The Lessons of Shrek
My parents saw Shrek (the first one from 2001) recently and were telling me how much they loved it. I said that I, too, thought it was a great film, but got totally hung up on what I saw as a major mixed message it conveys. That being namely that it’s okay to be different, unless you’re short. I figured I couldn’t be the only one to bothered by this, and sure enough there’s a commentary on shortsupport.org back from when the movie was released about this very issue: Shrek (2001).
Interestingly, I was just digging into this further and this article which references a column by a University of South Florida phychology professor “who believes [Shrek] reinforces stereotypes about overweight people”. His point is that when Princess Fiona becomes “ugly” she also becomes fat. And further that it is only Shrek, himself overweight, who can find her beautiful in her new form. There’s a number of interesting comments if you follow the link to the article about the article.
Anyway, it’s certainly an onion of a movie (sorry), but I feel like some of the layers cloud an otherwise great moral tale. Then again, perhaps Donkey’s rendition awesome of Baby Got Back during the credits makes it all okay. :-)
