We are all on a quest for something. In my Pokemon post I talked about Ash and his quest for eternal glory as a Pokemon master. In my Lion King post I talked about Simba's quest to return home and become the rightful ruler of his pride. I'm here to tell you about another epic quest that I remember watching in my youth. It is the tale of a mystical fairytale creature. The tale of a beast so magnificent that there were 4 (not one, not two, not three, but FOUR) movies made about him. The tale of Shrek. Now, let me embark on this quest to lend you some insight on one of the bestest questiest quests ever.
If you didn't know, Shrek is the story of Shrek himself, Shrek the ogre. At the beginning of the movie Shrek is a rather grumpy character. He doesn't have ANY friends, and everybody hates him. However, one fateful day, he meets Donkey. Donkey is my favorite. I feel as though I can relate to him. I'm goofy, he's goofy. I'm funny (if I do say so myself), he's funny. I'm annoying (sometimes), he's annoying (sometimes). I love waffles, he love waffles. The are so many similarities between us...however, I digress. After meeting donkey, some stuff happens (which I wont tell you, so you just have to watch the movie to know what happens). The result of said "stuff" sends Donkey and Shrek on and journey to find Princess Fiona, who is to marry Lord Farquad. The some more "stuff" happens (I am referring to this "stuff" as "stuff" in order to get you to watch the movie and find out what happens. I don't want to spoil the whole thing for you if you haven't seen it). After Shrek saves the Fiona, he heads back to Farquad's kingdom. During this quest back he begins to develop feelings for Fiona. Now from there there are some plot twists, some crazy stuff happens, and I won't reveal the ending for all those weirdo's who haven't seen Shrek.
From this fairy tale I gathered more than just an interesting tale. I feel as though the movie was trying to instill a deeper moral in its viewers. You see, Shrek is different. In the beginning people treated him badly because he was different. However, Shrek proceeded to come out of his shell and show everybody how cool of a person he was. Now, I probably couldn't articulate that as well when I was a child, or I didn't realize that that was the message I was getting, but I know now that Shrek helped me realize that it's not a bad thing to be different. There's nothing wrong with that. Shrek showed me that everybody is an All-Star (and that was his theme song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_jWHffIx5E). Shrek showed me that everybody can still make beneficial contributions to society if they're given the chance. Just because we're different doesn't mean there's something wrong with us. Due to Shrek's wonderful morals and fantastic plot line, it is still one of my favorite movies to this day.
Now that you've finished reading this post, you can continue one your quest, whatever that may be, but always remember Shrek's quest for love, happiness, and equality.
I remember watching the first Shrek and thinking the exact same thing. Shrek is an ugly ogre that no one likes but after going through his adventures he is finally seen as someone of significance.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the sequels weren't as great. Shrek 2 was pretty good, but Shrek 3 and 4 were just god awful.
Nonetheless, good article. It makes me feel nostalgic about one of my more memorable childhood movies.
Tahar I love your blog posts. I never really thought of Shrek as having a moral message, but you have a really good point.
ReplyDeleteDonkey is by far the best.
I enjoyed the next couple of movies but I must admit I haven't seen the fourth one.
YAY SHREK!!! and YAY proofreading! Thanks for the song link as well. I used to sing All Star all the time when I was a kid.
ReplyDeleteAh... gotta love Shrek. I remember one time I went to Alabama with my family to see some old friends of my family. It was pretty boring. Their house had a total of two movies to watch and I was like 10. So I watched Finding Nemo and Shrek like 6 times each. Anyway, good post. I would say that this brings back memories or something, but I've seen Shrek pretty recently, so I don't know if that still counts as nostalgic. Anyway, I think you should do Finding Nemo next.
ReplyDeleteOne time when my cousins visited, we would watch Shrek every day for five days straight. It was like our default when we ran out of fun things to do! Great movie.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great movie! I remember just watching it because it was funny. However it was interesting to see how you interpreted the deeper meaning of the movie.
ReplyDeleteI literally was just thinking about Shrek before I read your post.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting the message you take on Shrek. For me it was all about how we shouldn't take Fairy Tales too seriously and how any person can make their life into a fairy tale and have their happily ever after.
I will say this, if you take the time to research fairy tales and read up about them and then watch the movie again-it is even funnier, because then there are extra jokes and references that you may not have gotten before that you will understand. It's a genius movie!
Usually, I hate Shrek, but you managed to put him in a new perspective for me, and maybe I will watch it again! I used to think it was just about some green fat thing, but now that you've revealed the deeper meaning, I think it's worth a second chance.
ReplyDeleteI still haven't seen this movie, but since I have an eight-year-old and a three-year-old, I'm sure I will any day now. And I'll look forward to enjoying the quest element of the story.
ReplyDeleteshriek...quality movie. I'd say its in my top 10 movies I saw as a child. best line "ooo I like dat boulda...dats a niice boulda"
ReplyDeleteNice post. I like how you can take what some people dismiss as a simple child's movie, and show that it can be applied to your everyday life. Great movie too.
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