The Reversal of Traditions in Shrek
In traditional fairy tales ogres are man-eating beast. The prince
usually rescues the princess; they marry and live happily ever after.
How do the makers of 'shrek' use presentational devices to reverse
this tradition to reveal the ogre as good and the prince as evil?
In this essay I am going to analyse the characters of shrek and Lord
Farquaad, and write about how filmmakers use different camera angles,
lighting, music and setting to create an unusual fairy tale. The giant
in jack and the beanstalk is what we expect of giants/ogres.
In traditional fairy tales ogres are normally man-eating beast, at the
beginning of shrek, shrek is what you expect him to be like. When the
farmers go to his swamp and the meet shrek. When shrek is shouting at
them the low angle camera shot makes shrek look intimidating to the
crowd and audience. Also the volume is raised.
This makes shrek look really big but this is before we get to know
shrek, he has good qualities, he is a good character and he doe...
Social Psychology is the scientific study of how we influence, affect, and relate to one another. Social psychology is studied to see how the influence of others can impact how we act. This can be seen in many aspects in life. Most specifically, social psychology can be seen in movies. Recently, I have viewed the movie Shrek which was released in 2001. Shrek is a kid’s movie about an ogre named Shrek who rescues a princess from a castle for Lord Farquaad in order to regain his swamp and privacy. During this process, however, Shrek falls in love with the princess and discovers a secret about her. While watching Shrek, I have noticed that many theories and concepts from social psychology were apparent in the film.
A fairy tale story can easily establish rhetoric devices in order to enhance its storyline or give some character development. The movie Shrek is about an ogre named Shrek and a donkey named Donkey who is ordered by a prince named Farquaad to rescue a princess named Fiona so he can get his swamp back, but Shrek ends up falling in love with the princess himself (Adamson, Jenson, 2001). The movie Shrek breaks the norms of a typical fairy tales, reversing the role of who would be the hero and who would be the villain. This film adopts rhetoric devices like the four cognitive schemata to construe the perception of the characters towards Shrek, the Social Penetration Theory to show the growing relationships Shrek has with Donkey and Fiona, and verbal
Ebeneezer Scrooge was a businessman who worked at a store called, (Scrooge and Marley). Scrooge was a mean man who didn't care about anyone but himself. The movie and the play is mostly about how Ebeneezer Scrooge did something wrong and what he did do to make people not hate him. In the story Scrooge gets visited by three spirits before christmas. No one in the story at first likes Scrooge.
The costumes in Shrek The Musical were the cherry on top of an already well produced play. Shrek and Fiona looked like actual ogres and looked very realistic with the green face and body paint. From head to toe, Shrek looked like a real life ogre. His clothing topped of him ogre like look and made him look very far from human. Similarly, when Fiona turned into an ogre she envisioned an ogre from head to toe. Donkey’s costume was also very realistic. He looked very similar to Donkey in the movie and his ears brought the whole costume to life. Lord Farquaad’s costume was the most interesting in my personal opinion. His costume was made very creatively to make him look oddly short. He was left walking on his knees throughout the show and there was a black piece of fabric with short legs on the front to hide his actual legs. His makeup, especially his eyebrows made him look more sassy which fit his character very well. The flashy gems and fabric of his costume made him look like royalty which was very well fitting since he is a king in the play. Another costume that stood out to me was Pinnochio’s. His nose that lengthened when he lied was very creatively made and also very realistic. The body paint on his face and arms made him look like a real life doll and his shoes were a good touch in my opinion to the costume.
If children or adults think of the great classical fairy tales today, be it Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, or Cinderella, they will think Walt Disney. Their first and perhaps lasting impression of these tales and others will have emanated from Disney film, book, or artefacts (Zipes 72)
In the movie the hero, Shrek is trying to save Fiona from falling into a trap from the Fairy Godmother and her reluctant accomplice of a father set for her to fall in love with Prince Charming. This has changed many of the common personalities associated with these characters. First the hero, Shrek is not even human; he is an ogre and considered a monster in the eyes of the everyday folks and is even chased by them periodically. Yet here he was the one that saved the princess from the castle and married her. Which led to her curse of being ogre being permanent. Secondly is Prince Charming who is often described as a brave, selfless, and handsome man who strives for doing what is right is for the world. Here he’s substituted by a man with only one of those traits which is handsome, otherwise hes corrupted. Now he’s a selfish, narcissistic and pretty boy who willingly follows his mother’s plan without ever questioning it. Thirdly, the Fairy Godmother who commonly portrayed as a kind, helpful and guiding mother figure is replaced by a cold manipulate woman. Although through the use of clever advertisements and showings she convince the majority of population of Far Far Away that she is there to grant everyone’s happy ending which we all know is now false. Since she leads the plan against Shrek while forcing Fiona’s father to help her
Shrekis about an ogre who in order to keep his swamp he has to rescue
Throughout literature, there is a prevalent model found in various narratives that ensures its success. This archetype, called the “journey of the hero,” discovered by Joseph Campbell, serves as a guideline of three stages for authors to manipulate to their own desire. The departure, the initiation, and the return essentially create the same storyline, yet these formats can be molded into unique and refreshing works of art. Aspects of the “journey of the hero” in the movie Shrek 2 are highlighted as the main hero, Shrek, and his wife Princess Fiona depart from their accustomed residence, the swamp, rediscover the meaning of true love through peril, and return with Shrek being able to balance his identity between an ogre and royalty.
The protagonists in this book are the Pevensie children: Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. Even though they have just stumbled into the realm of Narnia, they are quick to protect it from the hands of the White Witch. Peter is fair and just. Even though he is a little bit of a control freak, he always does the right thing. Susan is beautiful and gentle. There is more to her than meets the eye. Edmund is stubborn and does not like to be told what to do. Even though he betrays his siblings and follows the White Witch. he does what is right in the end. Lucy is very kind and faithful. She believes in Narnia even when no one else does. She always does what is right.
While there has been much academic disagreement over the years regarding fairy tales, most scholars and critics agree that fairy tales emanated from oral traditions. However, there remains no consensus around their origins, or how they evolved and spread. In fact, a pair of researchers has conducted a phylogenetic analysis on common fairy tales and has found that many of them appear to be much older than has been thought; some perhaps thousands of years older than believed. Their research was based auto-logistic modelling to analyze the relationships between folktales, population histories and geographical distances using signatures found in cultural traditions. However, their investigations have been complicated by a lack of historical data.
The overall moral, ethical and social message the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe gives is not as simple as ‘good always triumphs over evil’. It has an extremely bold
Within Aladdin, there are themes of stratification, stereotyping, and discrimination. “Stratification occurs when members of a society are categorized and divided into groups, which are then placed in a social hierarchy” (Ferris). Race, gender, class, age, or other characteristics are the categorized qualities predominantly. Aladdin mainly focuses on issues relating to class and gender. Stereotyping occurs throughout the movie and can be defined as, “the judging of others based on preconceived generalizations about groups or categories of people” (Ferris). Discrimination is also prevalent in the movie and occurs when “unequal treatment of individuals based on their membership in a social group; usually motivated by prejudice” (Ferris). Ideas
As Tartar notes, fairy tales “adap[t] to a culture and [are] shaped by its social practices” (xiv). As American culture began to change, the fairy tales produced by Disney studios began to change and adapt to changing American sensibilities. The main focus of this shift is the role that women play in the fairy tales. While many of Disney’s early fairy tale movies have female characters, they are fairly passive. They achieve their happily-ever-after as a reward for good behavior in the face of adversity. The prevalence of this in the early tales occurs for two reasons. First, the women’s behavior serves as a guide to the American people who, too, are facing the adversity of the Great Depression and then war. Second, the women’s behavior mirrors the expected behavior of women in society at that time. As women fight for and achieve what they want out of life, the female protagonists in the Disney fairy tales mirror that action. As a result, the female protagonists’ behavior serves a different purpose in these later fairy tale films. The behavioral shifts serve to “endow us with the power to reconstruct our lives” (Tartar xii). They are “fictional stories that provide a truth applicable in the real world as a moral” by embracing the growing importance of equality for women found in modern American (Zipes, “The Cultural Evolution of Storytelling 10).
Through the use of Christian symbolism, conflicts, and imagery, C. S. Lewis implements his religious background into his literary works.
Since folk tales transform to the fairy tales, people produced and consumed fairy tales a lot. The purpose of these tales are usually teach and spread the moral, warning and ideology to the mass audience. Because of these aspects of the tale, the cultural reflection to the texts are obvious especially on the old tales. In my opinion, there is interesting thing happening. When we see the old tail to modern tale, cultural concepts are shifting to more universal concepts due to the society structure and size changes.