Good evening 😴

I may be biased, but I think we have another successful SHREK WEEK on our hands and I couldn’t have done it without all you fellow Shrekkies, what with all your kind words and feedback.

Be sure to check out days one, two, three, and four if you missed ’em.

Together we are part of something bigger, a global movement to add a little kindness and understanding back into the world, to leave it a better place than how we found it. And we are legion, my friends. The four feature films plus two Puss in Boots spin-offs have contributed over $4 billion to the Shrekonomy, not to mention a TV show, holiday specials, video games, theme park attractions, and a Broadway musical. People love Shrek.

And though the first film may be over twenty years old, the series is as relevant as ever. The newest spin-off, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” came out last year and was actually really freaking good. And just this year there were official Shrek Crocs and a really cool Airbnb that looks exactly like Shrek’s swamp house.

But $4 billion in corporate product isn’t enough to sustain anything with this much longevity. As I highlighted last year, “Shrek” has spawned entire subcultures on the Internet, weird outsider art both deeply ironic and deeply sincere. Shrek is in people’s DNA at this point. My current favorite addition to the fandom is this dark comedy short film by Matt Kazman: “After receiving an emergency call, a struggling actor has to face his family during his lowest moment.” It’s truly unhinged.

But it all started with a children’s book written back in 1990 by my man, Mr. William Steig.

Born in New York City in 1907 to Polish-Jewish immigrants (a housepainter and a seamstress), Steig went on to draw thousands of cartoons and well over a hundred covers for The New Yorker, as well as work for Vanity Fair, Collier’s, Life, and Judge magazines, earning more than enough to provide for himself, his younger brother, and his parents when first starting out. He also illustrated the Eric Hodgins novel “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,” which went on to become a movie in 1948 starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Melvyn Douglas. It wasn’t until he was in his sixties that he began writing and illustrating children’s books, drawing inspiration from events in his childhood, with one of his first projects being “Sylvester and the Magic Pebble,” which went on to win the Caldecott Medal in 1970. “Doctor De Soto,” about a mouse dentist trying to help a fox with a toothache without getting eaten, won a National Book Award in 1983.

“Shrek!” (notice the exclamation point at the end) was published in 1990 and Steven Spielberg purchased the movie rights the very next year, with plans to cast Bill Murray as Shrek and Steve Martin as Donkey. It wasn’t until 1995 that work really got going on it, turning into what we know today and going on to win the first ever Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. While the movie “Shrek 2” involves family matters, only the Broadway musical (which I wrote about last year) and the book (available here) touch on Shrek’s parents and upbringing. The book’s story only vaguely resembles the film, but it’s a fun, delightfully transgressive work in its own way. You can really see what inspired Spielberg all those years ago with its unique tone and simple illustrations. When asked for his opinion on the animated adaptation, Steig said, “It’s vulgar, it’s disgusting — and I love it.”

Steig died of natural causes in Boston in 2003 at the age of 95. (You can read an excellent obituary here.) “Shrek 2” was released only a few months later and featured a dedication in the credits.

In a speech, Steig said about art:

Art, including juvenile literature, has the power to make any spot on earth the living center of the universe, and unlike science, which often gives us the illusion of understanding things we really do not understand, it helps us to know life in a way that still keeps before us the mystery of things. It enhances the sense of wonder. And wonder is respect for life. Art also stimulates the adventurousness and the playfulness that keep us moving in a lively way and that lead us to useful discovery.

That’s a wrap for both SHREK WEEK and Cinescape 2023. It’s been fun, y’all. We’ll go out on a few more of my favorite pages from William Steig’s iconic “Shrek!” See you in a couple weeks with a fresh new year!

Until next time! 💚

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