“Each movie was so different at the time. “Jeffrey was really keen on separating himself from Disney, having DreamWorks have its own voice,” Jenson says. Shrek arrived right after the 1990s Disney Renaissance, when DreamWorks-a company cofounded by ousted Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg-was struggling to establish its own consistent style. Whenever I need motivation I think about how the Shrek soundtrack goes so hard even though it really did not need to- Karen Chee May 16, 2021 “What ended up is that Shrek became pop culture itself.” “ Shrek was the first animated picture to have, in its dialogue and in its music, pop references,” says Marylata Elton, Shrek’s music supervisor. As much as Shrek thrived on outhouse humor, postmodern deconstructions of Disney-style fables, and the star power of a cast that included Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow, its signature contribution to the culture-and the main fuel for nostalgia among millennials-may be its boundary-smashing use of licensed popular songs, especially “All Star,” “I’m a Believer,” and “Hallelujah.” Shrek’s Smash Mouth–suffused soundtrack climbed to the top of the Billboard soundtrack chart and went multiplatinum, and the soundtrack to Shrek 2 hit no. The success of the original and its even more lucrative sequels started and sustained a trend toward parodic, crude, and pop-culture-packed takes on fairy tales. Even aside from those scheduled new installments, though, Shrek casts an ogre-sized shadow over 21st-century animated movies. The Shrek franchise has been dormant for a decade, but 20 years after Shrek’s theatrical release, producer DreamWorks is stirring the IP pot: Shrek is about to be rebooted, and Puss in Boots is slated to receive a sequel of its own. The Internet’s Shrek Obsession Will Live on Forever Before ‘Deadpool,’ There Was ‘Shrek’ But by the end, the crowd was won over and delivered, in Adamson’s memory, a 12-minute standing ovation, protracted even by Cannes standards. As Adamson recalls, the audience didn’t warm to the movie the second Smash Mouth singer Steve Harwell’s indelible delivery of “Some body” blared over the sound system. In reality, though, the Cannes crowd responded favorably to the film’s unrefined humor that’s the way they liked it and they never got bored. In the nightmare version of this scene, the jeers start coming and they don’t stop coming. … The song, the animation, everything about this was a poor choice to be bringing here.’” This is not the right audience for this film. “I said, ‘This is just going to be a disaster. “During that whole opening sequence, as Smash Mouth is playing and Shrek’s farting in the mud pool, I was just sweating,” says Andrew Adamson, who codirected Shrek with Vicky Jenson and went on to codirect Shrek 2. Then an animated ogre wipes his ass, emerges from an outhouse, and adjusts a wedgie to the strains of Smash Mouth’s “All Star.” Imagine the moment: Throngs of big-screen stars, top-flight filmmakers, and cinema cognoscenti are assembled in black tie to watch the world’s finest films.
It was, on the surface, an extreme mismatch between movie and moviegoers. On May 12, 2001, Shrek improbably premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first animated movie to compete for the Palme d’Or since Disney’s Peter Pan in 1953. To mark the occasion, The Ringer is celebrating Shrek Day, an exploration of the animated fairy tale’s legacy. Shrek changed the animation game forever (and if you’re doubting its prestige, tell us why it premiered at Cannes!). From a billion-dollar film franchise and Broadway musical to a theme-park ride and a plethora of modern-day memes, there’s no denying the cultural impact of the green ogre. May 18 marks an important milestone in the history of cinema: the 20th anniversary of Shrek.