Shrek reboot

Features, Shorts, Live-Action and Direct-To-Video
AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 5192
Joined: September 27th, 2007

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by EricJ » May 20th, 2021, 4:55 pm

Until DreamWorks became TOO self-struck with its recognizable-pop-song soundtracks, and the "Karaoke wrap party" became a staple of self-satisfied DreamWorks CGI comedies from there on in.
(Further mutating into the Far Away Idol scene from Shrek 2.)

I remember on a film discussion, we were having a joke thread about "Name your favorite cliche' line by genre", and coming up with some good ones. One of my contributions was:
"(Establishing city shot from early-00's DreamWorks/third-party CGI comedy: )
'Won't you take me to...Funky-towwwn?'"

User avatar
AV Founder
AV Founder
Posts: 25268
Joined: October 22nd, 2004
Location: London, UK

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by Ben » May 20th, 2021, 6:40 pm

What’s that one from again?

AV Team
AV Team
Posts: 6633
Joined: February 8th, 2005
Location: The US of A

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by Dacey » August 20th, 2022, 5:28 pm

A very small portion of the long-sought after test animation for Shrek has been discovered online. Hopefully one day, we'll get the whole thing, but for Shrek nerds, this is a very cool find...

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift--that is why it's called the present."

User avatar
AV Founder
AV Founder
Posts: 25268
Joined: October 22nd, 2004
Location: London, UK

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by Ben » August 20th, 2022, 8:06 pm

Much more of the grotesque Henson/Gilliamesque approach of the original book, before Jeffrey Cake-and-eat-it-too softened the edges so he could have a Disney-bashing antihero that was also a lovable champ worthy of his own fairytale ending. Which is why Shrek was just *so* huge when it came out the time that it did. Interesting "what if?" though!

AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 9044
Joined: October 25th, 2004
Location: Binghamton, NY

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by ShyViolet » August 21st, 2022, 2:52 am

That was scary, puzzling and yet somehow awesome all at the same time! :shock: :)

(Also, would love to see it added to the Shrek 1 Honest Trailer!)
You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 9990
Joined: September 1st, 2006

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by Daniel » August 21st, 2022, 1:34 pm

Yep, creepy but fascinating. Always incredible when something like this is found. Here's another discovery, an animation test featuring Chris Farley's Shrek!



Absolutely insane to hear!

User avatar
AV Founder
AV Founder
Posts: 25268
Joined: October 22nd, 2004
Location: London, UK

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by Ben » August 21st, 2022, 8:18 pm

I think we all do have to agree, though, that Myers — and *specifically* his eureka moment of re-recording Shrek's dialogue with a soft Scottish brogue — was a touch of genius.

AV Founder
AV Founder
Posts: 7245
Joined: October 23rd, 2004
Location: SaskaTOON, Canada

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by Randall » August 21st, 2022, 8:22 pm

Other than the brogue, Farley was actually pretty close to what Myers did.

User avatar
AV Founder
AV Founder
Posts: 25268
Joined: October 22nd, 2004
Location: London, UK

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by Ben » August 22nd, 2022, 4:21 am

Well, yes, because Myers was a replacement for a character that already had a lot of the dialogue having been directed, recorded and animated to. So he had to continue along the same lines, for consistency and because that’s what was being asked for for the character and from the directors. But Shrek himself would have been a pretty unlikable character without the stealth-like softening up — we are, after all, supposed to *like* that he is unlikable at first — and Shrek the film would have perhaps had a very different outcome without what Myers brought to it, ultimately.

AV Team
AV Team
Posts: 6633
Joined: February 8th, 2005
Location: The US of A

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by Dacey » August 22nd, 2022, 1:07 pm

Basically everything from the Farley version was scrapped. The only scenes that remain were the campfire one and the discussion of onions.

JK went to a test screening of the Farley cut and apparently hated everything he saw, telling the crew they had to start over. But before Farley could be brought back to do new material, he died. But Farley’s Shrek was going to be a teenager. His grouchy father wanted him to get into the family business of scaring villagers for a living, but Shrek—who is joyful instead of grouchy, which is atypical for an ogre—dreams of becoming a knight, and joins Donkey on a quest to do so.

An interesting thing about the animation test is it used hand-crafted sets, similar to stop motion, that the CGI characters would then be added to. Obviously, that probably would have been very expensive to do, but we are talking about 1996.

But I doubt Myers was ever “matching” his voice to completed animation that Farley had done, as his Shrek was a different beast entirely. JK was impressed by Myers in Austin Powers, which is how he was brought aboard, and when Meyers decided to give the ogre his distinctive accent, all of the scenes that had been animated for Myers until then had to be redone to match. This boosted the budget by $5 million, but the gamble of course paid off in a big way.

Sorry to ramble like that. I’m a Shreksbert.
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift--that is why it's called the present."

User avatar
AV Founder
AV Founder
Posts: 25268
Joined: October 22nd, 2004
Location: London, UK

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by Ben » August 22nd, 2022, 6:20 pm

Just to clarify, I didn’t state that Myers had to match animation, just the character as written, which obviously then changed as the story got revamped. :)

As far as I understand it, though, it’s well known that Myers then had to match his own lipsync to what had been animated with the eleventh hour suggestion to change the voice, with only minimal changes. They didn’t reanimate all his scenes, which would have been much more than a $5m redo! :) :)

AV Team
AV Team
Posts: 6633
Joined: February 8th, 2005
Location: The US of A

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by Dacey » August 22nd, 2022, 6:43 pm

I’m going by this and other articles on that part (regarding the animation):

https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/featu ... ris-farley

:)
"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift--that is why it's called the present."

User avatar
AV Founder
AV Founder
Posts: 25268
Joined: October 22nd, 2004
Location: London, UK

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by Ben » August 22nd, 2022, 8:04 pm

To be fair, that piece says Myers voiced Shrek "with the same Scottish accent he used on the villain Fat B*****d in The Spy Who Shagged Me". No. Despite what it might sound like to you Yanks, those are two *very* different Scottish accents (yes, Scots don’t all sound alike). His character in The Spy…is almost not Scottish at all, it’s kind of a super-broad Scots cartoon pastiche, but his Shrek is much more "realistic". Also, it doesn’t mention Myers' revoicing in terms of the lipsync that had already been animated, only that "nearly $4m" (and not $5m) was added to the budget, which sounds about right to re-record a full vocal track on that level at such a late play in the game, given who also needs to be in the room: the directors, the engineers, editors and mixers, script supervisor, etc. From what I remember, there was minimal animation correction and Myers even offered to re-record the lines for free, given the belief he had in the new direction, but was later rewarded with some kind of bonus from JK. I donut think that piece has the full story or even barely scrapes the surface…? :D

AV Forum Member
AV Forum Member
Posts: 5192
Joined: September 27th, 2007

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by EricJ » August 22nd, 2022, 10:18 pm

What about his Scottish accent in "So I Married an Axe Murderer"?

User avatar
AV Founder
AV Founder
Posts: 25268
Joined: October 22nd, 2004
Location: London, UK

Re: Shrek reboot

Post by Ben » August 23rd, 2022, 3:11 am

I haven’t seen that one in so long I can’t remember it!

Post Reply