In the film Donkey is a very important character who helps to bring out Shrek,s true colours. He completely ignores the keep out signs at Shrek’ swamp and stays true to him all throughout the film even going back with him at the end. His phrases ‘only a true friend would be that truly honest’ and That’s what friends do, they forgive each other’ tells us how he feels towards Shrek and how he sticks with Shrek knowing that he is an ogre but not judging him because of this.
When the unorthodox hero rescues the beautiful princess we see Shrek’s other side, one of love and passion. Like Donkey she doesn’t scream and run away from Shrek and eventually gets to know him better. They are pictured walking through woods on a sunny day with birds chirping and with bright light, which gives the audience the feeling of love and the bright non-traditional ogre side of Shrek. When he hears Fiona and Donkey talking his sensitive side is shown to us, as he is grumpy and not nice to them.
The sad music gives away Shrek’s feelings towards Fiona and the audience knows that even though he is the ogre he’s the one she should be with not the evil prince. By the end his love for Fiona is confirmed when he goes to stop her marrying Lord Farquaad and marries her himself. The music at the wedding and brilliant light used is effective to show us they are not a traditional fairy tale couple and that the film is not a traditional fairy tale.
This is an unusual message for American films ‘beauty is only skin deep’ as commonly the princess is beautiful, kind, etc and the prince is mainly handsome, brave, etc.
When we first meet the supposed traditional prince like character Lord Farquaad he does seem like a typical lord at first. He lives in a giant castle, his appearance as a prince is very convincing and the fact that if he marries a princess he becomes a king makes us believe he is a typical lord but when we get to meet him we find out his true character. The music we hear is sinister and intimidating and the lighting is dark and gloomy. This devise is used to show us and let us know that Lord Farquaad is not going to be the hero but the evil, nasty character otherwise known as ‘the bad guy’. The camera focus on Lord Farquaad’s body leads us to think that he is not big and as all-powerful as he may seem.
His relationship with a sinister looking hooded figure does not help him if he is going to be a stereotypical prince. His deep voice is quite frightening and when it echoes off the walls of his creepy castle it sounds more daunting and evil. He shows this evilness by torturing the gingerbread man in the dungeon of his scary castle not one of a fairy tale prince. He taunts the gingerbread man by making a running motion with his severed legs whilst saying sarcastically ‘run, run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me I’m this gingerbread man’ and threatening to pull off his ‘gum drop’ buttons.
This is very horrible and shows us that he is not going to be a very nice character but an evil, sinister one. When the mirror is brought in Lord Farquaad just throws the gingerbread man into the bin like trash. This shows his nastiness and his unkind, uncaring nature. The traditional expression comes in to things when Lord Farquaad is set to marry Princess Fiona but the way he chooses to do this is rather uncanny, twisted and not very prince like.
When Shrek visits Lord Farquaad’s castle the camera moves from ground level upwards to reveal his tower. This high angle shot is used because it makes Shrek and Donkey seem small and irrelevant and Lord Farquaad appear huge and powerful. The low angle shots are effectively used to show Lord Farquaad looking down on Shrek and Donkey. The way Lord Farquaad feels towards his knights, like their lives are insufficient is shown when he says ‘Some of you may die but that’s a price I’m willing to take’. This is a terrible thing to say about another person’s life and is pure evil..
When Lord Farquaad meets princess he is on horseback and there are trumpets playing. This is very fairy tale like but we already know that he is bad. He treats Shrek like dirt and acts towards him like he hasn’t got any feelings. At the wedding between Fiona and lord Farquaad, Fiona reveals to Shrek her true form. Lord Farquaad treats her terribly by saying ‘it’s hideous’ and orders his guards to get them out of his sight. He threatens to lock princess Fiona back in the castle for the rest of her days but gets his comeuppance when the dragon bursts through the window and eats him up. The happiness and joy this brings to everyone is only proof that Lord Farquaad was evil and unwanted by all. His terrible, unnecessary ways had caught up with him and he had got what he deserved.
Princess Fiona is quite an important character as she shows the difference between the traditional fairy tale and Shrek. The stereotypical princess is usually beautiful, kind and gentle and Fiona is no exception but there is an unusual twist to her personality. Her marrying Shrek is the main reason but there are also a few other smaller things that give her away as being that little bit more than just a princess. When Robin Hood kidnaps her she fights off him and all of his men whilst Shrek and Donkey watch are gob smacked. Also, when Princess Fiona belches it shows how she is not all fairy-tale like as it is a very un- lady like thing to do especially if you are princess.
After analysing the character of Shrek and Lord Farquaad, I have come to the conclusion that although Shrek seems like a traditional ogre he is really a very nice, pleasant character that is fed up with being judged by everyone and has another lighter side to him than everyone thinks. He makes friends unlike a normal ogre; he rescues, finds love with and marries a princess, that is certainly not what a traditional ogre would do and he didn’t grind anyone’s bones to make his bread in the whole film! Lord Farquaad seems like and looks like a lord but his actions and words suggest otherwise that he is evil.
He tortures helpless creatures, he kills, steals and fights without real reason. His rejection of the princess and false claim to be king is very rude and his actions are not that of a typical prince character in a traditional fairy tale. The presentational devices used in the story of Shrek to reverse our expectations, so that by the end of the film we feel that Shrek is the would be prince like character that is good and nice to know and that Lord Farquaad is the beastly, evil character that is horrible to everyone and purely black hearted. Perhaps the moral of the story is that you can’t judge a book by its cover.
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