Disneycember Month by Doug Walker of TGWTG

[PatrickvD]

What annoys me about Shrek is that people think it was the first time a studio did a 'twisted' fairytale.

I'm pretty sure Aladdin and more importantly, The Emperor's New Groove already went there and both are more effective and funny.

Disagree with him about Chicken Run and Prince of Egypt. But then again, I rarely agree with him.

[qindarka]

So glad that he talked about Shrek's huge flaws and it's not really the golden shiny halo angel magical movie most people think that it is.

Public opinion on Shrek has increasingly turned. People are much more likely now to decry them as those crappy Dreamworks movies with pop-cultural references and compare some of their more recent films favorably to them.
Doug isn't really going against the grain here.

I've only watched the first two, pretty recently, and think they are very good. Don't really get many of the pop-culture references but they don't bother me much. People overstate how bad they are, I feel. Even the great, pure, Pixar uses pop-culture references and one instance in Toy Story 2 was horrific.

[thelittleursula]

What annoys me about Shrek is that people think it was the first time a studio did a 'twisted' fairytale.

I'm pretty sure Aladdin and more importantly, The Emperor's New Groove already went there and both are more effective and funny.

Disagree with him about Chicken Run and Prince of Egypt. But then again, I rarely agree with him.

This so much.

Chicken Run really made the liar tells old cliche he rants about really work I thought.

[estefan]

I'm pretty sure Aladdin and more importantly, The Emperor's New Groove already went there and both are more effective and funny.

Aside from the title, New Groove doesn't really have anything to do with The Emperor's New Clothes, so I'm not sure how it qualifies as a twisted fairy tale.

[DisneyFan09]

So glad that he talked about Shrek's huge flaws and it's not really the golden shiny halo angel magical movie most people think that it is.

My mayor flaw with "Shrek" is the love story. After a relatively enjoyable first and second act, where the tone is mostly comical, the film turns 180 degrees and becomes a melodrama. And a predictable one, too. Fiona turning into an ogre was a nice touch, but otherwise the final dilemma is poorly executed and too derivative from other love movies (the lead trying to interrupt the wedding from his/her love interest).

Besides, Shrek really didn't deserve Fiona. Yes, he does show how he loves her at the end, but he is still the one who leads Lord Farquaad when he misunderstood her words.

If it wasn't for the trite melodrama at the third act, "Shrek" could have been as wonderful as everyone was claiming it to be. The jokes and the parodies were (mostly) clever, the animation is gorgeous.

[thelittleursula]

Errr I'm with Doug on the comedy. Some of it was excellent and some was .... odd.

Like Doug he said with the onions jokes and the waffle joke.

About the romance am I the only that the feels like the message at the end was " Only ugly people love other ugly people " ?

I don't think Dreamworks was going for that message, but it feels like that.

Like Sherk and Fiona didn't make a connection till he realized that she was a Ogre as well.

And they didn't get fully together until Fiona became a Ogre.

[qindarka]

Like Sherk and Fiona didn't make a connection till he realized that she was a Ogre as well.

I am pretty sure that is not the case. He didn't know that Fiona was afflicted with the curse until very late on.

[estefan]

Like Sherk and Fiona didn't make a connection till he realized that she was a Ogre as well.

Did you miss the montage where they're both having fun and slowly falling for each other? Not to mention, there's that scene where Shrek and Fiona are having that sweet conversation at the fire and then come very close to kissing. Shrek wouldn't be bringing that sunflower later on, if there wasn't that connection and love between them.

Shrek doesn't find out Fiona is an ogre until AFTER he tells her that he's in love.

[Pokeholic_Prince]

Yes, it is true that Shrek was not the first twisted fairy tale, but it was one of the first mainstream animated films targeted at a older crowd. The first Shrek to this day is incredibly well written and in general a great movie. The second one is almost as good. However, because of Shrek 3/4, which weren't up to par sort of tarnished the names of the first 2. Along with countless movies copying the formula, some how also put Shrek under the wrong light. I still believe Shrek was a revolution in the animation industry.

[PatrickvD]

The first Shrek to this day is incredibly well written and in general a great movie.

Except that the main issue that triggers the story, Shrek's attempt to get rid of the fairytale characters inhabiting his swamp, is never resolved or addressed at the end of the film. They've left and we'll just have to assume Lord Farquaad took care of it. How convenient. Has Shrek become more tolerant? Who knows and who cares.

It's not well written.

I'll give you some of the gags and in places even some great animation for its time, but well written? Not to me.

[estefan]

I don't think Shrek was intolerant towards other creatures. I think it just reached a point where he was disillusioned from the rest of the world, because he had been so mistreated by everyone just because he was an ogre. Fiona and Donkey starting to treat kindly, despite his outward appearance was likely the trigger than allowed him to become more happy.

It really bothers me how much the fourth Shrek contradicts the first movie with him upset that people aren't scared of him anymore. There's an entire scene in the first film, where he talks about how he wishes people and other creatures would get to know him first and not be scared.

Look, I'm not the one with the problem, okay? It's the world that seems to have a problem with ME! People take one look at me and go "Aargh! Help! Run! A big stupid ugly ogre!" They judge me before they even know me - that's why I'm better off alone...

[pap64]

For once, I actually agree with Doug on his Shrek review. I remember watching the movie for the very first time back in 2001 (fun times), and I fell over heels IN LOVE with it. I thought it was a masterpiece that I saw over and over again. But after the second movie was released, I went back to the first movie and began to realize how weak it really it. Doug did well enough in explaining those issues. It's even more appalling when you realize that Shrek WON THE FIRST EVER ANIMATED OSCAR AWARD, and has been considered ONE OF THE BEST ANIMATED MOVIES EVER MADE. Thing is, it is clearly a product of its time, a film that was fueled by the frustration its creators had towards Disney and tried to be as clever as possible, but at times came off as juvenile.

Now think about Toy Story. The movie is almost twenty years olds, and outdated CG aside, the movie is splendidly made. It still stands today as it did in 1995. It's why the characters are still around and people can't get enough of them, whereas Shrek just seems to be a memory now. It's even worse when you consider that anything Shrek nowadays is just an extension of personalities rather than an evolution. Toy Story 2 brought forth the idea of the toys being replaced, while the third movie put it into motion and allowed itself to have its worlds and characters evolve from there.

It also didn't help that Dreamworks, in what may seem as hypocritical of them, milked the Shrek well dry. I remember my friends, who absolutely loved the second movie, were just fed up with Shrek by the time the third movie came out, and were annoyed by all the advertising they generated for the movie. It is hypocritical of Dreamworks, who made the first movie to spit Disney, did even worse than Disney in that regard. Not to mention Shrek created the cliche of CG movies being hip, self aware comedies, so by the time the third movie was out, the joke had already become more annoying than endearing.

In short, I think Shrek is the product of the era it was created in, and thus doesn't have the same appeal of likability of other movies. So yeah, I actually second Doug on this...

[Pokeholic_Prince]

The first Shrek to this day is incredibly well written and in general a great movie.

Except that the main issue that triggers the story, Shrek's attempt to get rid of the fairytale characters inhabiting his swamp, is never resolved or addressed at the end of the film. They've left and we'll just have to assume Lord Farquaad took care of it. How convenient. Has Shrek become more tolerant? Who knows and who cares.

It's not well written.

I'll give you some of the gags and in places even some great animation for its time, but well written? Not to me.

The whole deal he had was save the princess and the swamp will be free of the fairytale creatures, which happened. I don't see how this was an issue.

[qindarka]

The first Shrek to this day is incredibly well written and in general a great movie.

Except that the main issue that triggers the story, Shrek's attempt to get rid of the fairytale characters inhabiting his swamp, is never resolved or addressed at the end of the film. They've left and we'll just have to assume Lord Farquaad took care of it. How convenient. Has Shrek become more tolerant? Who knows and who cares.

It's not well written.

I'll give you some of the gags and in places even some great animation for its time, but well written? Not to me.

That wasn't the main issue, it was just the catalyst that set the plot in motion.
And yes, we are to assume that Farquaard took care of it, as per the terms of his deal with Shrek.

[disneyboy20022]

<iframe src="http://blip.tv/play/gbk7g46cfgI.x?p=1" width="720" height="433" frameborder="0"></iframe><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://blip.tv/api.swf#gbk7g46cfgI"></embed>

[Disney's Divinity]

I honestly think the only good film in the series was Shrek 2. The first one was good for a few laughs, and the third and fourth were awful, but the second seemed to find the best balance between the comedy and an actual storyline.

I haven't seen Spirit in years, unfortunately. I used to have a copy of it, but it was stolen by a friend of mine from high school who would never return it. I probably would've re-bought it by now, but I didn't remember it as being very good, although it seemed fairly different than you'd expect from Dreamworks (at the time).

[disneyboy20022]

I would rank the Shrek films like this

Shrek 2
Shrek
Shrek 4
Shrek the third

Shrek the Third was horrible. I hated it though now it is one of my shameful guilty pleasures.

[DisneyFan09]

What annoys me about Shrek is that people think it was the first time a studio did a 'twisted' fairytale.

I'm pretty sure Aladdin and more importantly, The Emperor's New Groove already went there and both are more effective and funny.

Agreed. I hated that "The Emperor's New Groove" wasn't (at least theatrically) the big hit that it deserved to be, while "Shrek" was a gigantic box office hit.

[PatrickvD]

I liked Spirit quite a lot. It's very 'un-Dreamworks'. And it boasts some of their best character designs. Some of the CG sticks out a bit too obviously but on the whole, it's beautifully animated.

A bit underrated.

[DisneyFan09]

I liked Spirit quite a lot. It's very 'un-Dreamworks'.

How so?