Shrek And His Means

Shrek And His Means

Shrek is a highly audacious, animated comedy that combines many of the most popular Disney and fairy tale characters into parody comedy. The character of Shrek was created by author William Steig who aimed Shrek’s target audience at ages three to eight. DreamWorks adopted the book and turned it into a three-part animated series that aimed for an audience of youth and adults alike. In the media today, there is considerable debate whether the Shrek trilogy is a negative or positive influence on the youth of today because it is filled with adult humour and pop-culture references and removes fairy tale characters from their original context. It will be discussed that the influence of Shrek the book and the movie trilogies is a positive one for young audiences, teenagers, and adults, and also has meaningful message for young audiences.
In the original version of Shrek, the book, William Steig describes his ogre creation as uglier than his mother and father combined (Steig 1). Shrek was actually created as a very ugly and repulsive character that exposed his awful fumes to anything that crossed his path. Shrek’s parents told him that it was time he went off to do his “share of damage” to the world, and he came across a witch who told him his future (Steig 2). He was to embark on a journey that would end when he wed a princess who was uglier than Shrek himself. The witch foretold that he would meet a donkey, which he did, that would lead him to a castle where his princess awaits. Shrek found his princess, recited some magic words, and wed his princess.
Some of the language used in the Steig book seems like it would be a problem for ages three to eight. For example, on the first page Steig writes, “Any snake dumb enough to bite him [Shrek] instantly got convulsions and died.” On page ten Lightning said to Thunder, “Did you ever see somebody so disgusting?” in discussing Shrek’s ugliness. Shrek screams at the donkey and calls him a “jabbering jackass”, uses a put-down...