Shrek 2 is a 2004 American
computer-animatedComputer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
fantasyFantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...
comedy filmComedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
, produced by
DreamWorks AnimationDreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. is an American animation studio based in Glendale, California that creates animated feature films, television program and online virtual worlds...
and directed by
Andrew AdamsonAndrew Ralph Adamson, MNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer and screenwriter based mainly in Los Angeles, where he made the blockbuster animation films, Shrek and Shrek 2 for which he received an Academy Award nomination. He was director, executive producer, and scriptwriter for C. S....
,
Kelly AsburyKelly Adam Asbury is an American director, writer, voice actor, author and illustrator.He attended Lamar University for two years before, in 1980, transferring to California Institute of the Arts, where he studied animation and filmmaking...
and
Conrad VernonConrad Vernon IV is an American director, writer, and voice actor, best known for his work on the DreamWorks animated films Shrek 2 and Monsters vs...
. It is the second installment in the
Shrek film series and the sequel to 2001's
ShrekShrek is a 2001 American computer-animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, featuring the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, and John Lithgow. Loosely based on William Steig's 1990 fairy tale picture book Shrek!...
. The film features the voices of Mike Myers,
Eddie MurphyEdward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
,
Cameron DiazCameron Michelle Diaz is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, and There's Something About Mary. Other high-profile credits include the two Charlie's Angels films, voicing the character Princess Fiona...
,
Antonio BanderasJosé Antonio Domínguez Banderas , better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer...
,
Julie AndrewsDame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
,
John CleeseJohn Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
,
Rupert EverettRupert James Hector Everett is an English actor. He first came to public attention in 1981, when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film Another Country as an openly gay student at an English public school, set in the 1930s...
and
Jennifer SaundersJennifer Jane Saunders is an English comedienne, screenwriter, singer and actress. She has won two BAFTAs, an International Emmy Award, a British Comedy Award, a Rose d'Or Light Entertainment Festival Award, two Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards, and a Peoples Choice Award.She first came into...
.
Like its predecessor,
Shrek 2 received positive reviews.
Shrek 2 scored the second-largest three day opening weekend in US history at the time of release, as well as the largest opening for an
animatedAnimation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
film until May 18, 2007, when it was eclipsed by its sequel
Shrek the ThirdShrek the Third is a 2007 American animated film, and the third film in the Shrek series. It was produced by Jeffrey Katzenberg for DreamWorks Animation, and is distributed by Paramount Pictures. It was released in U.S. theaters on May 18, 2007...
. As of 2011, it is the inflation-adjusted 31st highest-grossing film of all time in the US. It went on to be the highest-grossing film of 2004. The associated soundtrack reached the top ten of the
Billboard 200The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
. It is also the seventh highest ticket selling animated film of all time. It is DreamWorks's most successful film to date and was also the highest-grossing fully animated film of all time worldwide for six years until
Toy Story 3Toy Story 3 is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated comedy-adventure film, and the third installment in the Toy Story series. It was produced by Pixar and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Lee Unkrich. The film was released worldwide from June through October in Disney Digital...
surpassed it in 2010.
Plot
When Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) and Fiona (voiced by
Cameron DiazCameron Michelle Diaz is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, and There's Something About Mary. Other high-profile credits include the two Charlie's Angels films, voicing the character Princess Fiona...
) come back from their honeymoon, they find an invitation to a royal ball with Fiona's parents to celebrate their marriage, an event Shrek is reluctant to participate in. Fiona talks him into it, and along with Donkey (voiced by
Eddie MurphyEdward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
), they travel to the kingdom of Far Far Away. They meet Fiona's parents, King Harold and Queen Lillian (voiced by
John CleeseJohn Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
and
Julie AndrewsDame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
), who are surprised by Fiona's choice of husband, and Harold is repulsed since they had arranged that Prince Charming rescue her from the castle but now they see that her husband is an ogre, and she herself has the likeness of an ogre.
Lillian soon comes to accept Shrek, seeing how happy he and Fiona are together, but at a shared meal, Shrek and Harold get into a heated argument over how Shrek and Fiona will raise their family, and Fiona, disgusted at Shrek and her father's behavior, locks herself away in her room that evening, where she meets her Fairy Godmother (voiced by
Jennifer SaundersJennifer Jane Saunders is an English comedienne, screenwriter, singer and actress. She has won two BAFTAs, an International Emmy Award, a British Comedy Award, a Rose d'Or Light Entertainment Festival Award, two Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards, and a Peoples Choice Award.She first came into...
), who is also surprised at Fiona's new looks. Shrek worries that he has lost his true love, particularly after finding the diary from her
teenhoodAdolescence is a transitional stage of physical and mental human development generally occurring between puberty and legal adulthood , but largely characterized as beginning and ending with the teenage stage...
and reading that she was once infatuated with Prince Charming (voiced by
Rupert EverettRupert James Hector Everett is an English actor. He first came to public attention in 1981, when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film Another Country as an openly gay student at an English public school, set in the 1930s...
).
King Harold is accosted by the Fairy Godmother and Charming, her son. The two retell the Prince's adventures and how he overcame many obstacles and climbed a high tower in order to rescue Fiona, finding instead the Big Bad Wolf using it as a hangout. They reprimand Harold for breaking an old promise that Charming would be able to marry Fiona and demand that he find a way to get rid of Shrek. After Shrek reads Fiona's diary and pages containing the single phrase "Mrs. Fiona Charming", Harold arranges for Shrek and Donkey to join him on a fictitious hunting trip, which really is a trap to lure the two into the hands of an assassin, Puss in Boots (voiced by
Antonio BanderasJosé Antonio Domínguez Banderas , better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer...
).
When Fiona realizes that Shrek left, she asks her father for help, but he replies that he always wanted the best for her and that she should think about what is the best for her, too. Puss is unable to defeat Shrek and, revealing that he was paid by Harold, asks to come along as a way to make amends. Shrek decides to go to the Fairy Godmother for help. However, the Fairy Godmother states that ogres do not live "happily ever after." Nonetheless, the three sneak into the Fairy Godmother's potion factory and steal a "Happily Ever After" potion that Shrek believes will restore Fiona's love for him.
Shrek and Donkey both drink the potion, but it appears as if it didn't work. When it starts to rain, they leave, and in doing so, fail to notice that the
mushroomA mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...
, which Shrek previously sneezed potion on, change into a beautiful
roseA rose is a woody perennial of the genus Rosa, within the family Rosaceae. There are over 100 species. They form a group of erect shrubs, and climbing or trailing plants, with stems that are often armed with sharp prickles. Flowers are large and showy, in colours ranging from white through yellows...
. They wait out the storm in a barn and, while there, Shrek and Donkey fall over and into a deep sleep for no apparent reason. When they awake, they discover the potion's effects were only delayed: Shrek is now a handsome human, while Donkey has turned into a
stallionA Stallion is a male horse.Stallion may also refer to:* Stallion , an American pop rock group* Stallion , a figure in the Gobot toyline* Stallion , a character in the console role-playing game series...
. In order to make the change permanent, Shrek must kiss Fiona by midnight. He, Donkey, and Puss return to the castle to discover that the potion has also transformed Fiona back into her former, human self. However, the Fairy Godmother, having learned of the potion's theft, intercepts Shrek and sends Charming to pose as him and win her love. At the Fairy Godmother's urging, Shrek leaves the castle, believing that the best way to make Fiona happy is to let her go.
To ensure that Fiona falls in love with Charming, the Fairy Godmother gives Harold a love potion to put into Fiona's tea. But Harold replies that it's not possible to make his daughter fall in love in this way. This exchange is overheard by Shrek, Donkey, and Puss, who are soon arrested by the royal guards and thrown into a dungeon, in a parody of
COPSCops is an American documentary/reality television series that follows police officers, constables, and sheriff's deputies during patrols and other police activities...
. When the royal ball begins, several of Shrek's friends band together to free the trio and create a gigantic gingerbread man (whose name is Mongo), which breaks through the castle's defenses so Shrek can stop Charming from kissing Fiona, but Mongo is presumably killed when his arms break and he falls into the
moatA moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
with Gingy devastated. Shrek finds he is too late to stop them; instead of falling in love with Charming, though, Fiona knocks him out with a
headbuttA headbutt is a strike with the head, typically involving the use of robust parts of the cranium as areas of impact. Effective headbutting revolves around striking a sensitive area with a less sensitive area, such as striking the nose of an opponent with the forehead...
, revealing that Harold never gave Fiona the love potion, having realized her love for Shrek. Enraged, the Fairy Godmother attacks Shrek with a spell from her wand, presumably to kill Shrek, but it rebounds off Harold's armor, when he commits self-sacrifice to save Shrek, and disintegrates the Fairy Godmother; it also returns Harold to his true form, that of the
Frog Prince"The Frog Prince; or, Iron Henry" is a fairy tale, best known through the Brothers Grimm's written version; traditionally it is the first story in their collection. In the tale, a spoiled princess reluctantly befriends a frog , who magically transforms into a handsome prince...
. The Fairy Godmother had made a deal with Harold to turn him into a handsome man, so that he could win over Lilian, to make her kiss him and change him into a human permanently, in exchange for Charming marrying his soon-to-be daughter.
As the clock strikes midnight, Shrek and Fiona let the potion's effects wear off and they revert to their ogre selves, while Donkey changes back as well, much to his chagrin. Harold gives his blessing to the marriage and apologizes for his earlier behavior; the party resumes and the credits begin as they sing (along with Mongo) "
Livin' La Vida Loca"Livin' la Vida Loca" is a song by Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin. It was released on March 23, 1999 from Martin's self-titled debut English album. The song was composed by Desmond Child and Draco Rosa and topped the charts during 1999...
".
In a Post-credit scene, Shrek, Fiona and Donkey are still partying in the night. Dragon, who Donkey has married following the events of the first film, arrives with some of her and Donkey's new children called the "Dronkeys".
Cast
- Mike Myers as Shrek
Shrek is a fictional character from the children's book Shrek! and the Shrek films. He is the main protagonist of both the book and the films...
- Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
as DonkeyDonkey is a fictional talking donkey from the Shrek series of films and he serves as the deuteragonist of the films, voiced by Eddie Murphy. The character has also featured in the original story Shrek!...
- Cameron Diaz
Cameron Michelle Diaz is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, and There's Something About Mary. Other high-profile credits include the two Charlie's Angels films, voicing the character Princess Fiona...
as Princess FionaPrincess Fiona is the princess and the tritagonist in the films Shrek, Shrek 2, Shrek the Third and Shrek Forever After. Actress Cameron Diaz provides her voice to the character, and Fiona's singing is provided by Renee Sands of Kids Incorporated and Wild Orchid.-Shrek:In Shrek, Lord Farquaad sends...
- Julie Andrews
Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...
as Queen Lillian
- Antonio Banderas
José Antonio Domínguez Banderas , better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer...
as Puss in BootsPuss in Boots is a fictional cat and a supporting character in the Shrek film series, as well as the primary protagonist of the 2011 spin-off prequel Puss in Boots. He is voiced in English and both Spanish versions by Antonio Banderas...
- John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
as King Harold
- Rupert Everett
Rupert James Hector Everett is an English actor. He first came to public attention in 1981, when he was cast in Julian Mitchell's play and subsequent film Another Country as an openly gay student at an English public school, set in the 1930s...
as Prince Charming
- Jennifer Saunders
Jennifer Jane Saunders is an English comedienne, screenwriter, singer and actress. She has won two BAFTAs, an International Emmy Award, a British Comedy Award, a Rose d'Or Light Entertainment Festival Award, two Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards, and a Peoples Choice Award.She first came into...
as Fairy Godmother
- Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries...
(US)/Kate ThorntonKate Thornton is an English journalist and television presenter. Early in her career, she was notable for her articles at the Daily Mirror and for her role as editor of Smash Hits magazine...
(UK) as Red Carpet Announcer
- Larry King
Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....
(US)/Jonathan RossJonathan Ross may refer to:* Jonathan Ross , English television and radio personality* Jonathan Ross , United States Senator, Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court* Jonathon Ross , former Australian rules footballer...
(UK) as Doris the Ugly Stepsister
- Aron Warner
Aron J. Warner is an actor and producer. He won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature as a producer of the animated blockbuster Shrek, in which he also voices Big Bad Wolf.- Life and career :...
as Big Bad Wolf
- Cody Cameron
Cody Cameron is an American voice actor, writer, animator, director, artist, and screenwriter, best known for voicing Pinocchio, the Three Little Pigs, and an Ogre Baby in the Shrek series.-Career:...
as Pinocchio; The Three Little Pigs
- Christopher Knights
Christopher Knights is an English voice actor, editor and camera operator best known for providing the voice of Private the Penguin in Madagascar , also, he worked on several DreamWorks films Shrek, Shrek 2, Shrek the Third and Shrek 4-D...
and Simon J Smith as Three Blind Mice
- Conrad Vernon
Conrad Vernon IV is an American director, writer, and voice actor, best known for his work on the DreamWorks animated films Shrek 2 and Monsters vs...
as Gingerbread Man; Muffin Man; Mongo; CedricCedric is a male given name invented by Walter Scott in the 1819 novel Ivanhoe, possibly misread for Cerdic, the name of a Saxon king, anglicized from Welsh caredig .Notable people with the name include:-People:...
; Announcer
- Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
as Captain HookCaptain James Hook is the main antagonist of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations. The character is a villainous pirate captain of the Jolly Roger brig, and lord of the pirate village/harbour in Neverland, where he is widely feared. Most...
- Chris Miller
Chris Miller is an American animator, director, screenwriter, storyboard artist, and voice actor. He studied animation at the California Institute of Arts, and joined Dreamworks SKG in 1998 as a storyboard artist for the studio's first animated comedy, Antz...
as Magic Mirror
- Mark Moseley
Mark Moseley is an American actor, stand-up comedian, and a writer-sketch performer for radio. Even though he has appeared in a variety of films, TV shows, and video games, he is probably best known as a sound-double for Eddie Murphy.-Career:...
as Dresser
- Kelly Cooney as Fast Food Clerk
- Kelly Asbury
Kelly Adam Asbury is an American director, writer, voice actor, author and illustrator.He attended Lamar University for two years before, in 1980, transferring to California Institute of the Arts, where he studied animation and filmmaking...
as Page; Elf; Nobleman; Nobleman's son
- Andrew Adamson
Andrew Ralph Adamson, MNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer and screenwriter based mainly in Los Angeles, where he made the blockbuster animation films, Shrek and Shrek 2 for which he received an Academy Award nomination. He was director, executive producer, and scriptwriter for C. S....
as Captain of the Guard
Special guest stars
- Richard Fairbrass
Richard Peter John Fairbrass is an English singer and television presenter.-Biography:Fairbrass was born on September 22, 1953 in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, in England, and raised in East Grinstead, West Sussex. He is the lead vocalist of the band Right Said Fred which he formed with his...
as himself (in the extended DVD version only)
- Joan Rivers
Joan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries...
' cameo marked the first time that a real person had been represented on screen by the Shrek animation team. Her part (though retaining her visual representation) was redubbed by presenter Kate ThorntonKate Thornton is an English journalist and television presenter. Early in her career, she was notable for her articles at the Daily Mirror and for her role as editor of Smash Hits magazine...
for the United Kingdom release, despite Rivers and her image being equally as well-known there.
- On the DVD Special Features, Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol...
appears as himself on Far Far Away Idol, a parody of American IdolAmerican Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
. (see Home Media)
Production
DreamworksDreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
began making the film in 2001, after the release of the first
Shrek film. Dreamworks made sure there was something new to see in
Shrek 2 by putting more human characters in the film than there were in its predecessor and improving their appearance. There were a few systems that dealt with hair and fur to improve its appearance and movement. Dreamworks worked on effects, rain systems, and moving clouds to make a dramatic scene where clouds roll in.
To get the look of the film, Dreamworks imagined what it would look like by painting, sketching and drawing. Character designer Tom Hester played a key look in defining the look by utilizing research, a fertile imagination, and clay to craft the film's characters. Tom did several versions of the characters. For example, he had 11 different designs of King Harold, going from rather heavy, to rather skinny.
Music
Counting CrowsCounting Crows is an American rock band originating from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1991, the group gained popularity following the release of its debut album in 1993, August and Everything After, which featured the hit single "Mr. Jones"...
came at Dreamworks Studio to play a song for the film called
Accidentally In Love"Accidentally in Love" is a Pop song performed by Counting Crows. It was featured in the Shrek 2 movie soundtrack and released in 2004. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song. This song is included in the music game Lego Rock Band....
. Singer and Songwriter Adams Duritz said that the song "fits into the movie because it's the story of people who fall in love who weren't supposed to fall in love. The score of the film was composed by Harry Gregson Williams which was performed at a high school. The score had to be operated on different levels which harry said as "Fun". His score came out as an Eels song into a very romantic scene with Shrek and Fiona, or a funny scene with donkey.
Release
In April 2004, the film was selected for competition at the
2004 Cannes Film FestivalThe 2004 Cannes Film Festival started on May 12 and ran until May 23. The Palme d'Or went to the American film Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore.-Jury:* Quentin Tarantino, President * Emmanuelle Béart * Edwidge Danticat * Tilda Swinton...
.
Shrek 2 was originally going to release in June 2004. The film then planned to release on May 21, 2004. Though,
Shrek 2 released on May 19, 2004 (two days before). A day before the film went to theaters, the first five minutes were shown on
NickelodeonNickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
's
U-Pick LiveU-Pick Live was a program that aired on Nickelodeon from October 14, 2002 to May 27, 2005 on weekday afternoons from Nickelodeon Headquarters in New York City's Times Square. Starting at 5:00 p.m. EST to 7:00 p.m. EST. The show allowed viewers to pick via internet voting the Nickelodeon shows,...
.
It was the first film with over 4,000 theaters in overall count; over 3,700 theaters was its count for an opening day.
Spider-Man 2Spider-Man 2 is a 2004 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi, written by Alvin Sargent and developed by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Michael Chabon. It is the second film in the Spider-Man film franchise based on the fictional Marvel Comics character Spider-Man...
was the first film with over 4,000 theaters for an opening day and second for overall counts. When the film was released on DVD on November 5, 2004, it was the second
Shrek film to be presented in its original ratio of
1.85:116:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...
on the Region 1
anamorphic widescreenAnamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
DVD.
Home media
This film has been released on
VHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on November 2004 and on
Game Boy Advance VideoGame Boy Advance Video is a format for putting video onto Game Boy Advance cartridges. The video is played using the game system's screen and sound hardware. These video cartridges are from Majesco Sales, but the Pokémon video cartridges were published by Nintendo. The video cartridges are colored...
on November 2005. A 3D-converted version of the film has been released on
Blu-ray DiscBlu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
on December 1, 2010, along with the other three films of the series.
Far Far Away Idol
Far Far Away Idol is an extra in the DVD release based on
American IdolAmerican Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
and guest starring
Simon CowellSimon Phillip Cowell is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol...
. Taking place right after
Shrek 2 ends, the plot was that characters from
Shrek would sing and dance popular songs at the time, and at the end the viewer gets to pick the winner. However, if any character outside of Shrek (along with Princess Fiona), Donkey and Puss were selected, Cowell would refuse to accept the winner and proclaim himself the victor, leaping onto a table and performing his "own" rendition of "
My Way"My Way" is a song popularized by Frank Sinatra. Its lyrics were written by Paul Anka and set to music based on the French song "Comme d'habitude" composed in 1967 by Claude François and Jacques Revaux, with lyrics by Claude François and Gilles Thibault. Anka's English lyrics are unrelated to the...
". This segment was also seen on the
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
airings of the film, between the post-credits scene and the closing credits after. The winner on this airing is Simon Cowell, since there was no way the viewer could interactively pick the winner.
Box office
The film opened at #1 with a Friday-to-Sunday total of $108,037,878, and a total of $128,983,060 since its Wednesday launch, from a then-record 4,163 theaters, for an average of $25,952 per theater over the weekend. At the time
Shrek 2's Friday-to-Sunday total was the second-highest opening weekend trailing only
Spider-Man's $114,844,116. In addition, Saturday alone managed to obtain $44,797,042, making it the highest single day gross at the time, beating
Spider-Man's first Saturday gross of $43,622,264. It also ranked #1 in its second weekend, grossing $95,578,365 over the 4-day Memorial Day weekend, narrowly beating out the $85,807,341 4-day tally of new opener
The Day After TomorrowThe Day After Tomorrow is a 2004 American science-fiction disaster film that depicts the catastrophic effects of global warming in a series of extreme weather events that usher in global cooling which leads to a new ice age. The film did well at the box office, grossing $542,771,772 internationally...
. The film spent a total of 10 weeks in the weekly top 10, and stayed in theaters for 149 days (roughly 21 weeks), closing on November 25, 2004. It grossed $441,226,247 domestically (
USThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
), and $478,612,511 in foreign markets, making a total of
$The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
919.8 million worldwide making it the highest-grossing film of
2004The year 2004 in film involved some significant events. Major releases of sequels took place. It included blockbuster films like Shrek 2, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, The Passion of the Christ, Meet the Fockers, Blade: Trinity, Spider-Man 2, Alien vs. Predator, Kill Bill Vol...
, and the highest-grossing film of the
Shrek franchise. This also puts the film at fifth on the all-time domestic box-office list and
19th on the worldwide box-office list. The movie also took away the highest worldwide gross made by an animated feature which before held by
Finding NemoFinding Nemo is a 2003 American comi-drama animated film written by Andrew Stanton, directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich and produced by Pixar. It tells the story of the overly protective clownfish Marlin who, along with a regal tang called Dory , searches for his abducted son Nemo...
, although the latter still had a higher overseas-only gross. With
DVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
sales and
Shrek 2 merchandise are estimated to total almost $800 million, the film (which was produced with a budget of $150 million) is
DreamWorksDreamWorks Pictures, also known as DreamWorks, LLC, DreamWorks SKG, DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC, DreamWorks Studios or DW Studios, LLC, is an American film studio which develops, produces, and distributes films, video games and television programming...
' most profitable film to date.
In August 2010 Disney and
PixarPixar Animation Studios, pronounced , is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide...
's
Toy Story 3Toy Story 3 is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated comedy-adventure film, and the third installment in the Toy Story series. It was produced by Pixar and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed by Lee Unkrich. The film was released worldwide from June through October in Disney Digital...
surpassed
Shrek 2 to become the highest-grossing animated film worldwide ($1.063 billion), but
Shrek 2 still holds the record for the highest-grossing animated film at the American and Canadian box office as well as the highest-grossing animated PG-rated film at this box office. In October 2011, Disney's 3-D re-release of
The Lion KingThe Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...
, surpassed
Shrek 2 to become the second highest animated film of all time.
Critical response
The film was well received by a number of critics, many rating it as good as its predecessor, and some rated it even better. Based on reviews collected from 211 critics by the film review aggregator
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, 89% gave
Shrek 2 a positive review. On
MetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, the film has a weighted average rating of 75 out of 100 based on 40 professional reviews published in newspapers, magazines and in highly regarded Internet sites, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
gave it three out of four stars saying it's "bright, lively, and entertaining."
Awards and nominations
Shrek 2 won five
People's Choice AwardsThe People's Choice Awards is an American awards show recognizing the people and the work of popular culture. The show has been held annually since 1975 and is voted on by the general public. The People's Choice Awards air on CBS and are produced by Procter & Gamble and Survivor magnate Mark Burnett...
:
Favorite Animated Movie,
Favorite Animated Movie Star for "Donkey" (
Eddie MurphyEdward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....
),
Favorite Movie Comedy, and
Favorite Movie Villain for "Fairy Godmother" (
Jennifer SaundersJennifer Jane Saunders is an English comedienne, screenwriter, singer and actress. She has won two BAFTAs, an International Emmy Award, a British Comedy Award, a Rose d'Or Light Entertainment Festival Award, two Writers' Guild of Great Britain Awards, and a Peoples Choice Award.She first came into...
), and
Favorite Sequel. It also won two
Teen Choice AwardsThe Teen Choice Awards, are an annual awards show that air on the Fox cable channel, that honor the year's biggest biggest achievements in music, movies, sports, television, fashion and more, voted by teen viewers aged 14 through 17. Winners receive an authentic full size surfboard designed with...
:
Choice Movie: Animated/Computer Generated and
Choice Award Choice Movie - Comedy. The film was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Animated FeatureThe Academy Award for Best Animated Feature is one of the annual awards given by the Los Angeles-based professional organization, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
, but lost to
The IncrediblesThe Incredibles is a 2004 American computer-animated action-comedy superhero film about a family of superheroes who are forced to hide their powers. It was written and directed by Brad Bird, a former director and executive consultant of The Simpsons, and was produced by Pixar and distributed by...
. One of the film's songs, "
Accidentally in Love"Accidentally in Love" is a Pop song performed by Counting Crows. It was featured in the Shrek 2 movie soundtrack and released in 2004. The song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song. This song is included in the music game Lego Rock Band....
" received nominations for the
Academy Award for Best Original SongThe Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences . It is presented to the songwriters who have composed the best original song written specifically for a film...
,
Golden Globe Award for Best Original SongGolden Globe Award for Best Original Song was awarded for the first time in 1962 and has been awarded annually since 1965 by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.-1960s:...
, and the
Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual MediaThe Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media has been awarded since 1988 and is awarded to songs written for films, television, video games or other visual media...
.
The
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
nominated
Shrek 2 for its Top 10 Animated Films list.
Spin-off
A spin-off of the film,
Puss in BootsPuss in Boots is a 2011 computer-animated adventure Western film produced by DreamWorks Animation, directed by Chris Miller , executive produced by Guillermo del Toro, and written by Brian Lynch, with screenplay by Tom Wheeler. It stars Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob...
, was released on October 28, 2011, and focuses on the character of
Puss in BootsPuss in Boots is a fictional cat and a supporting character in the Shrek film series, as well as the primary protagonist of the 2011 spin-off prequel Puss in Boots. He is voiced in English and both Spanish versions by Antonio Banderas...
, who was introduced in this film.
Video games
- Shrek 2
Shrek 2 is a 2004 cross-platform video game created by Luxoflux and Original PC version of Shrek 2 created by KnowWonder and published by Activision in 2004...
(2004)
- Shrek Super Slam
Shrek SuperSlam is a melee-form fighting game featuring characters from the Shrek series of films.-Overview:The game features three multiplayer modes: "King of the Hill", "Melee", and "Slammageddon"....
(2005)
- Shrek Smash n' Crash Racing
Shrek Smash n' Crash Racing is a racing game released in November 2006. The game is based on the Shrek movie series. Players have the option of playing one of twelve Shrek characters, using racing and combat skills to defeat other racers. It was released for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS,...
(2006)
See also