The lessons of Shrek

[tvordlj]

Finally saw Shrek last night.... Some of my friends loved it, some were indifferent and one (Debs) hated it, and thought it taught the wrong lesson. With all that in mind,

The lesson Shrek is supposed to teach is one of tolerance... look beneath the surface to find the real person. Appearances shouldn't matter but in our world they usually do. Shrek, the big green-yellow ogre, keeps saying he identifies with onions, that he has more layers than people think. But did anyone tell him that when you peel away all the layers, it's still an onion? Not a good metaphor i thought, though the general philosophy is of course correct.

The animation is really good. Mike Meyers does the voice for Shrek, in a gentle Scottish Accent that sometimes misses the mark, unusual for him as he's generally very good at it. Eddie Murphy is the donkey. The rapid fire non stop river of words and schtick that came out of him is occaisionally funny. The Donkey learns to love or at least appreciate the good beneath the surface too after sweet-talking his way out of being eaten by a female fire breathing dragon who develops a crush on him as a result. The Princess, Fiona, is played by Cameron Diaz who manages to annoy me as much in animation as she does in live action movies.

The Princess isn't quite what she appears to be. She's no shrinking violent even if she has been confined to a castle tower for years. She's feisty and opinionated and very very shallow. She believes appearances are everything too as does Shrek. He doesn't believe anyone can love him because of what he looks like, insists that there's more to him than meets the eye (layers, remember?) and then turns around and takes great amounts of piss out of the Prince or whatever he is because he's short. Hmmm... mixed message lessons there. One point for Debs.

But I really did think the end message of loving someone for who they are not what they look like came through even though they didn't really get to it until the very very end. I'm not entirely sure the Princess was a complete convert to this lesson but we would have to revisit her a few years later to confirm this. Debs thought that the final "And they lived ugly ever after" Totally negated the supposed moral of the story, sending a very insidious message. She wonders, by who's judgement should anyone be considered ugly if they are good people? Point to her, and i can see how some people might take that message but i see them as .. ok everyone else thinks they're ugly even if they think each other is beautiful. What the others think doesn't really matter. (or does it, do they still think themselves as ugly?) I know it's not supposed to be taken this seriously but i suppose if you have issues, you could take it that way. I didn't.

Shrek and the Princess both have little self confidence. The Donkey has enough for the whole kingdom though i did find the non stop delivery and endless wittering and performing a bit tiresome after awhile. I kept wondering what Robin Williams would have made of this character or if it would have turned into too much like the Genie he did in Aladdin. Their styles are similar. There were a few lines that did make me chuckle and the Fairy Tale invasion just before the quest to rescue the Princess was a bit surreal LOL!

I watched the movie on paytv (cable) and they didn't show all the "out takes" that the video and Dvd has after the credits. More's the pity. I want to watch it again because i don't think you can catch it all in one sitting. There's a lot of stuff going on on the sidelines. Probably a lot of little "in" jokes too, especially if you're a fan of fairy tales or ever were.

Overall, i'd say i'd give it a 6 out of 10. I need to discuss this further with Debs.....

Comments

[zerozero.livejournal.com]

i liked shrek more than i thought i would - it's a bit too "knowing" but my eyes were moist at the end and you cant argue with that.