Shrek: The Movie [Reviewed]

The qualifications of ‘new’ for me in comparison to others are quite different. Shrek was released almost exactly a year before I was born but I had not watched the movie until two weeks ago at 20 years old.

When the opening scene showed Shrek taking an ‘anti-shower’, as I like to call it, my roommate exclaimed, “this is my favorite part. It’s absolutely beautiful,” while ‘All Star’ blasted in the background. To this day I’m not sure if she was joking, and I’m not sure I want to find out considering it was at the same time Shrek let one loose in the swamp so badly that it killed a fish.

Some may say it’s just another Disney movie about an unlikely hero on his way to rescue a princess. The plot is surely enough to make Joesph Campbell roll over in his grave. I believe the movie doesn’t speak to the film industry as much as society, the internet, and pop culture. It represents a time when the cruelest thing you could say online was, “check yourself before you shrek yourself.”

Yours truly,

Calihan