The look of the movie was also unexpected. Key to the film’s success was the unforgettable comic voice work delivered by a cast that included Mike Myers as Shrek, Eddie Murphy as Donkey and Cameron Diaz as the princess. Their quest involves a deal with a tyrannical lord: rescue a princess, Fiona, whom the nobleman wants to wed, and in exchange, Shrek can get his home back. An angry, self-isolating ogre, Shrek sets off on an epic journey with Donkey, his sidekick, after their swamp is overtaken. “There would be glimpses of like, wow, I don’t think anyone’s seen this before, this is really funny or this is kind of touching.”Ĭo-directed by Jenson and Andrew Adamson, the movie was based on a children’s book by William Steig, and its basic outline hardly gets at what makes it so audacious. “We didn’t really have the sense of the scope that it was going to be big,” Jenson said. Twenty years later, “Shrek” is still a beloved, offbeat fairy tale whose characters and jokes continue to permeate pop culture, reaching another generation of fans. “Getting sent to ‘Shrek’ felt like being sent to Siberia,” the director Vicky Jenson recalled.īut when the movie was widely released on May 18, 2001, it immediately topped the box office, received wide critical acclaim and went on to win the first Academy Award for best animated feature. In fact, the project was initially unpopular among employees.
The lack of a traditional prince wasn’t the only hurdle for “Shrek,” the next big animated production from the newly formed DreamWorks. The idea that an ugly ogre could be a big-screen hero in a romantic comedy-fairy tale was not one many had high hopes for.
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