Traditional Stereotypes In Shrek Essay Example

shave your liver and squeeze the jelly from your eyes! He then roars which prompts them to start screaming, however, in all of their trepidation they forgot to run away and are duly reminded by Shrek that 'this is the part where you run away! ' and they run away with Shrek's laughter ringing in their ears. The friendship of Donkey and occurs quite accidentally.

It starts off in the forest where Lord Farquaad's henchmen collecting all of the fairytale creatures in the woods. An old lady has his mouth and he's begging her not to give him away to the henchmen. When she reaches the front of the line the man asks her what she has and she tells him that it's a talking donkey.The man is willing to give her 10 shillings if she is able to prove it. She tries to get donkey to talk but he stays silent.

She tries to threaten him but he keeps silent. When the henchman in charge sees enough, he orders the soldiers to take her away. In protest she struggles against the soldiers raucously proclaiming that she isn't lying, she accidentally kicks a cage which happens to be holding a fairy (presumably Tinkerbelle) and sprinkles fairy dust all over Donkey. Thanks to this, Donkey starts to float in the air and rouses a chorus of '..

.He can fly's and Donkey, in his shock, forgets his stony silence. He open his mouth and says, his voice full of surprise, '... hey, I can fly'.

The henchman realises that donkey can talk and donkey ridicules him and tries to fly off when the fairy dust runs out. He lands on

the floor and the henchmen give chase. Donkey turns and runs as fast as he can into the forest. As he runs he checks over his shoulder to see his progress when he collides into Shrek's backside.

When the henchmen try to seize Shrek, he intimidates them and they forget their plan to get donkey and run away.As Shrek walks away Donkey thanks Shrek and compliments him several times and eventually starts to annoy Shrek. Shrek stops walking and tries to scare Donkey by roaring at him. Donkey is startled but far from put off and he comments on how scary that was and he says '.. If that don't work your breath would do the trick 'cause your breath STINKS'.

He ridicules Shrek's breath and persistently questions Shrek. Shrek then stops again and rages about being an ogre and asks donkey if it bothers him. Donkey replies with a shake of the head and a sincere no.Donkey asks him his name and for the first time, Shrek complies.

When they get to Shrek's house, Donkey continues to irritate him by bouncing on the Chairs and Shrek's ability of not being able to stop him suggests that he isn't such a terrifying ogre. More proof is this is when the fairytale creatures turn up he can't make them leave. On the contrary, he gets locked out of his own house. When he demands to know what happened he finds out that Lord Farquaad had put all the fairy tale creatures into exile in Shrek's swamp.Shrek decides to go and see Lord Farquaad and get his swamp back. Accompanied by none other than Donkey, Shrek leaves for Duloc, the

kingdom of Lord Farquaad.

In Duloc, Donkey and Shrek find out that there is a tournament going on and they go to see Farquaad by walking into the middle of the ring. Farquaad then decides that the winner of his tournament would be the one who kills the ogre. Shrek, hearing this announcement doesn't accept the challenge from Lord Farquaad's knights but offers to settle it over a pint; seeing that none of them wanted to, he decided to fight.However, none of the knights prevail and as Shrek is about to ask for his swamp back, Farquaad awards him the 'honour' of being the person who would go on a noble quest. Shrek replies saying that he's already on a quest to get his swamp back.

So they struck a deal. Shrek goes on the quest and in return Farquaad gives Shrek the deed to his swamp. On the way to the dragons tower where Shrek must rescue the princess from Donkey tells Shrek that he is too soft and he should not have to do this because the swamp is his anyway.Shrek explains that he could've decapitate an entire village and cut open their spleens and asks Donkey if he should've done that instead to which Donkey objects.

Even though Shrek says he could've done this, Donkey and the viewer think otherwise. The viewers feel that Shrek is incapable of doing that even if he wanted to. Donkey sums up what the viewers are thinking by arguing with Shrek and telling him that he is not even vaguely frightening. When Shrek and Princess Fiona first meet, they are under typical fairytale circumstances.Shrek was fighting the dragon when

the dragon flung him into the tallest room of the tallest tower.

He lands in Fiona's room in a cloud of rubble. Fiona is lying down in her bed with her hands clasped on a bunch of flowers. This scene pokes fun at Sleeping Beauty. As Shrek draws closer, the princess inconspicuously puckers her lips readying her self for the kiss from her dear knight.

However, Shrek shakes her violently saying '... Wake up now let's go' completely ruining the fairy tale atmosphere. The princess also thinks so because she is disappointed that there is no romantic moment.She is also shocked that he hasn't slayed the dragon.

She had expected him to charge in, sword drawn, kill the dragon and come to rescue her with true loves first kiss. He simply replies '.. You've had a long time to plan this haven't you' to which she replies that she has. Other characters see Shrek as a wannabe scary monster kind of guy who isn't even remotely scary.

If it wasn't for Shrek's continuing reminders that he is a 'scary ogre' they would treat him like an average person, or at worse, an ugly average person.The makers of Shrek continue their idea of reversing the traditional fairytale stereotypes by making the dashing prince charming an evil tyrant. Lord Farquaad first shows his evil disposition by watch the torture of the gingerbread man while laughing and taunting him '..

Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man' after breaking off his legs. He also tries to pull off the Gingerbread Man's buttons off.Although he is evil, he still has the silver tongue of Prince Charming

as he sweet talks Princess Fiona when he first sees her. Beautiful fair flower Fiona, will you be the perfect bride for the perfect groom? ' He is very polite and formal, not to mention flattering. However, at the end of the movie, when he sees Fiona's true form as an ogre, he screams in disgust, 'Get that out of my sight' and he orders his knights to arrest Fiona but he still proclaims himself King.

In this movie, we quickly learn that the Prince is not a traditional fairytale character because he shows his evil side very early in this movie and throughout the movie he shows no signs of a change of heart.As well as the characters, the settings are also not traditional. Shrek's swamp is the expected home of an ogre. On the other hand, the fact that Donkey and other Fairytale creatures follow him there and that Donkey even tried to set up home there suggests that it is not as unwelcoming as it should be. Lord Farquaad's castle is, traditionally, meant to be a place of magnificence but because of the torture of the Gingerbread Man, the hooded figures and many other things, it has become a place of violence and secrecy.Both of the main settings are much more different than their traditional stereotypes.

In conclusion, the makers of Shrek turned the world of Prince Charming's and evil monsters upside down with this movie and showed that the ugly people aren't always the evil ones and that the rich and royal ones aren't necessarily good either. In general, they show that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Almost all of

the characters have the opposite of their stereotypical attitudes. The makers off Shrek succeeded in their mission of reversing the traditional stereotypes on their heads.