It is impossible not to recognize Shrek, the gruff but good ogre with a distinctive green appearance. Perhaps, however, not everyone knows that the character made known by the 2001 film by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson was born in 1990 from the pen of the writer William Steig.
Steig, who died in 2003 while filming the second of the four episodes of the Shrek saga, has distinguished himself in the world of culture as an artist, illustrator and writer for children. In his vast literary production, the illustrated fairy tale Shrek stands out above all! of 1990 in which the adventures that the homonymous ogre undertakes to marry his beloved princess ogress are narrated, subverting the traditional canons according to which only handsome blue princes get married with beautiful human princesses.
The name “Shrek” derives from the Yiddish “schreck”, which means fear and terror (a clear linguistic reference to the Jewish and Polish origins of the writer’s family). Certainly the big green ogre scares only at the beginning, later revealing himself with a big heart and ready to help his friends.
Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks buys the rights to the fairy tale and turns it into the first animated feature film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Film in 2002 (this category was in fact only introduced at the Oscars in that year).
Just like Steig’s fairy tale, the film, enriched with many contents and characters, keeps alive the characteristics of the cute green ogre who, as a loner and gruff, finds himself in love and willing to do anything for his beloved Fiona and friends.
The ogre lives in a house in the middle of a swamp and spends his days scaring people. His life is suddenly turned upside down when he meets Donkey, a talking donkey, exiled from the lands of Duloc – where the cruel Lord Farquaad reigns – along with all the characters of the fairy tales.
Donkey moves into Shrek’s house, followed by Pinocchio, the Seven Dwarfs, Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood and many others. The situation for Shrek becomes unbearable so much that he decides to go to Lord Farquaad and restore calm to Duloc and thus get rid of the exiled characters who occupy his house.
Meanwhile, the evil Farqaad discovers that in order to reign unchallenged he must marry a princess and, among others, chooses Fiona, who is locked up in a tower and must be freed by a dragon. Farqaad, too cowardly to face the feat, calls for a tournament to select the one who will go on a mission. Shrek prevails over all, who was at the tournament not to participate but to order Lord Farquaad to take back the exiled fairy-tale characters. Shrek agrees to save Fiona as long as the dictator returns the exiles to Duloc and so he leaves for the dragon’s castle.
The outcome of the mission turns out to be full of surprises: not only Donkey and the dragon (who is a female dragon) will fall madly in love, but Shrek himself will be hit by Cupid’s arrow, falling in love with Fiona, who is the victim of a spell that, at night, transforms her into an ogress, all green just like Shrek.
After a series of adventures, misunderstandings and twists in the end, love and friendship will triumph and Fiona will be free from the spell, turning definitively into an ogress.
The “and they all lived happily ever after” and therefore a must, even if the adventures of Shrek, Fiona and Donkey do not stop there: after the great success of the first film, three more will be shot: Shrek 2 (2004) , Shrek the third (2007) and Shrek and lived happily ever after (2010), as well as the spin-off Puss in Boots (2011) dedicated to the character made famous by the dubbing of Antonio Banderas in the Italian version.
. Valentina Morlacchi
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