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Shrek 2

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Shrek 2 is the 2004 sequel to the 2001 computer-animated DreamWorks Pictures movie 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'" [link]. Shrek 2 is also the one of the first 3 feature length movies to get the Game Boy Advance Video treatment.

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

Shrek 2 was originally scheduled for release on June 18, 2004, but instead, it opened on May 19, 2004.

At 4,163 theaters, the film's opening weekend theater count is the largest ever [link].

Plot

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess who had fallen under a curse that transformed her into a monster 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) 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. The Wolf bluntly tells Charming that the Princess Fiona is 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 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 no control over it), and it is revealed that her son, Prince Charming, was supposed to marry Fiona as part of some deal between the Fairy Godmother and King Harold. Fairy Godmother subtly suggest that Harold have Shrek killed, and Harold heads to an unsavory pub to hire a hitman.

Harold tricks Shrek to meet 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 it. Taking an idea from Fairy Godmother’s business card (left with Fiona), the three decide to head to the Fairy Godmother’s 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 almost immediately collapse. Back at the castle, Fiona is worried about her missing husband (who had left very early in the morning to meet Harold in the woods), and announces to her parents she will find Shrek and they will go back to the swamp. However, she 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 strong, handsome man, Donkey into a white stallion, and Fiona into her original “uncursed” appearance from the first movie. Shrek runs to Fiona’s 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 front door, presumably 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 and takes the Fairy Godmother’s advice and leaves.

Donkey, Shrek, and Puss are all sitting dejected at the Poison Apple (the same seedy pub where Harold hired Puss) when Shrek spots a cloaked Harold sneaking into a private meeting room. He there meets with Charming and 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 people (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, a red 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.

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 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).

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 with Puss and Donkey races his way to the courtyard where the ball takes place. Many 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 Prince Charming finally gets a hold of it and tosses it to her. She uses it to hold everyone at bay and instructs Charming to kiss Fiona. Fiona head butts Charming (revealing that Harold never gave her the potion), which causes the Fairy Godmother 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 reflect off his breastplate and strikes the Fairy Godmother, causing her to turn into dozens of pink bubbles that pop and rain on the ground. King Harold is transformed into a bullfrog, and reveals that the Fairy Godmother transformed him into a man years ago so that he could win the love of Queen Lillian, and apologizes for his behavior and giving his royal blessing. 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 Donkey turns back into a donkey). The movie 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 the credits role, Donkey is shown alone crying and singing “All By Myself;” Dragon almost immediately appears with six flying dragon-donkey hybrid children, and the two are reconciled.

Voice Cast

Main Cast

Minor Cast

Box office and critical response

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 totalled just under one billion USD worldwide. This puts the movie (as of December 30, 2005) at 3rd all time on the domestic box office list and 6th 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.

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 [link]. Users of the Internet Movie Database gave a rating of 7.8 out of 10 to the movie. [link]

Trivia

TV/movie references


Places and names in Far Far Away

Donkey, voiced by Eddie Murphy.
Enlarge
Donkey, voiced by Eddie Murphy.
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)
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 Robins
Armani Armoury Armani Exchange

Far Far Away Idol songs

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

If someone other than Shrek and Fiona, Donkey, or Puss in Boots wins, Simon Cowell sings Frank Sinatra's "My Way."

Other trivia

Box office totals

See also

External links

 


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