Shrek 2

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Shrek 2
A theatrical movie poster of Shrek 2.
Directed by	Andrew Adamson Kelly Asbury Conrad Vernon
Written by	-Book-   William Steig -Story-   Andrew Adamson -Screenplay-   Andrew Adamson   Joe Stillman   J. David Stem   David N. Weiss
Starring	Mike Myers Eddie Murphy Cameron Diaz Julie Andrews Antonio Banderas John Cleese Rupert Everett Jennifer Saunders
Music by	Harry Gregson-Williams
Editing by	Michael Andrews Sim Evan-Jones
Distributed by	-USA- DreamWorks SKG (2004-present)/ Paramount Pictures (2006-present) -Non-USA Theatrical- United International Pictures -Worldwide DVD/Video- Universal Pictures (2004-2006)/ Paramount Pictures (2006-present)
Release date(s)	May 21, 2004
Running time	1 hr. 32 minutes
Language	English
Budget	-Production-   $75 million USD -Marketing-   $50 million USD
Gross revenue	Domestic: $441,226,247 Worldwide: $920,665,658
Preceded by	Shrek (2001)
Followed by	Shrek the Third (2007)
IMDb profile

Shrek 2 is the 2004 sequel to the 2001 computer-animated DreamWorks Pictures film Shrek that was released in the United States on May 19, 2004. In April 2004, the film was selected for competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. There are more Shrek movies to follow (see Shrek the Third), according to Jeffrey Katzenberg: "We didn't have the guts to tell anybody when we started out, [but] we have two more chapters to tell. Not unlike Peter Jackson did with The Lord of the Rings. The difference is they did have the guts to make all three of them 'back-to-back-to-back'" [1].

Shrek 2 scored the fourth-largest three-day opening weekend in US history [2], as well as the largest opening for an animated movie ever [3]. As of 2006, it is the 3rd highest box office grossing film of all time in the United States [4]. Worldwide, it is the seventh highest grossing film [5]. It went on to be the most successful film in 2004 [6]. The associated soundtrack reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Voice cast 2.1 Main cast 2.2 Minor cast 3 Production 4 Release 5 TV releases 6 Reception 6.1 Box office 6.2 Critics 7 Parodies/References 7.1 TV/movie references 7.2 Places and names in Far Far Away 7.3 Far Far Away Idol songs 8 Trivia 8.1 Continuity errors 8.2 UK version 8.3 Other 9 Notes 10 See also 11 External links

[edit] Plot

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess who had fallen under a curse that transformed her into an ogre every night at sundown. Her fairy godmother told her parents to lock her in a tower guarded by a dragon until her true love could rescue her and break her from the spell with his kiss. A man in armor, Prince Charming (also the narrator in the first scenes), is shown racing to the castle through adverse conditions, climbing to the Princess’ room -- only to find the Big Bad Wolf lounging in her bed and reading a magazine. Princess Fiona is already rescued, married, and on her honeymoon.

Shrek and Fiona return from their honeymoon to find Donkey in Shrek’s house, where they learn he and Dragon are having relationship problems so Donkey has moved out. Shrek disagrees, and as Donkey is thrown out, heralds from the kingdom of Far Far Away arrive to invite the Princess Fiona and Shrek to receive the blessing of her royal parents. Shrek balks and claims that her parents aren’t likely to accept him, but after a brief but heated argument, the couple and Donkey depart for Far Far Away.

King Harold (Fiona’s father) confirms Shrek’s fears and becomes extremely angry and upset when he discovers the truth about his daughter’s new husband. As Harold and wife Lillian settle down to go to sleep after a dinner argument, Fiona returns crying to her room. There, her Fairy Godmother appears, and after being somewhat surprised by Fiona’s ogre-like appearance, promises to make everything better. Shrek then appears and Godmother realizes what has happened, causing her to leave in something of a hurry.

Shortly thereafter, Harold is visited by the Fairy Godmother. She is angry with Harold for ‘allowing’ the marriage to take place (despite having had no control over it), and it is revealed that her son, Prince Charming, was supposed to marry Fiona as part of a deal between the Fairy Godmother and King Harold. As they stop at a fast food restaurant, the Fairy Godmother subtly suggest that Harold have Shrek killed, and Harold heads to an unsavory pub to hire a hitman.

Harold tricks Shrek into meeting him in the woods the following day, claiming he wishes to get a better start on their relationship. There, Shrek and Donkey are jumped by the King’s assassin, Puss in Boots. After Shrek foils Puss’ attack, but does not attack him in return, Puss swears his life to Shrek, in thanks for Shrek sparing him. Taking an idea from Fairy Godmother’s business card (which was left with Fiona), the three decide to head to the Fairy Godmother’s office, which turns out to be a huge factory. They walk in on the Fairy Godmother preparing a love potion, and are promptly dismissed after Fairy Godmother tells Shrek that there are no happy endings for ogres. Shrek and his friends disguise themselves as employees and break into the potion room. They set off an alarm and barely escape Fairy Godmother’s guards, but not before making off with a “Happily Ever After” potion.

Shrek, Donkey, and Puss begin walking back to Far Far Away, and after some discussion and the revelation that the drinker must kiss his true love by midnight to make the effects of the potion permanent, Donkey takes a test-drink to make sure it’s safe. After nothing immediately happens to Donkey, Shrek finishes off the bottle. It begins to rain and the three take shelter in a nearby building, where Shrek and Donkey collapse. Back at the castle, Fiona is worried about Shrek, who had left very early in the morning to meet Harold in the woods, and informs her parents she will find Shrek and they will go back to the swamp. However, she also collapses at the door of the castle and is taken to her room by her parents.

The following morning, Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona have all transformed: Shrek into a human, Donkey into a stunning white stallion, and Fiona into her original human appearance from the first movie. Shrek rides Donkey to Fiona’s parents' castle to greet her, but an unfortunate circumstance has them missing each other in the castle and Shrek makes his way to her room and she makes her way to the doors, by alternate routes. Inside Fiona’s room, the Fairy Godmother waits to stall Shrek, while Prince Charming introduces himself to Fiona as the new, transformed Shrek. Fiona is initially confused, but uneasily accepts this as truth. Shrek, forced to watch the scene from the window (in which he sees Charming hugging Fiona and her returning, then going inside with him) becomes dejected. He then takes the Fairy Godmother’s advice to let Fiona go and leaves.

Donkey, Shrek, and Puss are all sitting dejected at the Poison Apple (the pub where Harold hired Puss) when Shrek spots a cloaked Harold sneaking into a private meeting room. He, Donkey and Puss go outside to spy through the window. They find out that Harold is meeting with Charming and the Fairy Godmother, who explain that Harold must slip Fiona a love potion so that she can kiss Charming and make the potion permanent. Harold refuses until the Fairy Godmother threatens to take away his own “happily ever after”. Shrek, Donkey, and Puss watch quietly from outside the window, but Donkey blows their cover when Charming addresses Fairy Godmother as “mother,” causing Shrek and his friends to run. The Fairy Godmother proclaims them as bandits and thieves and sends men-at-arms after them.

Back at Shrek’s swamp, several characters from the first movie (the Three Blind Mice, the Three Little Pigs, the Big Bad Wolf, the Gingerbread man, and Pinnochio) are watching a “broadcast” of the red carpet at Fiona and Shrek’s royal wedding ball, using the Magic Mirror as a television. They catch a promo for an upcoming episode of “Knights,” which shows a white stallion, an orange cat, and a brown-haired man (Donkey, Puss, and Shrek, respectively) being chased and finally arrested. Shrek’s friends notice that as Shrek is thrown into the prison wagon, he identifies himself madly as Shrek and asks for Fiona. They then set out out to Far Far Away to rescue him.

Meanwhile, Fiona is nervous about the upcoming wedding ball, citing displeasure with the “changes” in Shrek. Harold brings two cups of tea to her room (one of which is laced with love potion) and has a heart-to-heart with her in which she explains that she loved the old, “ugly,” uncouth Shrek for who he was. As she reaches for a cup of tea, Harold stops her and takes the cup she was going to drink from, explaining that he needs the decaffeinated mug (it is initially unrevealed if he gave her the potion or not at this point).

Shrek’s friends show up to spring him, Donkey, and Puss from the dungeon, and they devise a plan to storm the castle and stop the royal ball. They head to Drury Lane where they have the Muffin Man make them a giant (though mentally simple) gingerbread man named Mongo. As Shrek rides Mongo to the castle to break in, Prince Charming begins dancing with Fiona and forcibly trying to kiss her (to activate the love potion), but she keeps rebuffing him. Shrek makes it into the castle (though Mongo is doused with boiling milk and falls into the moat), and lets the others in. Then, along with Puss and Donkey, Shrek races his way to the courtyard where the ball was taking place. The castle knights give chase, and Puss falls back to repay his debt to Shrek by holding them off so that Shrek may continue.

Just as Charming is about to kiss Fiona, Shrek arrives and stops them, enraging the Fairy Godmother. A struggle ensues in which many parties fumble to keep Fairy Godmother’s wand away from her, but Donkey and Puss get a hold of it. She uses a last dich manuver and tells Charming to kiss Fiona. It appears as though the love potion took effect, but Fiona headbutts Charming (revealing that Harold never gave her the potion).While Shrek and Fiona are reunited, Prince Charming gets a hold of the wand and tosses it to the Fairy Godmother, and she proceeds to turn on Shrek, claiming once again that there are no happy endings for ogres. She sends a bolt of magical energy at him, but King Harold dives in front and is hit instead, but the bolt also reflects off his reflective breastplate and strikes the Fairy Godmother, causing her to turn into dozens of bubbles that pop and rain on the ground. King Harold is transformed into a bullfrog, and reveals that he is the Frog Prince, whom the Fairy Godmother transformed into a human years ago so that he could win the love of Queen Lillian, and apologizes for his behavior and gives his royal blessing. Lillian forgives Harold and still accepts him as her husband.

As the clock strikes midnight, Fiona tells Shrek that she loved him for who he was and that he didn’t need to change for her, so the potion wears off and they both transform back into ogres (and, to his dismay, Donkey turns back into a donkey). The movie, like its prequel, ends with a musical montage, with cast members (led by Puss and Donkey) sing and dance to Ricky Martin’s "Livin' La Vida Loca".

After part of the credits roll, Donkey is shown alone crying and singing “All By Myself”; Dragon appears with six flying dragon-donkey hybrid children, and the two are reconciled. After the screen turns black, Donkey comically says, "I gotta get a job".

[edit] Voice cast

Main article: Cast of Shrek

[edit] Main cast

• Mike Myers - Shrek the Ogre/Human Shrek
• Cameron Diaz - Princess Fiona/Fiona the Ogre
• Eddie Murphy - Donkey/Donkey as a White Stallion
• Julie Andrews - Queen Lillian^[1]
• Antonio Banderas - Puss in Boots
• John Cleese - King Harold^[2]
• Rupert Everett - Prince Charming
• Jennifer Saunders - Fairy Godmother

[edit] Minor cast

• Guillaume Aretos - Receptionist
• Kelly Asbury - Page/Elf/Nobleman/Nobleman's Son
• Cody Cameron - Pinocchio/ Three Pigs
• Kelly Cooney - Fast Food Clerk
• Larry King/Jonathan Ross(UK version only) - Doris, the Ugly Stepsister
• Chris Knights - Blind Mouse
• Mark Moseley - Mirror/ Dresser
• Alina Phelan - Maiden #1/ Generic Female #2
• Joan Rivers/Kate Thornton(UK version only) - Herself
• Erika Thomas - Maiden #2
• Conrad Vernon - Gingerbread Man/Cedric/Announcer/Muffin Man/ Mongo
• Aron Warner - Big Bad Wolf

[edit] Production

Another unusual item was Joan Rivers' cameo - this marked the first time that a real person had been represented on screen by the Shrek animation team. The DVD version of the film includes a second real-life cameo with an appearance by Simon Cowell in the "Far Far Away Idol" bonus feature.

[edit] Release

Shrek 2 was originally going to release in June 2004. A day before the movie 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.

[edit] TV releases

• This film had its US network television premiere on November 24, 2006, airing on ABC at 8 PM/7 PM ET/CT.
• The film has not yet appeared on British terrestrial television.
• The film appeared on FOX Latin America (Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, etc.) on February 4, 2007, after intensive publicity since the TV broadcast of Garfield on December 31, 2006
• The film was aired on TVN in Poland on March 2, 2007

[edit] Reception

[edit] Box office

Shrek 2 spent a total of 21 weeks in theaters, closing on November 25, 2004. It grossed about $440 million domestically (USA and Canada) and totaled just under one billion USD worldwide. This puts the movie at third on the all-time domestic box-office list and seventh on the worldwide box-office list. It was also the number one grossing movie of 2004. With DVD sales and Shrek 2 merchandise are estimated to total almost $800 million USD, this is DreamWorks most profitable movie to date.

• Budget - $70,000,000
• Opening Weekend Gross (Domestic) - $108,037,878
• Total Domestic Grosses - $441,226,247
• Total Overseas Grosses - $479,439,411
• Total Worldwide Grosses - $920,665,658

[edit] Critics

Metacritic has developed a weighted average rating of 73 out of 100 based on 39 professional reviews published in newspapers, magazines and in highly regarded Internet sites [7]. Rotten Tomatoes gave Shrek 2 an approval rating of 88%. Users of the Internet Movie Database gave a rating of 7.7 out of 10 to the movie. [8]

[edit] Parodies/References

[edit] TV/movie references

• There are an astounding number of pop culture references in Shrek 2, including:
  • Eleanor Shaw from The Manchurian Candidate
  • The line "Not that there's anything wrong with that" from Seinfeld
  • The line "Roll in the hay" Young Frankenstein
  • The storybook-like opening, characteristic of the animated Disney Sleeping Beauty movie
  • The Lion King
  • Spider-Man, when Fiona kisses Shrek at the beginning of the movie reminiscent of Spider Man's kiss in the movie.
  • The beach scene in From Here to Eternity
  • The Little Mermaid
  • Jaws
  • The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
  • Several moves from the fighting game Street Fighter II
  • The theme song to Hawaii Five-O
  • The Beatles' legendary Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
  • The Angelyne advertisements
  • The Hollywood sign
  • Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
  • The Wizard of Oz
  • Beverly Hills Cop
  • John Cleese's waiter character in Monty Python's "Mr. Creosote" sketch from The Meaning of Life
  • The dinner scene in Rocky Horror Picture Show
  • Mary Poppins
  • Marilyn Monroe's dress scene in The Seven Year Itch
  • Disney's Beauty and the Beast
  • Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
  • This is Spinal Tap
  • Frisch's Big Boy
  • Several characters from various movies: Captain Hook from Peter Pan, Dwarves from Snow White (who are fighting in a manner which references the Girl Scouts from Airplane!), The Apple-throwing trees from The Wizard of Oz, The Headless Horseman from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, an ugly stepsister from Cinderella
  • The Alien movie franchise
  • The Mask of Zorro
  • Bob Barker, of Price is Right fame's campaign to have people spay or neuter their pets, or his appearance in the movie Happy Gilmore, in which he beat up Adam Sandler. Which is the exact reference is unknown.
  • The Brothers Grimm
  • Ex-Lax and Alka-Seltzer
  • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
  • Pretty Woman
  • Demolition Man
  • Sanford and Son
  • Annie
  • Transformed Donkey does a slow-motion Charlie's Angels hair toss
  • Garfield the cat's disdain for Mondays
  • "Love Potion #9" by The Clovers
  • Joan Rivers
  • Wheel of Fortune
  • COPS
  • Mission: Impossible
  • Frankenstein
  • Godzilla - when Mongo the giant gingerbread man is approaching the castle.
  • The abundance of Starbucks franchises
  • Burger King
  • The Fabulous Baker Boys
  • Flashdance
  • Versace
  • Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" dance
  • Cabaret
  • Jack and Jill
  • Mongo from Blazing Saddles
  • Jurassic Park - ripples in the coffee cups as Mongo approaches Farbucks
  • Ghostbusters 2 - Shrek riding on Mongo's shoulder, a take on the Ghostbusters riding the Statue of Liberty
• There are also numerous references to the King being a frog throughout the movie, even before it is revealed in the plot.
  • The Queen is consoling the king and reminds him of their young love, "down by the lily pond" to which the King fondly recalls "our first kiss."
  • He has a painting of his human self standing over a pond next to his bed.
  • A female frog in the bar asks him, "Don't I know you from somewhere?"
  • At the ball, the King and Queen are seated in front of a screen that has a painting of a pond with water lilies on it.
  • He turned into an actual frog by the Fairy Godmother's spell.
  • The Queen's name is Lillian, which is often shortened to Lily - referring to lily pads which are often associated with frogs.

[edit] Places and names in Far Far Away

In order of appearance:

Movie name	Real name
Romeo Drive	Rodeo Drive
Farbucks Coffee	Starbucks Coffee
Burger Prince	Burger King
Versarchery	Versace
Saxon Fifth Avenue	Saks Fifth Avenue
Old Knavery	Old Navy
Tower of London Records	London Records or Tower Records or The Tower of London
Gap Queen	The Gap
Banana Kingdom	Banana Republic
Barneys Old York	Barneys New York
Abercrombie & Witch	Abercrombie & Fitch
Pewtery Barn	Pottery Barn
Friar's Fat Boy	Frisch's Big Boy
Baskin Robinhood	Baskin Robbins
Armani Armoury	Armani Exchange
Pork Illustrated	Sports Illustrated
KNIGHTS	COPS

[edit] Far Far Away Idol songs

At the end of the Shrek 2 DVD, Shrek, Fiona, and Simon Cowell (the main judge on both Pop Idol and American Idol) judge a Pop Idol-like contest called Far Far Away Idol. Here were the numbers:

• Donkey sings The Trammps' "Disco Inferno", with his wife, a dragon from the first movie, blowing fire
• Pinocchio sings Styx's "Mr. Roboto"
• Doris, the Ugly Stepsister (voiced by Larry King) sings Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun"
• The Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Pigs sing Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf"
• Prince Charming sings Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy"
• The Three Blind Mice sing Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now"
• Gingerbread Man (also known as Gingy) and a fairy (Most likely Tinker Bell from "Peter Pan") sings The Archies' "Sugar, Sugar"
• Captain Hook sings Blue Swede's "Hooked on a Feeling"
• Puss in Boots sings Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"
• Shrek and Fiona sing The Romantics' "What I Like About You"
• If someone other than Shrek and Fiona, Donkey, or Puss in Boots wins, Simon Cowell sings Frank Sinatra's "My Way."
• Shrek and Fiona won the online Far Far Away Idol.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] Continuity errors

• A continuity error in the movie: While Shrek is disguised as a factory worker, he nervously says to a co-worker, "TGIF". The next day, Puss in Boots comments, "I hate Mondays." (a quote from Garfield). However, it is possible that more than one day has passed during the previous montage sequence, or Shrek is merely trying to be discrete.
• Another error occurs during Shrek's transformations: When he becomes human, he retains and subsequently discards his ogre clothes. However, when he transforms back, his ogre clothes reappear, as does Fiona's green dress. Also, since Donkey drank some of the potion, it could have affected his love, Dragon, as well. According to commentary on the DVD they had originally planned for Dragon to show up in her new form: a pretty pegasus/unicorn but decided against it.

[edit] UK version

• In the UK, the parts of the Ugly Stepsister and the entertainment correspondent (originally voiced by Larry King and Joan Rivers, respectively) were re-dubbed by Jonathan Ross (among other things, the presenter of the BBC's Film show) and Kate Thornton. They are credited at the very end of the original credits. This was most probably done in order to garner interest from British fans, since both replacements are much more well known in the UK than the original voices, though most UK critical response tended to be mildly hostile to the change (eg this one).
• For the UK release, the King's line '...the old Crusades wound' was redubbed to '...the old hunting wound.' This could also be a reference to Fawlty Towers in which John Cleese's character Basil Fawlty occasionly mentions (especially in the episode The Germans, as part of the "Don't mention the war" running joke) he pulled a hamstring in the (Korean) war.
• For the UK release, the headbutt that Fiona performs on Charming in the US version is replaced with a double chop to the neck, the reason for this change is unknown.

[edit] Other

• When Shrek attempts to crowdsurf but lands on the dog, the dog wets itself just before being squashed by Shrek.
• The music on Shrek and Fiona's arrival at the castle is in the style of Handel.
• The character Puss in Boots speaks lots of Spanish dialogue, due to the Spanish nature of Antonio Banderas. For example, when he falls off Donkey after stealing clothes for Shrek he says "¡Eh, tú, pedazo de carne con patas! ¡¿Cómo te atreves a hacerme esto?!" which translates as "Hey, you piece of meat with feet! How dare you to do this to me?!"
• Antonio Banderas himself did the dubbing for his character in Spanish in the 2 versions for Latin America and Spain.
• Fiona has a poster of a knight named Sir Justin. Cameron Diaz's boyfriend at the time was Justin Timberlake
• When Shrek's ring for Fiona lands on her finger and glows "I Love You", the ring collection sound from the Sonic the Hedgehog games can be heard.
• When Mongo (or, as Shrek refers to him at one point, "Ye great stupid pastry!"), tries to drink out of a massive decorative coffee cup on top of a Farbucks (Starbucks), the patrons inside flee across the street...directly into another Farbucks (a play on the seeming omnipresence of Starbucks).

[edit] Notes

1. ^ John Cleese and Julie Andrews recorded most of their dialogue in the same studio, at the same time, which is considered unusual for a production like this which usually records its voice actors separately.
2. ^ See above.

[edit] See also

• Shrek 1
• Shrek 2 (Original Soundtrack)
• Shrek the Third (2007)
• List of animated feature-length films
• List of computer-animated films
• Cast of Shrek
• Shrek 2 (video game)
• Shrek Super Slam the video game

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Shrek 2 at the Internet Movie Database
• Shrek 2 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Shrek 2 at Metacritic
• Shrek 2 All Movie Guide entry
• Shrek 2 at Box Office Mojo

Shrek
Films	Main	Shrek • Shrek 2 • Shrek the Third • Shrek 4
	Spinoffs	Shrek 4-D
Video Games		Shrek • Shrek 2 • Shrek Super Slam • Shrek Smash and Crash • Shrek the Third
Books		Shrek!
Characters	Main	Shrek • Princess Fiona • Donkey • Puss in Boots • Dragon
	Minor	Big Bad Wolf • Lord Farquaad • Fairy Godmother • Gingerbread Man • Prince Charming
Locations		Far Far Away