Shrek

Is Shrek a conventional fairytale? Analyse how the makers of Shrek use the conventions of a fairytale and comment on the ways the film both typifies and subverts the genreWhat are fairytales? Fairytales are stories with a moral which have been passed down from generation to generation mainly orally. When we consider fairytales we think of; Prince charming, damsel in distress, evil witch and a happy ending. These so called “fairytales” started off as very gruesome and brutal stories about how children were kidnapped and killed. Then when Disney started to produce these fairytales as narrative on film, they took the step of editing the more menacing parts and replacing them with scenes that young children could understand.

The opening scene of ‘Shrek’ is taken from a familiar Disney film ‘Snow White’. This intertextuality has an effect of familiarisation with the audience; the audience’s hopes of a normal fairytale are crushed when Shrek rips the page out and uses it as toilet roll. The opening sequence shows Shrek getting ready for the day; in this sequence irony is used to create comedy. For example Shrek’s bathing is ironic because we normally associate bathing with cleaning ourselves, but Shrek bathes with mud. Another example of this would be the sequence in which Shrek does some “painting”. The comedy and irony used are found when you look at the connotations of painting; masterpieces, Picasso, works of art and splendid brush strokes. When Shrek starts to paint he uses the juice created when he squashed some bugs to death. When you see the finished product you see a painting of an ogre. This is ironic because normally the subjects of paintings are interesting or exquisite, but Shrek is just an ugly ogre.

The characters seem more childlike and more babyish due to DreamWorks Taking the step of making a completely computer animated feature. This also allows DreamWorks to make things more enjoyable by adding stunts that would normally hurt a person but they