Good morning 🐣

It’s day 2 of SHREK WEEK, y’all, and I hope you’re feeling the love, ’cause that’s all we’re talking about today!

Shrek can do everything. He’s the classic survivalist-type who lives alone in the swamp, free from society. He paints portraits, reads fine literature, cooks, cleans, brawls, and builds his own home. I mean just look at how confidently this man strides out of an outhouse:

When his swamp is mobbed by fairy-tale creatures that have been evicted by Lord Farquaad, Shrek inadvertently becomes a hero by promising to send them back to where they came from. He doesn’t want to be a hero; he just wants some privacy. And though he makes his own rules, even walking straight through a zigzagging Disneyland-style rope line, we’re quickly exposed to his rigid view of the world. Things must be a certain way for Shrek or he’ll lash out and hurt just about anyone, so long as he isn’t hurting himself.

Which brings us to Shrek’s first counterpart, Lord Farquaad. We’re introduced to this short menace while he’s torturing the Gingerbread Man. He considers all fairy-tale creatures to be monsters, poisoning his perfect world. Just like Shrek, Farquaad needs things to be a certain way, in this case a bland, sanitized world free of anything special or unique. He forces others to act for him, afraid of his own limitations. His refusal to adapt will be his undoing. But will it be the same for Shrek?

“This isn’t right.” Princess Fiona utters these words in despair after she’s rescued by Shrek and Donkey. You see, she isn’t being rescued the way it’s supposed to happen. Where’s Prince Charming? Where’s his noble steed? Why didn’t he slay the dragon already!? Do I sense a repeating theme here? Again we have a character living by rigid definitions. The difference is that Fiona is quick to accept and adapt to her new conditions.

After she starts bonding with her rescuers, things start feeling a little off about her:

• she can do “Matrix”-style jump kicks,
• she licks spiderwebs off her fingers, and
• she blows air into a snake and ties it up like a balloon animal.

She’s finally able to let her guard down and start feeling like her true self. But when her deep secret comes close to being revealed, she goes into a panic. Though they’re falling for each other (Shrek invites her to come visit him in his swamp some time! Like what!?), Fiona is adamant that “this is not how a princess is meant to look.” Because SPOILERS, BABY every night she turns into an ogre at sunset and back to a human at dawn. It’s been this way ever since she was a little girl cursed by a witch.

Like Shrek and Farquaad, she puts up all these barriers, all these requirements in life, to mask who she truly is, to not hurt inside, to not feel rejected.

And then we have sweet, gentle Donkey. Donkey, who values honesty, trustworthiness, and open communication, is completely non-judgmental and wears his emotions on his sleeve. He’s also the quintessential houseguest, offering to make Shrek waffles in the morning. Though he has to force his way into Shrek’s life, they do eventually become friends. Shrek helps him conquer his fears and even saves his life, which is a turning point in their relationship. In return, Donkey gets Shrek to open up and be vulnerable, to acknowledge why he is the way he is. Donkey even conquers the dragon, not by slaying it, but by loving it, or rather her. Just as Shrek says about himself later: “Sometimes things are more than they appear.”

Shrek, Farquaad, and Fiona all feel like freaks, their bodies not conforming to what society expects. And in Fiona’s case, her body doesn’t even conform to how she feels on the inside. It’s a fascinating psychology for both a children’s film and as a subversion of the fairy-tale framework. But thanks to a persistent friend who is always there to listen and to love, Fiona and Shrek are able to come out the better for it, to realize that they are beautiful inside and out. This magical, overly talkative donkey knows the value of a voice, because “what’s the point of being able to talk if you gotta keep secrets?”

See you tomorrow! 💚