First off, I don’t know how they managed to get all the royalty rights for such popular songs? (Not even just the English ones, they played Meditacão in the background when shrek and donkey first arrived at lord Farquaad’s town. Bizarre). But the film was so tonally silly that it all worked brilliantly together.

I remember seeing Shrek in the cinemas when it first came out and knowing it was animation but thinking it was so realistic. Now it’s absolutely clear that this is old, outdated 3D. Strange how the eye develops to be able to tell the difference, like a sped-up attuning of our uncanny valley senses.

Shrek works really well as a subversion of fairy tale tropes, especially because Fiona seems initially so determined to fulfill them. She expects Shrek to sweep her off her feet and kiss her just because he rescued her from the castle, and is confused when he resists. As the audience are familiar with the tropes (kinda Disney’s fault too) they’re able to play this for laughs on a meta level as well as establishing Fiona’s motivations. Our expectations are later subverted again with the revelation that she herself is an ogre. The image of an ugly, gross, farty ogre that was played for laughs in the beginning of the movie then becomes a more serious metaphor for self acceptance and body image.

Overall, I liked the treatment of serious tropes as comedic, and comedic ideas as serious – especially when it’s dependent on the audience’s expectations.

Also, milk/waterboarding scene. Incredible stuff.