I loved about this movie and took into consideration its story and message. For me, Shrek 2 improved from the first film in many layers, including the overall story, soundtrack, comedy, and message.
In a few words, Shrek 2 is a story about Shrek facing Fiona’s parents, especially her dad, King Harold. Shrek’s parents-in-law expect Fiona to be saved from the highest room of the tallest tower of the Dragon’s Keep and married to a Prince Charming like in all other fairy tales. When Shrek, who is an ogre, didn’t fulfill the expectations that Fiona’s father had, conflict ensued. The whole story revolves around this conflict.
Surely a great story needs to be accompanied by a great soundtrack. In this movie, we get a bonkers soundtrack! The way they integrated old songs such as “Changes”, “Funkytown”, and “Livin’ La Vida Loca” in the movie is such a grace. And my god! I can’t forget that last epic battle scene or what everyone else called the “I Need A Hero” sequence. That sequence is a true beauty! Truly, that sequence is the scene we need but don’t deserve.
There might be an epic final battle with awesome music, but this film also has something else in store! The comedy aspect of this film is gold too! Every joke lands for me. One of the funniest scenes for me is the police brutality scene. In this scene, Shrek and his friends get captured by royal knights. When the royal knights captured Donkey and Puss in Boots, one of Shrek’s friends, Donkey shouted “police brutality, police brutality!” and Puss shouted “you capitalist pig dogs!” to the royal knights. I laughed at this one because the film criticized real-life events. After that, Puss is caught with catnip in his possession. Puss acts as if he doesn’t own it. This one also hit the mark, as if Puss had illegal drugs in his possession when he was captured. Another example would be the Starbucks scene! How people flee from Starbucks to another Starbucks across the street is hilarious. The Starbucks scene told us about the society we live in, eh?
With a great story, awesome music, and gold comedy, there is one big question raised with that. So what does this film really want to tell us about? In the film, There are a lot of questions thrown at Shrek that make him self-doubtful. How does Shrek make Fiona’s parents accept Shrek for who he is — that he is an ogre? Should Shrek embrace the fact that he is an ogre or try to become something that Fiona’s parents want? Can even Shrek, an ogre, get his own happily ever after? Does Shrek really deserve to be happy with Fiona?
To reflect on those questions for ourselves, they can be paraphrased as follows: How do we make other people accept us? How do we make our significant other happy? How far will you go to change and make things better for the people you love? How do we make ourselves happy? Can someone’s identity define whether they can find happiness or not? Are we worthy of feeling happiness? Can we be content with who we are?
From those questions, I could conclude that the main themes of Shrek 2 are about happiness, identity, acceptance, and self-worth. The film itself answers those questions. Yes, you can be happy and stay true to yourself; you should embrace your own identity and not need to change yourself to make others happy; you should accept who you are; you are worth it as yourself; and everyone deserves their own happily ever after without looking at their identity. And yes, this applies to you as well, the readers of this review.
Well, the review ogre
