Rewatching: Shrek (2001)

A rewatch of the original "Shrek" - nearly twenty years after its debut.

Holy Donkey! (forgive the pun...)

It's been literally months since I last posted on my blog. Yeah, I know, I've frightfully neglected my little online corner. But amidst an all-new increase of Covid-19 cases here in Italy, the pressing need to finish paid copywriting projects that allow me to pay the bills, chronic fatigue, plus a (only partially successful) attempt to tackle Inktober, I've just been postponing my next post for what seemed an eternity. No excuses here - other than real life sometimes is a b*tch. (And when you suffer from chronic fatigue, it's a b*tch more often than not).

Due to the new Covid restrictions, however, I now have more free days since our working schedule has been reduced to half our current hours. Yesterday I had an ill spell that left me out of sorts pretty much all the day, but feeling somewhat better this evening, I decided to kill the time of this long weekend with some movie re-watching. I didn't have anything particular in mind, so I just randomly picked a title.

"Shrek". The original flick, from 2001.

Now, what to say about Shrek? Let me first get a bit into my original exposure to this movie. No, I didn't see "Shrek" when it came out in theaters, but I did read up vaguely about the plot. I knew the story in very loose terms. It just wasn't the kind of movie I was "desperate" to see, so I passed that. 

Flashfoward to some years later when our favorite pizza place started offering free VHS upon completion of a "fidelty card". Among the available titles, "Shrek" was the only one that seemed remotely interesting, so I chose that, sat down on the sofa with my pizza and Coke, and spent an enjoyable one-and-a-half hour in company of Shrek, Fiona and their quick-witted sidekick Donkey.

I must admit that my recollections about what I liked about the movie were vague, as I did not really rewatch it that often since (if at all). But I do remember being pleasantly surprised by how "Shrek" directors seemed to like breaking stereotypes and diverting expectations. The movie was a whimsical spin of the classical fairytale, it was fresh, and it was made for a good, fun watch.

So tonight - and nearly twenty years after its premiere - I sat down again to watch "Shrek", knowing I'd not be disappointed. And predictably, I wasn't. But "Shrek" wasn't just a nice trip back to the past, to a more carefree time and age. It pulled far less nostalgia strings than it reasonated better with me - as an adult.

I doubt there is anyone out here who hasn't seen "Shrek" at least once - but in case you haven't, here is a quick primer. The story takes place in a fictional forest from the world of fairytales, where the ogre Shrek lives an introvert, yet satisfactory existence. Shrek knows himself, knows where his place in (or rather, out of) society lays, and has reached a level of comfort just being true to his nature - or so he thinks. He knows he's no blood-thirsty, dumb, brutish cookie-cutter ogre stereotype; however he has no illusions about how people see him as and has decided he just doesn't give a whit about anyone's opinion.

His orderly life is shattered when a wild variety of fairytale characters are evicted from their dwellings and forced to expatriate into his swamp. To get rid of the cumbersome intruders, Shrek sets out to find the responsible beyond their improptu exodus; Lord Farquaad, the tiny ruler of the innaturally pristine town of Duloc. His comedic sidekick through the journey to Farquaad's castle is a talking Donkey who has clung to Shrek ever since he saved his hide - literally - from a bunch of armed knights. But although his reception in Duloc is the most typical he can imagine - with guards facing him off in a "wild fray" that's mostly played for laughs - Shrek has no idea what he's really walking into.
 

As it turns out, Farquaad offers to dispose of the intruders in his swamp, if only Shrek will hail to the assault of a tower in which princess Fiona is held captive by a dragon. Farquaad intends to marry the princess, thus gaining legitimate Kingship over Duloc and the entire surrounding reign. So Shrek, wanting only to get his home back, sets out to find and rescue princess Fiona, never guessing how much his life's going to change around. Because Fiona is not your everyday damsel-in-distress; she has certain expectations about what her rescue should be like, she's strong-willed, she's sassy, and she's badass. Shrek can't help feeling this isn't what he thought a princess was like. Just as he isn't what Fiona thought a knight - or an ogre - was like.

On the overall, this seems to be "Shrek"'s main theme - subverting expectations. Nothing in this movie is what it seems at face value, and I feel even twenty years after its original release, that's a precious lesson that "Shrek" has to teach. I also found myself a lot more invested in Fiona's dilemma than I was when I first watched the movie, because just like her, I know nowadays what it's like to struggle with your image (including your body image), your sense of self-worth, and the perception that others harbor in your regards.

I spoke of sense of worth and struggles with one's self-image but don't get me wrong. The thing I really, thoroughly enjoyed about "Shrek" is that this subject is never tackled in a desponent or depressing manner. Rather, we are given an insight into Fiona and Shrek's growing frustration, because they both know deep inside that there's more to them than meets the eyes, but that in so long as the status quo is preserved, everyone's going to categorize them, write them off, and lump them in a role that's been written for then; brutish monster the ogre, frail damsel the princess. But neither Fiona or Shrek are defined by what they are, and they don't want to be defined by what they are, either. The lesson of assessing who you want to live as is a powerful one, and the first "Shrek" movie handled it in a surprisingly mature way without coming off as either too heavy or too lackadaisical. 

 

On a technical level, the plot works well and manages to be both witty, charming and original. Even the musical numbers are used very skillfully as part of a montage that still "shows, not tell". And I think this is another card up "Shrek"'s sleeve; the pace is perfect, never too fast, never slow and sluggish. I've seen movies and TV series that literally trudged on to get from one pivotal event to the next. That isn't quite the case with "Shrek". 

The comedy is perhaps more down to earth and less slapstick than in your average Disney flick - but it doesn't detract from the story. Even the occasional potty humor is there with reason, and never get cringe-worthy or feel out of place.

And what to say of the graphic? While CGI has undoubtedly come a long way, it feels safe to say that "Shrek" has aged well for a movie shot in the early 2000's. The visuals are amazing, and the special effects still do their work. I've also found it interesting how Donkey, despite being surely more "cartoony" in his design than the exasperate realism Disney was going for in the most recent CGI remakes (like "Jungle Book" or "The Lion King") is still every bit as expressive as his more human-looking (or ogre-looking) counteparts on screen. See, Disney - it's not bad to be cartoony if it means your character has expressions. Audience can "aaahhhh" and "oooohhh" all you want at how realistic Simba's fur looks but what's the point if all that work is wasted in a character that has far less visible emotion than its animated predecessor, and _far_ less than a real lion cub? (But we'll get to that in another post, I think).

So to wrap up my opinion, I think "Shrek" holds it age amazingly well; it's a fun movie, it has a good pace, cool graphics, and an engaging cast of characters. So for me, the rank is still a solid 9/10. It's not my all-time animated favorite (that would be "WALL-E", in case you're wondering) - but decidedly a good film.

"Luca", Pixar's new movie out in 2021

Pixar's new release "Luca", scheduled for 2021, will be set in the Italian riviera

An important #TW before you read on: this post deals with dark topics like death, family trauma, survivor pain, grief, and mourning. Proceed at your risk.

Wooohooo! It's been a long while since  I was so hyped for a movie, but Pixar did it again. As of yesterday, it's official; the new 2021 Pixar release will be set in Italy. And not just any corner of Italy (which would already be cool in itself). Because if rumors have it - and it seems director Enrico Casarosa confirmed it - then the movie's going to be set in my own region, on the Ligurian seaside riviera.

Enrico Casarosa himself hails from my hometown of Genoa, so I'm positively looking forward to a movie (and not just any movie either!) set in places I'm familiar with. There's also some slight nostalgia factor - the last time Pixar featured anything remotely italian was in "Cars 2" (a movie I thoroughly enjoyed, despite the overall negative reactions it got online), and when "Cars 2" came out my mother was still alive, and we watched it together and were floored by all the awesome Porto Corsa shots, as well as by the world-wide homages (Japan, UK) featured in the movie. Now with "Luca" I'll be on my own, because my family died out since then - but it's just a bittersweet note on an otherwise glorious news. I really, really hope I can get some commissions in 2021 and put together enough money for the ticket, because this is a movie I'd very much like to see on its release!

"Luca", according to the first previews, is the story of an enchanted Italian summer. The protagonist (much like Casarosa and myself) is a young kid who has been raised among the beautiful Ligurian landscapes and who just wants to enjoy a carefree summer with his newly found best friend. Problem - this friend has a secret affinity with the sea that goes much farther than skin-deep, and when Luca finds out, it may change the course of his summer for good. Will their friendship sink through or  resist the might of the abyss and somehow manage to stay afloat? (I'm having way, way too much fun with the water puns here!)

"Luca" won me over for a thousand of reasons - and then some. It's set in my region, which I love deeply, and one of its main characters hails from the deep sea, which also reasonates with me so well (water is my favorite element and the sea holds a special place in my heart, which is why I so enjoyed the "Finding Nemo" franchise). But "Luca" is also special in that it marks my "return" to my original love for Pixar; finally there IS a new Pixar movie I'm actually looking foward to... after a series of titles I don't really plan to watch anytime,

Now let me explain this last bit. As of recent, Pixar's latest releases have been too personal and hit too close to home for me to want to watch them. 

It all started out with "Coco" which, centering around death and the remembrance of loved ones, hit more than a few nerves. Because let's consider: at the age of 7 I lost my father, and then some ten years later, I lost my grandmother, and in the last years I've lost my aunt, my mother and both my dogs, in addition to any other pet I've had in my life. As a result you can say I'm easily triggered when it comes to death - and especially when it comes to death of a family member. I can watch a murder mystery or a movie with one or two casualties just as well as anyone. But a movie centering about the remembrance of lost family and the love that unites... er, no, I possibly couldn't have watched "Coco" without breaking into tears so _bad_ I'd need a breathing mask and oxygen supply (way before Covid was a thing). Even just listening to the main song at the Oscar ceremony (which I had to cover for a copywriting commission) was heart-wrenching. So I sat "Coco" out, even though my then-friends kept gushing about how good it was.

"Incredibles 2" and "Toy Story 4" just did very little to engage me on terms of plot and my personal involvement. I loved "The Incredibles", and the first "Toy Story" trilogy is a masterpiece, but I didn't feel the burning need for a sequel of either (I'd have much rather welcome a sequel of "A Bug's Life", which is badly underrated, or "Brave" which left a bit too many loose ends for a one-shot). Nothing personal - just not my cup of tea. Plus I was not very happy at the thought of Woody and Bo Beep possibly breaking out (something that was suggested may happen, though the movie eventually plays out differently - I've read the synopsis) at a time when all my favorite ships in movies and RP seem to sink through (I'm particularly keen on the RP one, since I was so invested with it, and it was basically crushed right under my eyes and left my character a bereft depressed... but I'll get to this some other time, promise).

And then there's "Onward" which is just as I write premiering in Italian theaters after lockdown put even movie programming on hold. "Onward" isn't even a film I'm not planning to see; it's a concept I found deeply insulting and possibly the one and only Pixar film I dislike based on that alone. 

As someone who's lost family over and over, the idea that it could be attempted to "bring the dead back" with magic is just where I draw the line. For me, in my experience, these kind of movies (much like "Fluke" and "Jack Frost") are disrespectful of the pain survivors feel when they lose a parent they're close to. Because believe me; there's been many, many times I went to sleep crying until I couldn't breath, praying with all my strength (I was brought up a Catholic, even though I had a falling out with religion in recent years) that "magically" a miracle would happen overnight and time would be rewind with me carrying no memory of it, just to go back to when my loved ones were with me. And wow, it didn't happen, because this is real life, but movies don't reflect real life so I'm supposed to watch a story where some supernatural occurrence manages (or even just attempts) to bring a dead parent back to life even if just for a last goodbye and not feel insulted, and hate the characters and the director for basically tearing my heart open and pouring salt on it? I hate these movies, and I hate "Onward", and I don't plan to see it. Period.

Someone who later turned out to be a bully criticized me last year for being a "snowflake" when I expressed my views on the matter when "Onward" was first announced. But I don't give a damn if I'm a "snowflake" - this kind of film hits all the wrong buttons for me as a viewer, so I prefer to tell myself it does not exist and skip watching for good.

And then there's the next Pixar which should come out, that's called "Soul". I swear, I groaned and rolled my eyes upon first reading the synopsis on Wikipedia. A guy who has a near-fatal accident and his soul separates from his body so "it" must find its way back before the body dies? Yeah, as someone who spent a whole night outside ICU waiting for news on my comatose mother, just to be told the next morning that her heart hadn't made it through - I'm definitely not going anywhere near the theater when this one's out even if I had the money (which is unlikely).

I don't know what's with Pixar and their "spree" of  movies about life, death, soul, afterlife, spirituality, etc - but it's definitely a trend that was keeping me off like nothing. And for someone who never missed a Pixar movie when it came out, having to sit out three movies in a row (without counting the two sequels, which I skipped not out of personal involvement but because I didn't care so much about another movie in their franchise - I didn't watch Cars 3 either, but I enjoyed Monsters University mightily, so it's just a matter of personal preferences) was starting to feel a bit like... Pixar and I may have been drifting apart. Which is sad, because I've had so many people "drift apart" from me in the last year (after a particularly nasty bullying episode when most the people in our "common friends" group gave me the cold shoulder just because I asked respect for my triggers), and I totally wasn't looking foward to "lose" my love for Pixar which gifted me so much over the years.

Fortunately, it seems the tide's going to turn (yay for water puns) and "Luca" promises to have me swept over by incantation, beautiful marine landscapes, italian traditions, and a rich and complex storytelling. I'm positively looking foward to this film and can't wait for its release! :D

And what about you? Are you thrilled about Pixar's upcoming release? What do you expect from "Luca"?

🌹 Cri

Pandora's box move out, there's a new blog in town!

Hello, it's a-Me!

Thoughts of the day, book and movies reviews, recipes, musings, art, short stories, and much more

Ciao! And welcome to my little online corner which, after a long while, I've finally decided to get off the dusty recesses of my head (not a funny place to be in, let me tell ya) and into the vast Internet wildness.

Another blog, yeah. And probably far less interesting than thousand other blogs out there, but is that going to stop me? Heck no!

So let me tell you a bit about myself. I'm a 33-odd Italian nerd with a load of issues going from autism to several handicaps to precarious job. I've been fighting with depression strenuously these last few years but I think I've made a few improvements, especially ever since I removed some highly toxic people from my life. 

All my existence, I've lived to be "average". I'm not the best at... well, really anything. And even the few things I'm good at aren't super good, just average. But it's enough for me to this time and day that I do what I do the best way I can (the world, especially working world, is often way less cavalier about this - but that's neither there nor here). 

What are the things I like? Well, as far as hobbies go, I like reading, writing, and drawing. 

As an artist I went fully digital way into the 2000s and I've got to say it's the right medium for me. Traditional art is simply out of my league. I'm self taught, because although we had art lessons at school they never really taught as anything except some very faint elements of "draw from real life". So I "broke my teeth" off comic books, especially the Disney "new wave" (PK, W.I.T.C.H, Monster Allergy, Kylion, X-Mickey, etc), ElfQuest, Diabolik and Tex Willer just to name a few of the titles that influenced me; I learned from the artists I loved, and from observing their work alongside that of Western and Eastern animators. Now I've tackled the momentous and crazy but awesome project of creating, scripting and drawing my own graphic novel which is probably going to take a lifetime but I'm so excited about it I can't even! I'll tell you a bit more about it in some future post!

I've read a lots of books over my life, but nowadays read much less because books are expensive and I'm always pretty broke. Libraries are a thing, yes, but I'd have to go there on weekends since they have the same time schedule as my office during the rest of the week... and during weekends, often, I'm too worn out emotionally, socially and physically to do anything much. (Not to mention my reading time is very limited, so I wouldn't be able to finish a book before I have to return it, and that'd piss me off).

It's the same reason why it's very doubtful that you'll find reviews of "new" movies on here... I can't go to theater because it's expensive, and I can't buy DVDs because they are expensive. All my old DVDs were lost when I was evicted into 2019, so I've got to rely on Youtube and Wikipedia and my memories - and tv, when it airs something decent at a decent hour. But hey - if youtubers like the Nostalgia Critic could make a business of reviewing old blockbusters, I don't think I have to apologize to anyone if I speak of old flicks on my blog either.

I love writing too and I've been using it as my means to survive in the years I spent without a job (I'm a phone operator now, but it's a story I don't want to get into for now). I'm proficient as a copywriter with good SEO knowledges, both in Italian and English. On a side note, I love love love love writing fiction! I've always enjoyed fiction, ever since I was a kid. Once I dreamed to write my own book and I've even made several attempts (as well as self-published a few works) - but over the years I grew disillusioned with it because all my written works hardly ever seemed to get any recognition. My "good enough" just wasn't "good enough", and I gave up dreams of becoming a published (or self-published) author. It's just not worth all the heartache. But now I have my own blog, which means from time to time I may post a short story or two... just for the fun of it, like in my fanfiction-writing days. 

All this you're going to find on my blog - but just like with the iceberg, there's more! I want to talk of literally everything that crosses my mind so there might be posts about traditions, or sayings, or recipes that I've been reminded by something I passed by on the way to work. Sometimes, not always, there'll be rants on topics from the news, like Covid-19. I don't dabble willingly in politics, so you shouldn't find much mention of that, if at all. 

And there will be rants about the things that I'm passionate about, namely why bullying must go down without mercy and why it's important to support to mentally ill or depressed people. 

There'll also be rants about some unpleasant people (the "toxic" ones I mentioned above) whom I've dealt with in the past; their actions have caused me a great lot of anger and I still mull about several of the things they did and said to me. I know the tendency online is to "think positive", "forgive and move on", "be wholesome" (a word they made me hate passionately, together with "healthy", because they totally warped it to excuse their shitty behavior) - well I'm not going to forgive them, not even with my dying breath, and I don't think it hinders my "moving on" at all. Yes I've moved on, I've built a better life for myself surrounded with people who really matter and make a difference, but I still remember the wrong that was done to me and I want to warn off others who may be in the same (or similar) situation. Clinging to resentment can be a form of healing too, because then you know you'll never let those people (or anyone else) treat you the same way.

Oh, nearly forgot -- among the things I love there's also animals (except spiders. I'm terrified of spiders!) and food so expect to find pictures and post about these subjects too. Not always recipes, I'm not that good a cook X'D But funny stuff like my top five ice cream flavors or my favorite kind of sushi (or pizza!), and so on.

And that's about it :) I don't know if I've got you curious enough to stick with my little blog but if I have, then by all means keep following!

Alla prossima!

 🌹Cri