Academy Award winning animated feature film, by DreamWorks Animation debuted in 2001, and is very loosely based upon William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture book entitled Shrek! It was directed by New Zealander Andrew Adamson and Los Angeles artist Vicky Jenson and animated by DreamWorks Animation SKG. Shrek was the first film to win an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, a category introduced in 2001. It was released on DVD and VHS on November 7, 2001.
The film features the voices of Mike Myers as a large, strong, solitude-loving, intimidating ogre named Shrek (from the German word "schreck" meaning "terror" or Yiddish word שרעק, meaning "fear"), Cameron Diaz as the beautiful but very down-to-earth and feisty Princess Fiona, Eddie Murphy as a talkative donkey named Donkey, and John Lithgow as the villainous Lord Farquaad.
It was critically acclaimed as an animated film worthy of adult interest, with many adult-oriented jokes and themes but a simple enough plot and humor to appeal to children. It made notable use of pop music—the soundtrack includes music by Smash Mouth, Joan Jett, The Proclaimers, Jason Wade, The Baha Men, and Rufus Wainwright.
The film was extremely successful on release in 2001 and it helped establish DreamWorks as a prime competitor to Walt Disney Pictures in the field of feature film animation, particularly in computer animation. Furthermore, Shrek was made the mascot for the company's animation productions.
This film is third on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". Shrek was also ranked second in a Channel 4 poll of the 100 greatest family films, losing out on the top spot to E.T. |