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King Shrek? One Shrek to rule them all

Published Saturday, May 19, 2007 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

Once upon a time, fairy-tale men and fairy-tale women lived in their own little, magical mystery worlds. They remained far, far away in our imaginations even in 1990, when William Steig’s “Shrek!” made his debut as an ogre who wouldn’t belong until he found an even uglier ogre to marry.
And so it went, until DreamWorks came along and refashioned Shrek in 2001 as an even broader satire of the old fairy tales. By 2004’s Shrek 2, the big green guy had married royalty. And in this summer’s Shrek the Third, he has a chance to rule them all.

Who would bow to Shrek? Among the many peasants, these notable fantasy creations (and their former creators) inhabit the film's version of Far Far Away:
* Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, The Pied Piper, Prince Charming, Rapunzel, Rumplestiltskin, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Tom Thumb (The Brothers Grimm, Germany, 1785-1863 and 1786-1859)
* Puss in Boots, Sleeping Beauty (Charles Perrault’s Mother Goose Tales, France, 1628-1703) (Perrault also wrote versions of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood)
* The Gingerbread Man, Three Little Pigs and Big Bad Wolf (Joseph Jacobs, Australia/England, 1854-1916)
* The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling (Hans Christian Andersen, Denmark, 1805-1875)
* Capt. Hook, Peter Pan, Tinkerbell (J.M. Barrie, England, 1860-1937)
* King Arthur, Lancelot, Merlin, Robin Hood (English legends)
* The Three Bears (Robert Southey, England, 1774-1843)
* Three Blind Mice (Thomas Ravenscroft, England, early 17th century)
* Pinocchio (Carlo Collodi, Italy, 1826-1890)
* Cyclops (Homer, Greece, seventh century B.C.)
* The Wicked Witch and talking trees from Oz (L. Frank Baum, U.S., 1856-1919)
* The Headless Horseman (Washington Irving, U.S., 1783-1859)

Labels: books, movies