In the first two Shrek movies, Shrek the ogre and Fiona the princess fell in love and married when it was revealed that Fiona was also an ogre. They saved the kingdom from Prince Charming and his mother, the Fairy Godmother.
In Shrek the Third, Prince Charming gathers together all the villains of fairytales to make an assault on the kingdom of Far, Far Away and claim the throne for himself. Donkey and Dragon have five baby dragon-donkeys, and Fiona also reveals that she is pregnant. Although I have always enjoyed the tongue-in-cheek Shrek movies, I have a serious problem with the misogynistic message being passed on to children in this third movie. Fiona’s father, the Frog King, dies after telling Shrek that he is next in line for the throne – or he can find a boy called Arthur Pendragon, a cousin who could also fulfil the role. That scene nearly caused me to turn the movie off in disgust.
Firstly, there is a perfectly fit, intelligent, and capable queen standing at the king’s bedside – in every way the ideal person to take over as monarch of Far, Far Away. And if you want to argue that the spouse of the heir to a throne cannot be the monarch, that is exactly my next argument.
Fiona is the princess and the heir to the throne, but it is her commoner husband who is made king. Or the other option is the next male heir down the line – anyone other than the legitimate child of the current king, as long as that person is male. We don’t even do that in the real world where every excuse for misogyny is used to the full extent possible. No one in England licks stamps with the profile of “King Philip” on them, nor is there a “King Henrik of Denmark”.
On the creative side, the special features are also a little thin compared to other DVDs, considering the enormous amount of talent that goes into an animated movie like this. The documentaries cover the voice actors, some of the CGI effects, and some storyboard pitches of scenes that never made it into the movie. The rough sketches of the storyboard, and the creative thought process that these highlight, are fascinating and offer a glimpse into the nuts and bolts of a major animation production.
Unfortunately I was disappointed to learn that computer algorithms are increasingly being tailored to produce entire characters almost instantly, taking much away from the creative input of the artists. The only upside to this is that such a lengthy and expensive production becomes less so, and the artists are able to focus on main characters and important details. The viewer gets more, but the artform is lessened.
Shrek the Third is available from Amazon.com
