The Shrek franchise from DreamWorks Animation consists of four computer-animated films including: Shrek (2001), Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), and Shrek Forever After (2010). A short 3D film, Shrek 4-D, which originally was a theme park ride, was released in 2003. A spin-off project, the Christmas television sp ecial Shrek the Halls, premiered on ABC in the USA and worldwide in 2007 to successful ratings as well as another spin-off project, the Halloween television special Scared Shrekless, which premiered on NBC in the USA in 2010 . A spin-off film titled Puss in Boots was released in October 2011.
Film series
Shrek
Shrek, a solitary ogre, finds a surprise when fairy tale creatures are sent to live in his swamp by the evil Lord Farquaad. Shrek befriends a talking Donkey, and the two set off to meet with Lord Farquaad. Lord Farquaad needs Princess Fiona to marry him so he will become king. So when Shrek and Donkey visit him, they are forced to rescue her from an enormous fire-breathing dragon. The Dragon turns out to be a girl, and she falls in love with Donkey. Donkey, Shrek, and Fiona escape, and Dragon chases them. Once Shrek and Donkey rescue Fiona they take her back to Lord Farquaad. Along the way, however, Shrek falls in love with Fiona. Fiona reveals she is cursed to Donkey and turns into an ogress at night. The only way the curse can be broken is by true love's first kiss. Fiona and Farquaad have a marriage ceremony, but they are interrupted by Shrek, who tells Fiona he loves her. Donkey and Dragon enter and Dragon eats Lord Farquaad. Shrek and Fiona kiss, and Fiona turns into an ogress permanently. Shrek gets his swamp back, and the two marry there. After a karaoke party the two set off on their honeymoon.
Shrek 2
The second film opens with Prince Charming on a quest to rescue Princess Fiona from the Dragon. When he gets there, he finds the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood in Fiona's bed. He asks the wolf where Fiona is and the wolf tells him that she is on her honeymoon with Shrek. Once Shrek and Fiona return from their honeymoon, they find Donkey in the swamp who tells them he and Dragon are going through a rough patch. They then get invited to the land of Far Far Away by Fiona’s parents and who want to bless their marriage. When they arrive Shrek and Fiona aren’t what they expected. The evil Prince Charming and his mother, the Fairy Godmother, are trying to break up Shrek’s marriage by making Fiona fall in love with Prince Charming. However it doesn’t work and Shrek and Fiona stay together. Shrek and Donkey get a new sidekick called Puss in Boots. They have a lengthy quest to search the Fairy Godmother's cottage to get a love potion. At the end of the film, King Harold turns back into a frog.
Shrek the Third
Shrek and Fiona are reluctantly reigning over Far, Far Away during King Harold's prolonged illness. The King promises that if they can find Fiona's cousin Artie, he will make him the next in line, so Shrek doesn't have to run the country after his death. As Shrek, Donkey and Puss set off to find Artie, Fiona reveals she is pregnant. Shrek is shocked as he believes he won't be a good father and will ruin his child's life. This is reinforced by his relationship with his father, 'he tried to eat me.' After finding Artie, Artie is frightened of being king, and they end up on an island where they meet Artie's former magic teacher, Merlin. Meanwhile Charming plots to overthrow Shrek and become king, but this is foiled by Shrek. The film ends with Shrek and Fiona caring for their ogre triplets and joined by Queen Lillian, Donkey, Dragon, The Dronkeys and Puss.
Shrek Forever After
Shrek has become a domesticated family man, living happily with Princess Fiona and the triplets. Instead of scaring villagers away like he used to, a reluctant Shrek now agrees to autograph pitch forks. Longing for the days when he felt like a "real ogre," Shrek is tricked into signing a pact with the smooth-talking dealmaker, Rumpelstiltskin. Shrek suddenly finds himself in a twisted, alternate version of Far Far Away, where ogres are hunted, Rumplestiltskin is king, Puss is fat, Donkey doesn't know who Shrek is and Shrek and Fiona have never met. Shrek joins The Resistance and meets Fiona but she doesn't love him. Rumpelstiltskin sets bounty on Shrek and uses The Pied Piper, as a reward for finding Shrek, he offers a 'deal of a lifetime'. Shrek turns himself in and instead of asking for his life back, frees the captured ogres. The ogres then ambush the palace, and Shrek and Fiona battle Dragon. As the twenty four hours are almost up and Shrek lays dying, Fiona kisses him and everything reverts back to Shrek's universe. At the end, instead of storming out of the triplets birthday party Shrek kisses Fiona and appreciates all that he has, truly living happily forever after.
Cancelled fifth film
Following the success of Shrek 2 in May 2004, Jeffrey Katzenberg revealed that the Shrek story had been outlined into five films almost from the beginning. "Before the first one was finished we talked about what the whole story of Shrek is, and each of the chapters answers questions about the first movie and gives us an insight," said Katzenberg, "Shrek 3 and 4 are going to reveal other unanswered questions and, finally, in the last chapter, we will understand how Shrek came to be in that swamp, when we meet him in the first movie." After the release of Shrek the Third in 2007, Katzenberg announced that the fifth film would be released in 2013. In May 2009, DreamWorks Animation (DWA) announced that the fourth film's title would be Shrek Forever After, indicating that it would be the last in the Shrek series. Later that year, that was confirmed by Bill Damaschke, head of creative production at DWA, with him saying: "All that was loved about Shrek in the first film is brought to the final film." Josh Klausner, one of the writers of Shrek Forever After, explained in 2010 the script's evolution: "When I first came onto the project, it wasn't supposed to be the final chapter — there were originally going to be 5 Shrek movies. Then, about a year into the development, Jeffrey Katzenberg decided that the story that we'd come up with was the right way for Shrek's journey to end...
Spin-offs
Puss in Boots
Puss in Boots is a computer-animated American action comedy film that was released on October 28, 2011. The film is based on and follows the character of Puss in Boots on his adventures with Kitty Softpaws and mastermind Humpty Dumpty before his first appearance in Shrek 2.
Puss in Boots 2
In November 2012, executive producer Guillermo del Toro said that a couple of drafts for a sequel were already done, and that the director Chris Miller wants to take Puss on an adventure to exotic places.
Production
Despite the advances in computing power over the 2000s decade, the increasing usage of novel techniques like global illumination, physics simulation, and 3D demanded ever more CPU hours to render the films. DreamWorks Animation noticed that every Shrek film took roughly twice the CPU hours than the previous film and thus labelled this trend as the "Shrek's law". Similar to "Moore's law" the Shrek's law says, "The CPU render hours needed to complete production on a theatrical sequel will double compared to the amount of time needed on the previous film." In 2001, Shrek required approximately 5 million CPU render hours. In 2004, Shrek 2 required over 10 million CPU render hours. In 2007, Shrek the Third required over 20 million CPU render hours, and the 2010 3D release of Shrek Forever After demanded more than 50 million CPU render hours on behalf of rendering double amount of frames. Puss in Boots, which was released only one year after the previous Shrek film, utilized 63 million render hours.
Release
Box office performance
| Film | Release date | Revenue | Rank | Budget | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Foreign | Worldwide | All time domestic | All time worldwide | ||||
| Shrek | May 18, 2001 | $267,665,011 | $216,744,207 | $484,409,218 | #60
|
#114 | $60,000,000
| |
| Shrek 2 | May 19, 2004 | $441,226,247 | $478,612,511 | $919,838,758 | #8
|
#24 | $150,000,000
| |
| Shrek the Third | May 18, 2007 | $322,719,944 | $476,238,218 | $798,958,162 | #28
|
#38 | $160,000,000
| |
| Shrek Forever After | May 21, 2010 | $238,736,787 | $513,864,080 | $752,600,867 | #82 | #46 | $165,000,000
| |
| Shrek films | $1,270,347,989 | $1,685,459,016 | $2,955,807,005 | $535,000,000 | ||||
| Puss in Boots | October 28, 2011 | $149,260,504 | $405,448,722 | $554,709,226 | #237 | #87 | $130,000,000 | |
| Total | $1,419,608,493 | $2,090,907,738 | $3,510,516,231 | #6 | #8 | $665,000,000 | ||
| List indicator(s)*(A) indicates the adjusted totals based on current ticket prices (calculated by Box Office Mojo). | ||||||||
Critical reception
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic |
|---|---|---|
| Shrek | 89% (176 reviews) | 84 (34 reviews) |
| Shrek 2 | 89% (209 reviews) | 75 (40 reviews) |
| Shrek the Third | 41% (206 reviews) | 58 (35 reviews) |
| Shrek Forever After | 57% (188 reviews) | 58 (35 reviews) |
| Puss in Boots | 83% (139 reviews) | 65 (24 reviews) |
| Average Ratings | 72% | 68 |