Stephen Thompson

The animated upstart that launched a DreamWorks franchise, won an Oscar, spawned a stage musical, and greatly extended the cultural life of the band Smash Mouth.

And I'm Stephen Thompson.

Today in this encore episode of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we are talking about 25 years of Shrek.

And we could all use a little change.

Joining us today is freelance culture critic and reporter Serena Toros.

Hey, Serena.

Hey, Stephen.

Jazzed to be here.

I am so glad you're here.

So in 2020, Shrek was added to the Library of Congress's National Film Registry, canonizing it as a work of historical and cultural significance.

I don't think many people would have predicted that when it first came out in 2001.

At that time, DreamWorks was hardly an animation powerhouse, and Shrek is basically a feature-length Disney diss track.

It's got a big ol' fart joke right out of the gate.

It's got Mike Myers playing an ogre with a Scottish accent.

Oh, I know what.

Maybe I could have decapitated an entire village and put their heads on a pike, gotten a knife, cut open their spleen, and drank their fluids.

Does that sound good to you?

Yet Shrek was a huge blockbuster with a very long shelf life on DVD and cable and eventually streaming.

Part of its appeal lies in simplicity.

It takes a very familiar kind of Disney-fied fairytale world and upends it with a farting ogre, a talking donkey voiced by Eddie Murphy.