Return to the not-so-magical land of Far, Far Away as Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey return for next year’s “Shrek 5”.
Directed by Conrad Vernon, Walt Dohrn, and Brad Ableson, with Michael McCullers writing the screenplay based on a story by Christopher Meledandri, “Shrek 5” comes nearly two decades after the theatrical release of Shrek Forever After. Of course, Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz all return as the voices of Shrek, Donkey and Fiona. They’re joined by Zendaya, Saturday Night Live famous Marcello Hernandez and Skyler Gisondo fresh out of James Gunn’s Superman as Shrek and Fiona’s triplets Felicia, Fergus, and Farkle respectively.
The plot promises parody much like the previous films, with storybook recapping the original tale of Shrek, Fiona and Donkey from their original 2001 movie. This time, the trio travel to Further, Further Away, where trouble finds them.
The first thing many fans noticed when Shrek 5 began teasing its release was the way the movie looked. In a stark departure from the past films in the franchise, the new movie had a much more “cartoon-y” look to it. This was only further shown off in the film’s latest teaser trailer, which shows that some characters look the same, but others (like Eddie Murphy’s Donkey) have a pretty drastic new look, all things considered.
Many felt disappointed, saying that the characters come off as “Disney-fied”, given that Shrek was originally meant to mock Disney (Castle Farquaad a direct parody of the famed Sleeping Beauty castle). Indeed, the characters look animated in a much more modern setting, resulting in the loss of any realistic blemishes that the originals had. Donkey, specifically, has seen many complaints thrown its way, as the character has lost the realistic and sometimes unpleasant look he had, and instead now looks much more like a fully animated character.
It’s unclear whether DreamWorks will change the animation style in time for the movie’s release next year. Paramount infamously changed the design of Sonic the Hedgehog ahead of its movie release after large complaints online, but changing a single character model is significantly easier than altering the entire style design. Either or, fans can hope that Shrek 5 lives up to its predecessors.
