Shrek
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Why does AI now appear alongside nuclear war as one of humanity's biggest risks? I think it's the scale of it that makes it sound absurd. Episode 2 of Are We Doomed explores simple steps to get there. And we might all need to hear this. If it's going to happen, it might happen very soon. Are We Doomed? Understand our biggest problems and what we can do. Part of the NPR Network. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Shrek. 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 it all started with the story of a crabby green ogre who just wants a bunch of fairy tale characters to stay out of his swamp. I'm Aisha Harris.
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.
What is the significance of Shrek's 25th anniversary?
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. a butt-kicking princess voiced by Cameron Diaz, and a diminutive but treacherous villain named Lord Farquaad voiced by John Lithgow.
But there really are a lot of familiar fairy tale beats. There's a quest, there's a dragon, there's a princess, there's a love story. So, Aisha, I'm going to ask you first. How did you come to Shrek, and what do you think of the movie itself?
Well, picture this. It's 2001. Little Aisha is 13 years old, and... The three things she's most obsessed with in 2001 are Save the Last Dance, Moulin Rouge, and Shrek. And I watched it so many times, I could quote it back and forth. I knew all the songs. To this day, I can probably still recite the Welcome to Duloc song, the song that's sort of a ripoff of It's a Small World.
Please keep up on the grass, shine your shoes, wipe your face. Duloc is Duloc.
The Merry Men song. As much as I loved Disney and did love Disney at that time, I was also 13 and was going through that sort of rebellious phase and starting to enjoy more edgy, quote unquote, edgy humor. And so this movie was like perfect for that because it was sending up all of these familiar tropes that I already knew about. with the sort of elbowing and the winky wink nod about Snow White, but she lives with seven little men, but she's not easy. Like those sorts of jokes, totally my jam. Now I look at it and I just feel as though it doesn't fully work for me. And I'm really surprised to go back and read all of the reviews because I've always thought of it as the type of movie that If you were 13, you would love this.
If you were an adult, you wouldn't. But when you look at the reviews, this movie was beloved by pretty much everyone. Like Roger Ebert gave this a four star review and he called it jolly and wicked, filled with sly in jokes and yet somehow possessing a heart. And he also called this movie an astonishing visual delight, which I mean, maybe then it was. Now this movie is an eyesore to me. Like it's not It's not a pretty movie. It looks like it was made in not even 2001, but honestly, it looks like it was made in 1997.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:39
2
What is the significance of Shrek's 25th anniversary?
1:39–5:32
3
How did Shrek challenge traditional fairy tale narratives?
5:32–11:20
4
What cultural impact did Shrek have on animation and humor?
11:20–12:21
5
How did the film's humor resonate with different age groups?
12:21–19:10
6
What are the critiques of Shrek's animation and storytelling?
19:10–19:58