Rise and Fall: Shrek

Hey guys. It's a new year and to celebrate, today I'm going to be showcasing a new segment on my blog called "Rise and Fall", in which we take a look at how certain film franchises became one of the biggest in Hollywood only to lose their spark and eventually hit rock bottom. 

Now to kick this segment off, I'm going to be looking at a series that I used to love back in my childhood. The series in question is none other than Shrek.

Some-BODY once told me

For those of you who don't know, Shrek is a series of animated films made by Dreamworks animation studios about about a green ogre named Shrek as he goes on various adventures in a world full of fairytale creatures and characters. It also holds the honor of being the highest grossing animated film franchise of all time with all of the films totaling at over $3 billion worldwide. So with a series that had this much success why would it end up on a segment like this? Well let's start at the very beginning.

The Origin

Way back during the 1990's Disney was experiencing an era of greatness known to many fans as "The Disney Renaissance", with hits such as "The Little Mermaid", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Aladdin". Disney mostly owes this era to Jeffery Katzenberg, who was the head of the motion picture division at the time. However things took a tragic turn when Frank Wells, CEO Michael Eisners second in command, died in a helicopter crash. Katzenberg felt that he should have been promoted to second in command in the wake of this tragedy to which Eisner firmly said "no".

As one could guess, this turned into a feud between the two men which ultimately ended with Katzenberg leaving Disney on bad terms. Shortly after that, Katzenberg founded Dreamworks Studios along with Steven Speilberg and David Geffen. In 1995, the book "Shrek", by William Steig, quickly caught Katzenberg's attention. Not one to waste any time, Dreamworks quickly scooped up the rights to do a film adaptation of the book and thus production began on the film. 

The story of Shrek is about the titular green ogre (voiced by Mike Myres) who was a lone wolf mentality that finds a bunch of fairy tale characters in his swamp. In order to get them out, Shrek agrees with the villainous Lord Farquaad (voiced by John Lithgow) to go rescue a princess (voiced by Cameron Diaz) for him. And along the way, he also has a talking Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy) to assist him in his quest.

Granted, while Dreamworks did have a couple of hits during the 90's such as "The Prince of Egypt" and "Antz", they still couldn't quite get out of Disney's shadow. But all of that changed in the summer of 2001.

The Rise

On May 18, 2001, Shrek was officially released in theaters everywhere and the reception was legendary. It grossed $484 million dollars worldwide and the critics praised the film like there was no tomorrow. Not only that, but the film made history as the first movie to win in the category of best animated feature at the Academy Awards. Needless to say, this was the movie that changed the lives of everyone at Dreamworks animation forever and it put them on the map as a prime competitor to Pixar animation studios.

 So in the wake of Shrek's success, you can bet that Dreamworks wanted to capitalize on it. And thus, Shrek became a cultural phenomenon. Alright, just to give you insight on how big this series was back in the day, you know how Disney's "Frozen" is all over the place these days? Yeah, that's how Shrek was back in the 2000's. Shrek had tons of merchandise and even got an attraction at Universal Studios (which is still open by the way). But the public still wanted more of the greatest fairy tale never told. And thus, Dreamworks announced that there would be a sequel made. 

The sequel takes place right after Shrek and Fiona's wedding as the couple now have to meet Fiona's parents, and as one could guess, Fiona's folks are not to pleased about her significant other (ESPECIALLY daddy dearest). And to make matters even worse, two new villains named Fairy Godmother and Prince Charming try to drive a wedge between Shrek and Fiona's marriage. Now it's up to Shrek to find out where his relationship with Fiona stands. When the movie was released in the summer of 2004, it was an even bigger success than the first one. Critics loved the hell out of it, and it managed to take in more that $900 million dollars at the box office, thus holding the record of highest grossing animated film of all time for six years until Pixar's "Toy Story 3" came out. At that point, the Shrek series was on top of the world and the future looked nothing but bright for the Green Ogre. What could possibly go wrong?

The Fall

After the massive success of Shrek 2, Dreamworks fast tracked three additional sequels. In 2007, Dreamworks released the third entry in the series, Shrek the Third. This time around, Fiona's father sadly passes away and now Shrek has to go out and find the heir to the throne, Artie (a.k.a. King Arthur). But to make matters complicated, Fiona tells Shrek that she's pregnant. And too make matters even further complicated, Prince Charming assembles an army of fairy tale villains in order to seize the throne and kill Shrek. Unlike the first two films, this one got a largely negative response, with a 41% on Rotten Tomatoes. And while the film was financially successful, the lukewarm reception prompted Dreamworks to make the fourth film in the series Shrek Forever After, the grand finale. The fifth film in the series was quickly scrapped and then turned into a spin off starring Puss In Boots, and the series hasn't been seen in theaters since.

So what went wrong?

Back in the series heyday, it was considered fresh and innovative, with it's pop culture references and toilet humor. And trust me, considering that damn near every animated film in the 90's was a musical due to the influence of the Disney renaissance, Shrek's style was a massive breath of fresh air for audiences at the time. But the problem with being on top is that eventually everyone is gonna try and imitate you to become the top dog as well. And just like the Disney renaissance, pretty much every animation studio throughout the 2000's that wasn't Pixar tried to cash in on the Shrek formula by filling their films with celebrity voice actors, pop culture references, and toilet humor. Needless to say, these attempts by other studios to make Shrek clones didn't work out so well. Heck, even Disney themselves got in on the act with the reviled Chicken Little.

 Eventually, with so many other movies trying to copy Shrek, audiences eventually grew tired of the formula that made the series famous in the first place which became evident with the lukewarm reception that the third and fourth films received. Making matters worse is that Dreamworks would use the Shrek formula for many of it's other films such as Shark Tale and Bee Movie before eventually shaking things up with Kung Fu Panda. Another reason why the series eventually lost it's steam was because it's source of fuel. The fuel in question being the disdain for Michael Eisner. Michael Eisner is probably the biggest reason why Dreamworks exists in the first place thanks to the falling out he had with Katzenburg. As a result, Shrek was pretty much Katzenburg's gigantic middle finger to not only the Walt Disney Company, but Eisner as well. Hell, Lord Farquad, the villain of the first film, even resembles Eisner!

Subtle Jeff. Real Subtle.

But of course, Michael Eisner was eventually removed as the CEO of Disney in 2005, a year after the second film came out, thus making all of the slander that the Shrek series threw at him kind of irrelevant. Not only that, but after other studios tried and failed to do the "Fractured Fairy Tale" movie, combined with the backlash towards Shrek The Third, animated movies in starting in 2008 would noticeably return to more heartfelt and serious storytelling with Disney's Bolt and Dreamworks own Kung Fu Panda. And when those films ended up being a hit with both critics and audiences, it was a sign that the Shrek formula no longer had staying power. It really shows seeing that the fourth film was a lot more serious than the previous film and even the Puss In Boots movie abandoned the previous tone of the series and instead showcased a more high fantasy and adventurous tone, which, you guessed it, both critics and audiences loved.

Finally, as audiences began to like the stronger stories of animated films on the tail end of the 2000's, Disney began to return to making sincere fairy tale musicals, which are the kind of movies Shrek made fun of in the first place. And starting with The Princess and the Frog in 2009, these new fairy tales seemed to not only learn from the impact that Shrek made but arguably even improved upon it's style and humor. Thus further making the Shrek series a relic of the 2000's.

Conclusion

While the first two Shrek movies will always have a place in my heart, there's no denying that this series glory days are long gone. And it's all due to dating it's movies with pop culture references that future generations of children are highly unlikely to understand, a style of humor that quickly overstayed it's welcome, and mediocre storytelling that crippled the third and fourth entries and ultimately the series it's self. And while Shrek may have seemingly gotten a new lease on life as the source of a bunch of weird memes, the greatest fairy tale never told is definitely not gonna continue any time soon.


Thank you for reading, and I hope 2017 is a prosperous year for you all. And on the next Rise and Fall we're gonna take a look at another gem from my childhood. One that REALLY needs to go extinct: