Let’s talk about Shrek even though Shrek came out in the early 2000s in 2001 to be specific. It was one of the defining films of that decade. It changed the animated film industry forever. For better or for worse, it sparked a film franchise that is still culturally relevant to this day.
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Now, we’re going to be talking about what made Shrek so special and how it changed the animated film industry forever. Let’s dive into it.
The Impact of Shrek on Animation
2001 was kind of a turning point for animation in general because there were a few films that did well that year: Monsters Inc., Spirited Away, sort of with Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and of course, Shrek. Shrek brought in a whopping $491.25 79.7 million, but it wasn’t that much more. The difference in their box office was offset by their production budgets.
The competition was getting heated. Shrek even did better with the critics overall, and Shrek’s massive success opened the doors for a lot of other Studios to take 3D animated films more seriously. We already had some studios dabbling with them like Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Animation Studio releasing Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, but Shrek was the first 3D animated film that was adored by audiences.
After Shrek, there was a huge boom in the number of 3D animated films being released. It wasn’t just that Studios were taking animation more seriously because it could bring in good money; it was being viewed as a more serious medium by the industry in general. And this couldn’t be more obvious than the fact that the 2002 Academy Awards for films that came out in 2001 were the first ever to include the category of best-animated feature film.
What Made Shrek Stand Out
It was just different and refreshing. Pixar films were great for kids and adults because of their underlying message, but Shrek also had a great message for both kids and adults and then took it one step further.
It was created in the animated medium, which was traditionally considered to be for children, but it really appealed to an adult’s sense of humor while still appealing to a child’s sense of humor, and it’s honestly very clever.
There are a bunch of jokes and innuendos that go over a child’s head but make adults chuckle. We didn’t have a very clean and polished protagonist; the protagonist was a dirty ogre living in a swamp, taking mud baths, farting whenever, and using his ear wax as a candle.
Today we might not consider this to be anything special, but back then it was very different from the norm. Shrek was also kind of a counter approach to Disney’s traditional formula. It was different because it was rooted in fairy tales flipped on their heads.
The Role of Music
Music is an extremely important part of a film and historically most animated films used original scores other than a song or two here or there, but again Shrek turned that on its head.
The Shrek soundtrack was so fresh and revolutionary that it was heralded by variety as a millennial cultural touchstone because of how it opted to use contemporary music instead of original songs.
It was even featured on the Billboard Top 200 and got a Grammy nomination. Smashmouth became synonymous with Shrek.
The Marketing Strategy
The actors were used heavily in the marketing material. Even in the posters, the names are featured prominently and in one of the posters, they’re bigger than the character in the artwork itself. Shrek was a massive risk.
It was a fairly unknown story that defied what we’ve come to expect from most animated films from a still fairly new studio that was trying to find its legs. Shrek put using big names as the voice actors to the test to see if a studio without much reputation could be successful.
Since then, we’ve seen animated films getting marketed heavily by their voice actors. Despicable Me with Steve Carell, Moana with Dwayne The Rock Johnson, the Super Mario Brothers movie with Chris Pratt, Kung Fu Panda with Jack Black, the list goes on and on.
The Legacy of Shrek
What made Shrek special was that it had a great story, great characters, and great animation. It also went against the grain with so many things we expected at the time when thinking of animated films, and this massively influenced the animated film industry.
Whether the creators of Shrek knew it at the time or not, they were creating a new formula that would be followed to this day by various other films from many other Studios. This was the negative effect that was caused by Shrek.
Yes, it opened the door for many more Studios, but to compete with Disney and Pixar, most people thought they had to follow the Shrek formula. Studio execs wanted the money that CG films could bring in, but they were under the assumption that they needed to appeal to older audiences.
To do this, they thought they needed to include Ron’s pop culture humor. Barnyard, Shark Tale, and even Disney’s own Chicken Little among many others followed this formula in the era after Shrek was released.