Tropedia

  • Before making a single edit, Tropedia EXPECTS our site policy and manual of style to be followed. Failure to do so may result in deletion of contributions and blocks of users who refuse to learn to do so. Our policies can be reviewed here.
  • All images MUST now have proper attribution, those who neglect to assign at least the "fair use" licensing to an image may have it deleted. All new pages should use the preloadable templates feature on the edit page to add the appropriate basic page markup. Pages that don't do this will be subject to deletion, with or without explanation.
  • All new trope pages will be made with the "Trope Workshop" found on the "Troper Tools" menu and worked on until they have at least three examples. The Trope workshop specific templates can then be removed and it will be regarded as a regular trope page after being moved to the Main namespace. THIS SHOULD BE WORKING NOW, REPORT ANY ISSUES TO Janna2000, SelfCloak or RRabbit42. DON'T MAKE PAGES MANUALLY UNLESS A TEMPLATE IS BROKEN, AND REPORT IT THAT IS THE CASE. PAGES WILL BE DELETED OTHERWISE IF THEY ARE MISSING BASIC MARKUP.

READ MORE

Tropedia
Register
Advertisement
Farm-Fresh balanceYMMVTransmit blueRadarWikEd fancyquotesQuotes • (Emoticon happyFunnyHeartHeartwarmingSilk award star gold 3Awesome) • RefridgeratorFridgeGroupCharactersScript editFanfic RecsSkull0Nightmare FuelRsz 1rsz 2rsz 1shout-out iconShout OutMagnifierPlotGota iconoTear JerkerBug-silkHeadscratchersHelpTriviaWMGFilmRoll-smallRecapRainbowHo YayPhoto linkImage LinksNyan-Cat-OriginalMemesHaiku-wide-iconHaikuLaconicLibrary science symbol SourceSetting

Shrek film series[]

  • Acceptable Targets:
    • For Puss in Boots: The Last Wish; "Big" Jack Horner can be considered as a jab to villainous characters who became evil due to generational trauma.
  • Adaptation Displacement: You probably won't find a lot of people who have even heard of Shrek! by Willaim Steig. So much was added to this little story that about the only thing it and the movies have in common is... a grumpy ogre named Shrek and an ugly princess.
  • Badass Decay: Subverted with AU!Puss In Boots. He starts as lazy, fat housecat, but regains his badassery when the time is right.
  • Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Monsueir Hood's appearance in the original movie.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The cover of Barracuda. Heck yes.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: The Pied Piper and Rumpelstiltskin in the fourth movie.
    • "Do the roar."
    • Not to mention PUSS!... in Boots for the series in general.
  • Fridge Brilliance: Farquaad chose Shrek's swamp for his Fantastic Ghetto because he knew there was an ogre there and decided it's easier to move every other fairy tale creature to his place rather than taking pains to move him anywhere else.
    • Maybe, but then again, his torture of Gingerbread Man would suggest that it was less that Farquaad actually ordered for them to be relocated there as them going there to escape him.
  • Genius Bonus / Parental Bonus: Panicked citizens run right out of one Farbucks...and into another Farbucks directly across the street.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In Russia, Shrek 4 is the second-highest grossing movie OF ALL TIME, losing only to the inevitable Avatar.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: Shrek Forever After has AU!Puss being reduced to merely Fiona's pet - but after seeing his origins in the Darker and Edgier Puss in Boots, can we really consider that as the 'bad' dimension?
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In the second movie, Shrek is disgusted by a poster of "Sir Justin" (who looks like Justin Timberlake) on Fiona's ceiling. Come the third movie, where a teenage King Arthur is played by... Justin Timberlake.
    • Even more hilarious: Justin and Cameron Diaz were dating at the time of Shrek 2; by the time Justin became her cousin they had broken up.
    • Look at the lineup of faux-Disney Princesses - Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty... Rapunzel? But that wasn't a Disney movie... at the time.
    • One of the first things Shrek said to Fiona was "You were expecting Prince Charming?" And then...
    • Merlin helps Shrek see into... the FUTURE.
    • For Star Wars fans, John Lithgow playing Lord Farquaad comes across as ironic when he played another diminutive figure, Yoda, in the radio drama for The Empire Strikes Back, only unlike Farquaad, he didn't mind his short stature.
    • Conrad Vernon voices Gingy, a talking gingerbread man who gets tortured by having his legs broken off and glued on. Vernon would later direct Sausage Party, also a animated comedy movie that involves talking food getting tortured.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Prince Charming. After enduring grief and humiliation now that he no longer has the power his mama gave him, all he wanted was his own Happily Ever After... which he probably would have gotten had he not stayed a villain by choice.
  • Magnificent Bastard: The Pied Piper. Anyone who can capture an army of rebels/insurgents while playing "Shake Your Groove Thing" on a pipe deserves this.
  • Memetic Mutation: DO THE ROAR!
    • I LOVE YOU DADDY!
  • Memetic Sex God: In-universe, Puss.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Seen in the flashback in the alternate-universe when Rumpelstiltskin is shown completing the deal with Fiona's parents to make "their problems go away", doing so by making them go away. That would have also happened if the messenger had arrived a few seconds later at the beginning of the movie, but we don't know that at the time. When we see the king and queen's looks of indescribable horror as they realize they're being erased from existence, Rumpelstiltskin crosses the line from just a simple trickster who wanted to rule the kingdom into utterly, irredeemably evil.
    • Don't forget the scene where he summons a council of witches where he first starts out as a loving patron, scolds them about letting Shrek escape and finally snaps into rage, killing one of them on screen by pouring water onto her. We all know what water does to witches... That just doesn't mark him evil, but a batshit insane Axe Crazy.
    • By threatening Shrek's life and then Fiona's freedom, Lord Farquaad was pretty much asking for his Just Desserts (courtesy of Dragon).
    • Heck, the first thing he does in the film is have the poor Gingerbread Man waterboarded in milk as an interrogation technique.
  • The Problem with Licensed Games: Many of the games based on Shrek franchise aren't exactly critically acclaimed.
  • The Scrappy: The ogre babies in the third movie; they only appeared near the end of the movie, but many people dismissed them as a kid-oriented Tastes Like Diabetes marketing gimmick. Arguably Rescued From the Scrappy Heap in the fourth movie.
  • Seinfeld Is Unfunny: When the first Shrek movie came out, it was considered a witty and refreshing break from the then-formulaic Disney Animated Canon fare, and it put Dreamworks Animation on the map. Nowadays Shrek's often blamed for killing traditional animated films and starting a trend of rather mediocre CGI fims overly reliant on Anachronism Stew and Getting Crap Past the Radar. It didn't help that Dreamworks would not only give Shrek four sequels, but rehash the formula for most of their other films until they Grew the Beard with Kung Fu Panda.
    • And after Dreamworks themselves grew the beard, other studios followed suit - instead of making Shrek ripoffs, they themselves started more frequently producing original and well-liked CGI movies.
  • Sequelitis: Fans are divided between whether Forever After is just as bad as Third or better. Reception has been much warmer than for Third, however.
  • Squick: at the end of Shrek 2, Dragon shows up with several of her and Donkey's newborn children. You don't want to think too hard about how that happened.
    • The alternate universe Donkey lampshades this when he asks Shrek about his children.
Cquote1

 Donkey: "Are my babies cute, or do they make people feel uncomfortable?"

Cquote2
  • What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: All four movies have this to some extent, with occasional mild cursing and direct references to adult situations such as drunkenness.
    • Also it gets pretty dark sometimes. From the malicious Rumpelstiltskin who erased Fiona's parents from existence and murders people (even his own followers) for his own amusement, to the Crapsack World that AU!Far Far Away becomes, there are some dark themes explored in this film.
    • Also a heavily Bowlderized version of Matt White's "Best Days" appears in the credits of Shrek the Third. Parents who bought the song may be shocked when he says "lying naked under the covers"
  • Woolseyism: The Polish version is arguably funnier than the original, at least to Poles.
    • Same applies to the Hungarian version (and every other localization, I'm inclined to believe), with an extremely clever choice of voice actors and well-adapted cultural references.
    • Banderas does the Spanish version too - with an Andalusian accent.
      • That, however, doesn't prevent the Latin American localization from largely being a subversion, as it sports heavy Mexican accents, idioms, and at times jokes a little too localized, which made the movies right down unbearable for many of the non-Mexicans (arguably most of the targeted audience)...
        • The same problem occurred with the French version; while very well-localized for the French, it was considered incomprehensible by people in Quebec and even some parts of France (to the point that one Québécois politician attempted to pass a bill requiring Quebec French dubbing for all movies after seeing Shrek the Third in French).
    • The Hebrew version is god-awful. But, then again, the only thing that's better in Hebrew is Crime and Punishment, and that's because they replaced Crime with Sin.
    • The Dutch version was also pretty good with the Woolseyism. Whether the original is better than the translation is subjective, though.
    • The Austrian version had a different voice Actor for the Fairy Godmother than the German version.

Shrek the Musical[]

  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: "A musical of Shrek? Oh c'mon! Haven't they milked the franchise enou-- wait, what? John Tartaglia's in it? As a puppet?! Where're they selling tickets?!"
    • Same goes for the new and vastly improved Dragon puppet created for the tour.
  • Crack Pairing: Quite a few. And within the actual show no less!
    • In earlier performances, the White Rabbit and the (female) Ugly Duckling were frequently seen together; in the finale, he'd propose to her.
    • Even Pinocchio and the Shoemaker's Elf - and the Sugar Plum Fairy and Tweedle Dum later - were sometimes given Last Minute Hookups.
    • Later, in one of the promotional materials, it was revealed that Gingy has a crush on the Elf.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: "Who I'd Be", the "Defying Gravity" of Shrek.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Pinocchio. The mere fact that he was originally played by John Tartaglia may or may not have a lot to do with it.
  • Ear Worm: "I think I got you beat, I think I got you beat! Yea-ah! Yea-ah! Yea-ah!"
    • "Sing a song, yes a travel song, when ya' gotta go somewhere~"
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: It wasn't until a friend pointed it out that John Tartaglia, who has been a puppeteer most of his life, realized and appreciate the irony of playing Pinocchio, a literal puppet character.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: The initial reaction to the song "Donkey Pot Pie" being replaced with "Forever." This has died down since then.
Advertisement