Shrek 2 in Relation to Postmodern Theory

In 2004 DreamWorks Pictures released Shrek 2, a well-known American computer-animated fantasy-comedy film dedicated towards a mature audience due to its post modernistic approach. It is the second segment to the Shrek film series and is followed by another two films. The film starts right where the first movie finished. After Shrek and Princess Fiona’s honeymoon they are invited to the kingdom of Far Far Away to meet the princess’ royal parents. But then tension builds up when the couple arrives at kingdom. Shrek and the King are not in good terms due to the couple being ogres. And it is not just the family who are furious about this. Prince Charming comes back from an unsuccessful effort at freeing Fiona and works together with his mother, the Fairy Godmother, to force Shrek away from Fiona. The film is comprised of traditional and contemporary fairy-tale plots aiming at other films altered from several kids’ fantasies consisting predominantly of animated Disney pictures. It also features popular music with the soundtrack consisting of songs by Counting Crows, Harry Nilsson, Chic, Morton Stevens, Lipps Inc., David Bowie and Lalo Schifrin. These elements made the film explode into popularity thereby receiving numerous awards and contributing to the production of two more segments: Shrek the Third (2007), and Shrek Forever After (2010). On the other hand, due to the film’s success, it also influenced the formation of a movement questioning DreamWorks’ post modernistic approach in their production of films. Some stated that it is not appropriate to be viewed by children.

The strange side effect of today's meta-stories is that kids get exposed to the parodies before, or instead of, the originals… Someday the kids will read the original tale and wonder why the stupid straw-house pig doesn't just hop onto the next bookshelf (Poniewozik, 2007, para. 7).

In order to understand how this approach on films works, it is essential to study and elaborate on the