Shrek (franchise)

The Shrek franchise from DreamWorks Animation, based on William Steig's picture book Shrek!, consists of four computer-animated films including: Shrek (2001), Shrek 2 (2004), Shrek the Third (2007), and Shrek Forever After (2010), with a fifth film currently in the works. A short 4-D film, Shrek 4-D, which originally was a theme park ride, was released in 2003.

Two television specials, the Christmas television special Shrek the Halls (2007) and the Halloween television special Scared Shrekless (2010), have also been produced. A spin-off film titled Puss in Boots was released in October 2011, and a 2008 Broadway musical adaption was produced for two years.

The series primarily focuses on Shrek, a reclusive and grouchy yet kindhearted ogre, who becomes a respected hero with an ever growing collection of friends and family in a fairy tale world in spite of himself.

In May 2010, The New York Times called the principal Shrek characters "brilliantly realized" and said "nearly a decade after the first Shrek film they remain as vital and engaging fusions of image, personality and voice as any characters in the history of animation." The series was a financial success, becoming the 16th highest-grossing franchise of all time and the second highest-grossing animated franchise.

Shrek (2001)
Shrek, a solitary ogre, finds a surprise when fairy tale creatures are sent to live in his swamp by Lord Farquaad. He befriends a talking donkey whose name is also Donkey, and they set off to meet with Farquaad. The latter needs Princess Fiona to marry him so he will become the king of Duloc. When Shrek and Donkey visit him, they are forced to rescue her from an enormous fire-breathing dragon. The Dragon turns out to be female, and she falls in love with Donkey.

Donkey, Shrek and Fiona escape, and Dragon chases them. Once Shrek and Donkey rescue Fiona, they take her back to Lord Farquaad. Along the way, Shrek begins to fall in love with Fiona. Donkey finds out from Fiona that she is cursed and turns into an ogress at night. The only way the curse can be broken is by true love's first kiss. Fiona and Farquaad have a marriage ceremony, but they are interrupted by Shrek, who tells Fiona he loves her.

Donkey and Dragon enter, and Dragon eats Farquaad. Shrek and Fiona kiss, and Fiona turns into an ogress permanently. Shrek gets his swamp back, and the two marry there. After a karaoke party the newlyweds set off on their honeymoon.

Shrek 2 (2004)
The second film opens with Prince Charming on a quest to rescue Princess Fiona from the Dragon. When he gets there, he finds the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs in Fiona's bed. He asks the wolf where Fiona is and the wolf tells him that she is on her honeymoon with Shrek. Once Shrek and Fiona return from their honeymoon, they find Donkey in the swamp who tells them he and Dragon are going through a rough patch. They then get invited to the land of Far Far Away by Fiona's parents and who want to bless their marriage.

When they arrive, Shrek and Fiona are not what they expected. The Fairy Godmother and her son, Prince Charming, are trying to break up Shrek's marriage by making Fiona fall in love with Prince Charming. However it does not work and Shrek and Fiona stay together. Shrek and Donkey get a new sidekick called Puss in Boots. They have a lengthy quest to search the Fairy Godmother's cottage to get a love potion. Shrek and Donkey drink the potion and they become something quite unexpected. Shrek becomes human and Donkey becomes a horse. Since Shrek drank the potion, it also affected Fiona as she woke up to seeing her human form once again.

At the end of the film, King Harold turns back into a frog after being struck with the Fairy Godmother's magic.

Shrek the Third (2007)
Shrek and Fiona were reluctantly reigning over Far, Far Away during King Harold's prolonged illness. The King promises that if they can find Fiona's cousin Artie, he will make him the next in line, so both Shrek and Fiona would not have to run the country after his death. As Shrek, Donkey and Puss set off to find Artie, Fiona reveals she is pregnant.

Shrek is shocked as he believes he will not be a good father and will ruin his child's life. This is reinforced by his relationship with his own father, where "he tried to eat me." After finding Artie, Artie is frightened of being king, and they end up on an island where they meet Artie's former magic teacher, Merlin. Meanwhile, Charming plots to overthrow Artie and become king, but this is foiled by Shrek.

The film ends with Shrek and Fiona caring for their newborn ogre triplets.

Shrek Forever After (2010)
Shrek has become a domesticated family man, living happily with Princess Fiona and the triplets. Instead of scaring villagers away like he used to, a reluctant Shrek now agrees to autograph pitchforks. Longing for the days when he felt like a "real ogre", Shrek is tricked into signing a pact with the smooth talking deal maker Rumpelstiltskin. Shrek suddenly finds himself in a twisted, alternate version of Far, Far Away, where ogres are hunted, Rumplestiltskin is king, Puss is obese, Donkey does not know who Shrek is, and Shrek and Fiona have never met.

Shrek joins the Resistance and meets Fiona, but she doesn't love him. Rumpelstiltskin sets bounty on Shrek and uses the Pied Piper; as a reward for finding Shrek, he offers a "deal of a lifetime". Shrek turns himself in and instead of asking for his life back, frees the captured ogres. The ogres then ambush the palace, and Shrek and Fiona battle Dragon. As the twenty four hours are almost up and Shrek lies dying, Fiona kisses him and everything reverts to Shrek's universe.

At the end, instead of storming out of the triplets' birthday party, Shrek kisses Fiona and appreciates all that he has, truly living happily forever after.

Fifth film (TBA)
Following the success of Shrek 2 in May 2004, Jeffrey Katzenberg revealed that the Shrek story had been outlined into five films almost from the beginning. "Before the first one was finished we talked about what the whole story of Shrek is, and each of the chapters answers questions about the first movie and gives us an insight," said Katzenberg. "Shrek 3 and 4 are going to reveal other unanswered questions and, finally, in the last chapter, we will understand how Shrek came to be in that swamp, when we meet him in the first movie." After the release of Shrek the Third in 2007, Katzenberg announced that the fifth film would be released in 2013.

In May 2009, DreamWorks Animation (DWA) announced that the fourth film's title would be Shrek Forever After, indicating that it would be the last in the Shrek series. Later in 2009, that was confirmed by Bill Damaschke, head of creative production at DWA, with him saying: "All that was loved about Shrek in the first film is brought to the final film."

Josh Klausner, one of the writers of Shrek Forever After, explained in 2010 the script's evolution: "When I first came onto the project, it wasn't supposed to be the final chapter — there were originally going to be five Shrek movies. Then, about a year into the development, Jeffrey Katzenberg decided that the story that we'd come up with was the right way for Shrek's journey to end."

In February 2014, in an interview with Fox Business Network, Katzenberg hinted that a fifth film may still be made. "We like to let them have a little bit of time to rest," he said of the characters. "But I think you can be confident that we'll have another chapter in the Shrek series. We're not finished, and more importantly, neither is he."

On June 15, 2016, after NBCUniversal purchased DreamWorks Animation for $3.8 billion, NBCUniversal chief Steve Burke discussed plans to revive the franchise, as well as other DreamWorks films. In July 2016, The Hollywood Reporter cited sources saying that the fifth film was planned for a 2019 release. In September 2016, Eddie Murphy confirmed that the film was expected to be released in 2019 or 2020, and that the script had been completed. The story for the film was written by Michael McCullers, based on his own idea, with an intention to reinvent the series.

On November 6, 2018, it was reported by Variety that Chris Meledandri had been tasked to revive both the Shrek and Puss in Boots film series, with the original cast potentially returning.