DreamWorks Home Entertainment 2 disk set
Length:
93 mins. PG
Format: Disk One Full frame
Disk
Two Anamorphic Widescreen · 1.78:1
Sound: DTS,
Dolby 5.1
Languages: English, French, And Spanish
Subtitles: English,
French, And Spanish
Extras:
Commentary Track Revoice
Studio Featurettes Character
Interviews Games Music Videos
Goofs Storyboards
and much more
When “Shrek” arrived in cinemas this summer (2001) I don’t think it was a surprise to anyone that it did extremely well. It was an animated film, had talking animals, a talented cast, a huge summer advertising and merchandising campaign, etc. The fact that before ‘Harry Potter’ it stood as the top grossing film of 2001, however, is still a surprise to almost everyone. It has a decent story, something many of the competing films were missing. With its theatrical success behind it, “Shrek” comes to home video to conquer another market.
“Shrek” is a simple tale with a clever hook.
Based upon the book by William Steig, we meet the title character, a big green
ogre with trumpet-like ears as he makes his way from an outhouse and takes a
shower in thick mud. It’s quickly obvious that this is not your normal fairy
tale creature. Shrek (Mike Myers) is a private ogre, enjoying his days alone in
his swamp, frightening those that trespass or wish him harm, but mostly keeping
to himself. His privacy won’t last long. Throughout the rest of the forest,
the evil Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) has announced a decree calling for the
banishment of all fairy tale creatures from his "perfect" kingdom. The
townspeople have gathered up these creatures, big and small, to sell to
Farquaad’s men, and it is here where we first meet Donkey (Eddie Murphy),
being sold-out by his human master. Through a bit of luck, Donkey is able to
escape the clutches of the men and runs through the forest until he comes upon
Shrek. With the men fast on his heels, Donkey seeks solace behind the ogre’s
large frame and when the men get a good look at the hideous green beast, they
forget about Donkey and run away – at great speed. Donkey, naturally, is
convinced that Shrek has saved his life and proceeds to tell him so, and, about
everything else on his mind at the moment. Donkey is not only a talking donkey,
but he is a talking donkey who will not stop talking. During dinner, however,
Shrek gets a bigger surprise
when he discovers the banished fairy tale creatures
on his property. All of them. Pinocchio, the seven dwarves, two of the three
bears, Tinkerbell, they’re all there. On his property! Needless to say, Shrek
is less than thrilled about the idea of his house becoming a makeshift refugee
camp, so he demands to know what the heck they’re doing there. Donkey tells
him about Lord Farquaad and Pinocchio assures him that they don’t want
to be on Shrek’s property, only they have nowhere else to go. Being the
reasonable ogre that he is, Shrek decides that he will have a talk with Farquaad
and straighten this bit of nonsense right out.
So starts the quest that leads him to rescue Princess Fiona
(Cameron Diaz) fight the dragon and
generally put the world back the way it should be, with him alone in his swamp.
But these things never work out the way we want them – and you should
never judge people by their appearance.
The visuals of PDI DreamWorks’ animation become more impressive on repeat viewings, and it’s clear that this is easily on target to become a family classic. It’s one of those films that you can put on just to watch a specific scene or moment, and end up watching the whole thing from there on. All in all, “Shrek” is a lot of fun. The kids obviously love it, and if you’re an adult and you haven’t seen it, then you need to.
The video on this two disc special edition DVD is presented in both full frame (1.33:1) and anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1), with the full frame transfer on disc one and the widescreen on the second disc. Like all other computer-animated films on DVD, “Shrek” looks flawless. The colours are perfect and vivid, details is crystal clear, and, as this transfer of “Shrek” comes straight from a digital source there is no film involved so that there are no effects, blemishes, grain, or miscalculations. The result is a fuller and sharper picture. I should point out that during the castle sequence, and in particular the moment where Shrek and Donkey cross the swinging bridge, there are times when it actually looks like you’re watching incredibly smooth stop-motion or claymation animation that is not 2-D and instead has depth. I should also point out that I have not watched the full screen version as the widescreen version is enhanced for 16x9 television and I have a loathing of film not in ratio.
Audio is also given what seems to be the normal treatment these days with DreamWorks, offering the listener both a DTS and Dolby Digital track. Interestingly, however, the DTS track is available only on the second disc with the widescreen transfer, while the Dolby Digital plays on both discs. Either way, the audio is represented extremely well, with DTS gaining a due to a bit fuller sound and a little more low-end. Dialogue is very well mixed and clean, as one might imagine and expect from a film that is completely overdubbed. The surrounds are very active, with all kinds of little forest noises and murmuring of creatures and humans in crowd scenes. The score by Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell sounds great and fits the film perfectly. Like a lot of new films “Shrek” has a very impressive array of special features. Because of the monster success, I think it became imperative that the DVD be more than impressive. Disc one, first and foremost, is filled to the rim with features for your DVD-ROM drive. The standout of these DVD-ROM features is called Shrek’s Revoice Studio which allows you to record your own voice over a character from the movie in 12 different scenes. This is an ingenious little feature and though I don’t understand exactly how it works, it is a lot of fun. Also on the DVD-ROM are 15 different games (some of which are accessible on regular DVD players as well) including a pinball game, a tic-tac-toe game with bugs and slugs, a bowling game, pin the tail on the donkey, and many more. Also on disc one is a behind the scenes featurette on the making of “Shrek”, featuring interviews with the cast and crew (Katzenberg included). Personally, I would have loved to see them talk about the audience reaction to the film, or what it was like to have the film in the Cannes Film Festival, but this is basically your standard run-of-the-mill making of. Something else new on this disc is an area called DreamWorks Kids that is accessible from the main menu of disc one. Once selected, you can then chose from a selection of favourite scenes, other games, and music videos by the Baha Men (who also have a making of) and Smash Mouth. Obviously geared towards kids, I thought this was a nice way to organize the features. Rounding out disc one, is an advert for the upcoming traditionally animated film "Spirit: Stallion of Cimmaron," production notes, cast and crew bios, and a short music video of the characters from the film doing karaoke numbers that is quite funny (and is also referred to as the new extended ending, which starts after the credits of the film itself).
Disc Two has more features, including a commentary
with producer Aaron Warner, and directors Vicky Jensen and Andrew Adamson. This
is geared towards the technical side and very informative, but the three also
seem to have a lot of fun together and it is obvious how proud they are of the
film. Next is a featurette called "The Tech of Shrek," which further
delves into the processes involved in making the film. If you’re into computer
animation at all, there’s certainly a lot here, as the animators explain just
how far the technology has advanced since their previous feature, "Antz."
Also on board, are a few storyboard pitches of scenes that didn’t make it into
the computer. Another featurette is called "Technical Goofs" which
show a couple scenes where a wrong command (or something) was given by the
animators that resulted in odd changes to the characters’ physical attributes.
Most of these scenes are very rough and from early stages of the animation
process. You will also see some of this same footage in the other featurettes.
The final featurette briefly introduces us to the world of International
dubbing, and is fairly fun to watch the Spanish version of Donkey do his best Eddie Murphy. Next up
is a character progression "reel," which is basically a series of
sketches that you can surf through and
notice how the concepts and designs for the characters changed in
pre-production. Finally, we have
the theatrical trailer, and hints for the Xbox video game of "Shrek,"
as well as the same production notes and cast and crew bios. There are also a
number of ‘Easter Eggs’ on both disks – or as the Gingerbread Man says
“Not my gumdrop buttons”.
“Shrek” is a fun movie that has enough to offer adults that they can actually enjoy watching the film without their children.