| Shrek 2 | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Andrew Adamson Kelly Asbury Conrad Vernon |
| Produced by | Aron Warner John H. Williams David Lipman |
| Screenplay by | Andrew Adamson Joe Stillman J. David Stem David N. Weiss |
| Story by | Andrew Adamson William Steig |
| Narrated by | Rupert Everett |
| Starring | Mike Myers Eddie Murphy Cameron Diaz Antonio Banderas Julie Andrews John Cleese Rupert Everett Jennifer Saunders |
| Music by | Harry Gregson-Williams |
| Editing by | Michael Andrews Sim Evan-Jones |
| Studio | DreamWorks Animation Pacific Data Images |
| Distributed by | DreamWorks Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 15, 2004 (Cannes) May 19, 2004 (United States) |
| Running time | 93 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $150 million |
| Gross revenue | $919,838,758[1] |
Shrek 2 is a 2004 American computer-animated comedy film, produced by DreamWorks Animation and directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon. It is the second installment in the Shrek film series and the sequel to 2001's Shrek. The film features the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett and Jennifer Saunders.
Shrek 2 scored the fourth-largest three day opening weekend in US history,[2] as well as the largest opening for an animated film until May 18, 2007, when it was eclipsed by its sequel Shrek the Third.[3] As of 2008, it is the inflation-adjusted 30th highest-grossing film of all time in the US.[4] It went on to be the highest-grossing film of 2004.[5] The associated soundtrack reached the top ten of the Billboard 200. It is also the seventh highest ticket selling animated film of all time.[6] It is DreamWorks's most successful film to date and was also the highest-grossing fully-animated film of all time worldwide[7] for six years until Toy Story 3 surpassed it in 2010. Despite this, Shrek 2 still holds the record for the highest-grossing animated film in the United States and Canada.[8]
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[edit] Plot
When Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) and Fiona (voiced by Cameron Diaz) come back from their honeymoon, they find an invitation to a royal ball with Fiona's parents to celebrate their marriage, an event Shrek is reluctant to participate in. Fiona talks him into it, and along with Donkey (voiced by Eddie Murphy), they travel to the kingdom of Far Far Away. They meet Fiona's parents, King Harold and Queen Lillian (voiced by John Cleese and Julie Andrews), who are surprised and repulsed by Fiona's choice of husband (particularly the King himself), since they had arranged that Prince Charming rescue her from the castle but now they see that her husband is an ogre, and she herself has the likeness of an ogre.
At a shared meal, Shrek and Harold get into a heated argument over how Shrek and Fiona will raise their family, and Fiona, disgusted at Shrek and her father's behavior, locks herself away in her room that evening, where she meets her Fairy Godmother (voiced by Jennifer Saunders), who is also surprised at Fiona's new looks. Shrek worries that he has lost his true love, particularly after finding the diary from her teenhood and reading that she was once infatuated with Prince Charming (voiced by Rupert Everett).
King Harold is accosted by the Fairy Godmother and Charming, her son. The two retell the Prince's adventures and how he overcame many obstacles and climbed a high tower in order to rescue Fiona, finding instead a cross-dressing wolf. They reprimand Harold for breaking an old promise that Charming would be able to marry Fiona and demand that he find a way to get rid of Shrek. After Shrek reads Fiona's diary and pages containing the single phrase "Mrs. Fiona Charming", Harold arranges for Shrek and Donkey to join him on a fictitious hunting trip, which really is a trap to lure the two into the hands of an assassin, Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas).
When Fiona realizes that Shrek left, she asks her father for help, but he replies that he always wanted the best for her and that she should better think about what is the best for her, too. Puss is unable to defeat Shrek and, revealing that he was paid by Harold, asks to come along as a way to make amends. The three sneak into the Fairy Godmother's potion factory and steal a "Happily Ever After" potion that Shrek believes will restore Fiona's love for him.
Shrek and Donkey both drink the potion, but it appears as if it didn't work. When it starts to rain, they leave, and in doing so, fail to notice that the mushroom, which Shrek previously sneezed potion on, change into a beautiful rose. They wait out the storm in a barn and, while there, Shrek and Donkey fall over and into a deep sleep for no apparent reason. When they awake, they discover the potion's effects were only delayed: Shrek is now a handsome human, while Donkey has turned into a stallion. In order to make the change permanent, Shrek must kiss Fiona by midnight. He, Donkey, and Puss return to the castle to discover that the potion has also transformed Fiona back into her former, human self. However, the Fairy Godmother, having learned of the potion's theft, intercepts Shrek and sends Charming to pose as him and win her love. At the Fairy Godmother's urging, Shrek leaves the castle, believing that the best way to make Fiona happy is to let her go.
To ensure that Fiona falls in love with Charming, the Fairy Godmother gives Harold a love potion to put into Fiona's tea. But Harold replies that it's not possible to make his daughter fall in love in this way. This exchange is overheard by Shrek, Donkey, and Puss, who are soon arrested by the royal guards and thrown into a dungeon, in a parody of COPS. When the royal ball begins, several of Shrek's friends band together to free the trio and create a gigantic gingerbread man (whose name is Mongo), which breaks through the castle's defenses so Shrek can stop Charming from kissing Fiona, but Mongo is presumably killed when his arms break and he falls into the moat with Gingy devastated. Shrek finds he is too late to stop them; instead of falling in love with Charming, though, Fiona knocks him out with a headbutt. It turns out that Harold never gave Fiona the love potion, having realised her love for Shrek, whereupon the Fairy Godmother attacks Shrek. In the ensuing melee, a spell from her wand, presumably to kill Shrek, rebounds off Harold's armor, when he commits self-sacrifice to save Shrek, and disintegrates the Fairy Godmother; it also returns Harold to his true form, that of the Frog Prince. The Fairy Godmother had made a deal with Harold to turn him into a handsome man, so that he could win over Lilian, to make her kiss him and change him into a human permanently, in exchange for Charming marrying his soon-to-be daughter.
As the clock strikes midnight, Shrek and Fiona let the potion's effects wear off and they revert to their ogre selves, while Donkey changes back as well, much to his chagrin. Harold gives his blessing to the marriage and apologizes for his earlier behavior; the party resumes and the credits begin as they sing (along with Mongo) "Livin' La Vida Loca".
In a Post-credit scene, Shrek, Fiona and Donkey are still partying in the night. Dragon, who Donkey has married following the events of the first film, arrives with some of her and Donkey's new children called the "Dronkeys".
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Shrek film series chronology |
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Shrek |
[edit] Cast
- Mike Myers as Shrek
- Eddie Murphy as Donkey
- Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona
- Julie Andrews as Queen Lillian
- Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots
- John Cleese as King Harold
- Rupert Everett as Prince Charming
- Jennifer Saunders as Fairy Godmother
- Joan Rivers (US)/Kate Thornton (UK) as Red Carpet Announcer
- Larry King (US)/Jonathan Ross (UK) as Doris the Ugly Stepsister
- Aron Warner as Big Bad Wolf
- Cody Cameron as Pinocchio; The Three Little Pigs
- Christopher Knights as Three Blind Mice
- Conrad Vernon as Gingerbread Man; Muffin Man; Mongo; Cedric; Announcer
- Tom Waits as Captain Hook
- Chris Miller as Magic Mirror
- Mark Moseley as Dresser
- Kelly Cooney as Fast Food Clerk
- Kelly Asbury as Page; Elf; Nobleman; Nobleman's son
- Andrew Adamson as Captain of the Guard
- Special guest stars
- Richard Fairbrass as himself (in the extended DVD version only)
- Joan Rivers' cameo marked the first time that a real person had been represented on screen by the Shrek animation team. Her part (though retaining her visual representation) was redubbed by presenter Kate Thornton for the United Kingdom release, despite Rivers and her image being equally as well-known there.
- On the DVD Special Features, Simon Cowell appears as himself on Far Far Away Idol, a parody of American Idol. (see Home Media)
[edit] Release
In April 2004, the film was selected for competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.[9]
Shrek 2 was originally going to release in June 2004. The film then planned to release on May 21, 2004. Though, Shrek 2 released on May 19, 2004 (two days before). A day before the film went to theaters, the first five minutes were shown on Nickelodeon's U-Pick Live.
It was the first film with over 4,000 theaters in overall count; over 3,700 theaters was its count for an opening day. Spider-Man 2 was the first film with over 4,000 theaters for an opening day and second for overall counts.
When the film was released on DVD on November 5, 2004, it was the second Shrek film to be presented in its original ratio of 1.85:1 on the Region 1 anamorphic widescreen DVD.
[edit] Home media
This film has been released on VHS and DVD on November 2004 and on Game Boy Advance Video on November 2005. A 3D-converted version of the film has been released on Blu-ray Disc on December 1, 2010, along with the other three films of the series.[10]
[edit] Far Far Away Idol
Far Far Away Idol is an extra in the DVD release based on American Idol and guest starring Simon Cowell. Taking place right after Shrek 2 ends, the plot was that characters from Shrek would sing and dance popular songs at the time, and at the end the viewer gets to pick the winner. However, if any character outside of Shrek (along with Princess Fiona), Donkey and Puss were selected, Cowell would refuse to accept the winner and proclaim himself the victor, leaping onto a table and performing his "own" rendition of "My Way". This segment was also seen on the ABC airings of the film, between the post-credits scene and the closing credits after. The winner on this airing is Simon Cowell, since there was no way the viewer could interactively pick the winner.
[edit] Reaction
[edit] Box office
The film opened at #1 with a Friday-to-Sunday total of $108,037,878, and a total of $128,983,060 since its Wednesday launch, from a then-record 4,163 theaters, for an average of $25,952 per theater over the weekend. It also ranked #1 in its second weekend, grossing $95,578,365 over the 4-day Memorial Day weekend, narrowly beating out the $85,807,341 4-day tally of new opener The Day After Tomorrow. The film spent a total of 10 weeks in the weekly top 10, and stayed in theaters for 149 days (roughly 21 weeks), closing on November 25, 2004. It grossed $441,226,247[11] domestically (US and Canada), and $478,612,511 in foreign markets, making a total of $919.8 million worldwide making it the highest-grossing film of 2004, and the highest-grossing film of the Shrek franchise. This also puts the film at fifth on the all-time domestic box-office list and 14th on the worldwide box-office list. The movie also took away the highest worldwide gross made by an animated feature which before held by Finding Nemo, although the latter still had a higher overseas-only gross.[12] With DVD sales and Shrek 2 merchandise are estimated to total almost $800 million, the film (which was produced with a budget of $150 million[11]) is DreamWorks' most profitable film to date.
In August 2010 Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 3 surpassed Shrek 2 to become the highest-grossing animated film worldwide ($1.063 billion), but Shrek 2 still holds the record for the highest-grossing animated film at the American and Canadian box office.
[edit] Critical response
The film was well received by a number of critics, many rating it as good as its predecessor, and some rated it even better. Based on reviews collected from 209 critics by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 89% gave Shrek 2 a positive review.[13] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average rating of 75 out of 100 based on 40 professional reviews published in newspapers, magazines and in highly regarded Internet sites, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[14] Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars saying it's "bright, lively, and entertaining."[15]
[edit] Awards and nominations
Shrek 2 won five People's Choice Awards: Favorite Animated Movie, Favorite Animated Movie Star for "Donkey" (Eddie Murphy), Favorite Movie Comedy, and Favorite Movie Villain for "Fairy Godmother" (Jennifer Saunders), and Favorite Sequel. It also won two Teen Choice Awards: Choice Movie: Animated/Computer Generated and Choice Award Choice Movie - Comedy. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to The Incredibles. One of the film's songs, "Accidentally in Love" received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media.
[edit] Spin-off
A spin-off of the film, Dreamworks Animation's 2011 production, Puss in Boots, is set to be released and will focus on the character of Puss in Boots, who was introduced in this film.
[edit] See also
- List of animated feature-length films
- List of computer-animated films
- Shrek 2 (video game)
- Shrek SuperSlam the video game
- Shrek 2: Motion Picture Soundtrack, the lyrical soundtrack by various artists
- Shrek 2: Original Motion Picture Score, the instrumental score, composed by Harry Gregson-Williams
[edit] References
- ^ "Shrek 2 (2004)". Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=shrek2.htm. Retrieved February 4, 2009.
- ^ The-numbers.com Retrieved on 06-05-07
- ^ [1] The-numbers.com Retrieved on 06-05-07
- ^ All Time Box Office Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation at Box Office Mojo
- ^ Boxofficemojo.com Retrieved on 06-05-07
- ^ "All Time Box Office Adjusted for Ticket Price Inflation". Boxofficemojo.com. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
- ^ "All Time Worldwide Box Office Grosses". Boxofficemojo.com. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
- ^ Animation Box Office
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Shrek 2". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/4201783/year/2004.html. Retrieved November 30, 2009.
- ^ "Samsung brings "Shrek" to 3D Blu-ray". March 9, 2010accessdate=March 10, 2010. http://hollywoodinhidef.com/2010/03/samsung-brings-shrek-to-3d-blu-ray/.
- ^ a b "Shrek 2 (2004)". Boxofficemojo.com. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=shrek2.htm. Retrieved June 18, 2010.
- ^ "WORLDWIDE GROSSES". Box Office Mojo. http://boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/. Retrieved 2011-04-2011.
- ^ "Shrek 2 (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/shrek_2/. Retrieved August 14, 2009.
- ^ "Shrek 2 reviews". Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/movie/shrek-2. Retrieved July 10, 2010.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (May 18, 2004). "Shrek 2". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on July 10, 2010. http://www.webcitation.org/5r7TWGkpX. Retrieved July 10, 2010.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Shrek 2 at the Internet Movie Database
- Shrek 2 at Allmovie
- Shrek 2 at Rotten Tomatoes
- Shrek 2 at Metacritic
- Shrek 2 at Box Office Mojo
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