| 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 (through Universal 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 |
| Box office | $919,838,758[1] |
Shrek 2 is a 2004 American computer-animated fantasy 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.
Like its predecessor, Shrek 2 received positive reviews. Shrek 2 scored the second-largest three day opening weekend in US history at the time of release,[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 2011, it is the inflation-adjusted 31st 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.
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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 by Fiona's choice of husband, and Harold is repulsed 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.
Lillian soon comes to accept Shrek, seeing how happy he and Fiona are together, but 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 the Big Bad Wolf using it as a hangout. 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 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. Shrek decides to go to the Fairy Godmother for help. However, the Fairy Godmother states that ogres do not live "happily ever after." Nonetheless, 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, revealing that Harold never gave Fiona the love potion, having realized her love for Shrek. Enraged, the Fairy Godmother attacks Shrek with a spell from her wand, presumably to kill Shrek, but it 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 |
Dreamworks began making the film in 2001, after the release of the first Shrek film. Dreamworks made sure there was something new to see in Shrek 2 by putting more human characters in the film than there were in its predecessor and improving their appearance. There were a few systems that dealt with hair and fur to improve its appearance and movement. Dreamworks worked on effects, rain systems, and moving clouds to make a dramatic scene where clouds roll in.
To get the look of the film, Dreamworks imagined what it would look like by painting, sketching and drawing. Character designer Tom Hester played a key look in defining the look by utilizing research, a fertile imagination, and clay to craft the film's characters. Tom did several versions of the characters. For example, he had 11 different designs of King Harold, going from rather heavy, to rather skinny.[8]
Singer and Songwriter Adams Duritz said that the song Accidentally in Love "fits into the movie because it's the story of people who fall in love who weren't supposed to fall in love." The score of the film was composed by Harry Gregson Williams which was performed at a high school. The score had to be operated on different levels which harry said as "Fun". His score came out as an Eels song into a very romantic scene with Shrek and Fiona, or a funny scene with donkey.[9]
In April 2004, the film was selected for competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.[10]
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.
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.[11]
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.
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. At the time Shrek 2's Friday-to-Sunday total was the second-highest opening weekend trailing only Spider-Man's $114,844,116. In addition, Saturday alone managed to obtain $44,797,042, making it the highest single day gross at the time, beating Spider-Man's first Saturday gross of $43,622,264.[2] 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.
The film grossed $441,226,247[12] 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 19th 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.[13] 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[12]) 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 as well as the highest-grossing animated PG-rated film at this box office. In October 2011, Disney's 3-D re-release of The Lion King, surpassed Shrek 2 to become the second highest animated film of all time.
The film was well received by a number of critics, many rating it as good as its predecessor,[14][15] and some rated it even better.[16] Based on reviews collected from 211 critics by the film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 89% gave Shrek 2 a positive review.[17] 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".[18]
Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars saying it's "bright, lively, and entertaining.",[19] while Robert Denerstein of Devner Rocky Mountain News called it "Sharply funny".[20] James Kendrick praised the plot, who called it "familiar, but funny".[21]
In contrast to the praise it received, even in some positive reviews, some critics that the film wasn't as good as the original film.[22] Peter Rainer of New York Magazine stated the film "manages to undo much of what made its predecessor such a computer-generated joy ride."[23]
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.
The American Film Institute nominated Shrek 2 for its Top 10 Animated Films list.[24]
A spin-off of the film, Puss in Boots, was released on October 28, 2011, and focuses on the character of Puss in Boots, who was introduced in this film.
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