A mean lord banishes fairy-tale creatures to the swamp of a grumpy ogre, who must go on a quest to rescue a princess so the lord can get his land back.
Most fairy tales ask you to root for the handsome prince. “Shrek” asks you to root for the ogre who just wants everyone off his land. In the end, he’s actually the better company.
Shrek lives all by himself in the swamp, and he’s quite happy with that. Then, all of a sudden, a bunch of fairy tale creatures show up at his door and are dumped there by Lord Farquaad (who is a very small man with a very large opinion of himself). To get his home back, Shrek agrees to rescue Princess Fiona from the tower. Donkey, who has absolutely no concept of personal space, is very keen to come along.
That setup gives “Shrek” absolutely perfect scope to mock the rules of the fairy tale. The hero is a brute; he’s a complete greenhorn. The princess is a lot more competent than the role she’s been given in the story. The would-be noble is mostly interested in the appearance of nobility. The jokes work because the film is very much aware of the stories it’s playing with. Even the kid who hasn’t got all the references can get the absurdity of a donkey trying to befriend an ogre who is quite clearly not in the mood to be friends with anyone.
Eddie Murphy makes Donkey utterly impossible to ignore in the best possible way. He’s far too talkative; he asks the utterly wrong questions, and somehow he’s precisely the sort of companion Shrek needs. Mike Myers gives Shrek a gruff Scottish accent, which makes every complaint hilarious, while still allowing you to see the hurt beneath. Cameron Diaz is absolutely perfect as Fiona, bringing a great deal of wit and a certain amount of impatience to a character who could easily have just sat around the whole film waiting to be saved. Put the three of them together, and the journey becomes a far more enjoyable one than the journey itself.
For all the wisecracking, “Shrek” has a very gentle core idea: being judged on the basis of your appearance can effectively keep you at arm’s length before anyone even gets a chance to know you. Shrek’s slow process of opening up to someone is what gives the film its heart. It doesn’t stop to preach about inner beauty at all. It simply allows the rather prickly ogre and the rather overeager donkey to make the point through their arguments.
“Shrek” is funny, it’s affectionate, and it’s irreverent enough to make a very familiar story feel fresh. You come for the fairy-tale bits, you stay for the unlikely friendship that develops in the middle of them.
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