Many folks will want to believe that the folks who penned Shrek belong to that noble underclass, and believe those transparent sentiments they so blatantly knock the viewers over the head with are their true ideals. That's the masses prerogative.
Quite the opposite is true though.
The screenwriter with his/her finger on the pulse of the masses can always churn out material that exploits and panders to their tastes, beliefs and frustrations.
The Disney era is over. The sentiments Walt tried to further are now outmoded and poisonous to present entitlement generation mindsets.
Shrek poses as a champion of all the little people or in this case is the ultimate champion of diversity. Talking jackasses are really where its at! Fairy godmothers are really evil. Shrek's ugliness is now revealed to be beauty, his coarseness and orgiastic farting revealed to be a sign of a superior "lifestyle choice". The kids all love him as he is his own Ogre/Troll and answers to no one, especially not the rich, "beautiful" folks who live in castles - who, naturally, are evil. Which is to say all who value traditional beauty and excellence are obviously mean, cruel and self-absorbed.
It is a Bolshevik/PC fairy tale come to life. I won't bore you with an Andrew Lang-esque collection of tales which precede this one, which share similar underclass glorification/ happy endings and which have really been written as a form of pacification by those very same castle dwelling folks you and others are being conditioned to despise.
The message is simple. Manners are obsolete, cursing and griping are 'real'. 'Traditional' beauty is also obsolete and now must conform to the tastes of the superior underclass, which has the "real" insight on what's beautiful.
The viewer says to himself/herself:
"Hey, Shrek and I are kindred spirits! I fart, curse and live in a humble hovel - I am really beautiful, a hero, like Shrek!"
And 100,000,000 other undiscriminating viewers/children think the exact same carefully engineered thought simultaneously. Everyone's a hero and all they have to do is despise the rich, champion diversity and conform to anti-conformity - what a piece of cake!
Again a subtle form of pacification. No need to strive for excellence as excellence, along with beauty, are objectionable as are all those old fashioned traditional cultural ideals. Besides it's easy to look in the mirror and say "Hey, I'm perfect!".
Someone, who doesn't care for my ideas, once likened me to the evil guy in The animated film The Incredibles.
That's one of the few kids' movies with a throwback message. I actually LIKE The Incredibles. The Incredibles is a throwback animation flick, because it presents a 100% diametrically opposed message to Shrek.
When the superheroes are forced to live "normal" lives. Their abilities must be suppressed for the "good of the masses" who find their abilities, excellence, beauty and goodness, objectionable.
"When everyone is special, no one is" is the message of The Incredibles.
Shrek's message is exactly that: "Everyone is special".
Without hardly looking the message underneath is the same old Bolshevik message of "Universal equality for everyone but the rich" a far cry from the American vision of "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man, healthy, wealthy and wise."
That's why Shrek is garbage. It's a pacifier. It tells the viewer they need not seek excellence or work to improve themselves but instead that they are all already 'special', better than the rich, better than the beautiful - and more importantly that the world should really conform to them!
Shrek (the poor persecuted troll) by his refusal to conform, destroys the oppressive world of beauty and castles and the world is remade in HIS image - the 'ogre' image. He is 'empowered' now. This message is encapsulated by Fiona's choice to throw away her 'traditional' beauty for superior ogre/troll beauty. AH! She has joined the Proletariat! Good for her!
You see that is the underlying lie concealed in the whole series, namely that Shrek's happiness was unobtainable as long as Fiona held to her own looks. To make the troll happy she had to look like a troll herself. Translation for those who didn't quite catch it after two whole movies of it being shoved at you: old ways of thinking need to be abandoned. The typical filmgoer doesn't quite catch that contradiction - namely that Shrek is JUST as shallow as the evil Prince and seeks an ideal that conforms to HIS standards. in fact, he is WORSE because he is also a hypocrite!
Meanwhile, the writers, directors, actors - the very embodiment of the castle-dweller types - don't believe a word of it, because they just want to cash in on the gullibility of hundreds of millions viewers by telling them exactly what they want to hear - not what is actually good for them. They reach into the pockets of the very masses while they pat them on the heads and pacify their numerous insecurities.
It's bound to appeal to hundreds of millions of kids and adults all over the world who want and need such pacification and ego reinforcement - and are willing to pay for it. And unfortunately, for the world Shrek 3 will be more of the same, a fairy tale whose glass slipper is marked 'one size fits all' for all those whose behavior, looks and manners were more stepsister than Cinderella.
Ironically, the folks who ARE looking out for others best interests are the anathema to the masses and the ones who couldn't give a rat's behind about them are celebrated and money is showered upon them. The truth is everyone is "special" but everyone is not equal. Everyone can use improvement - even the special folks. Accepting the status quo and being taught to believe 'diversity' is a synonym for superiority, is not healthy for your own development. Never accept a pacifier that leads to reinforcement of unhealthy habits.
The entire Shrek series is living proof the villains (or in this case perhaps trolls of society) do prosper from their actions and win in the end.
But, yeah, yeah I know...you and your kids just LOVED IT!
(Most of this article appeared originally in another forum)
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