Why does Donkey look like he’s auditioning to play a reindeer in Frozen 3?
Photo: DreamWorks Animation
“I’m making waffles?” More like “I’m making awful … decisions about the creative direction of Dreamworks’ flagship franchise.” Universal dropped the teaser trailer for Shrek 5, a five-quel (Fievel?) 16 years in the making, and it features a new style of animation that looks like Shrek & Friends have been sucked into the Super Mario Bros. Movie universe, which is fine, it’s just not Shrek. The original cast — Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz — are reprising their roles as Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona, so they sound the same but look like unlicensed versions of themselves made in that Disney-Pixar-knockoff style that AI videos favor, when what was so fun about the original is how genuinely strange and thoughtfully ugly it all looked compared to the Mouse House.
The art-style change didn’t have to ruin a good thing. The Puss in Boots movies deviate from Shrek’s art style to an even greater degree and look fabulous, with their own distinct identity. Shrek the Musical made some terrifying decisions in translating the look of Shrek to live-action, and yet it works. Still, there are some things in the trailer that do look good and creative: a train made of barrels, a grinning clockface in a storybook kingdom, cop wagons that use fairies as sirens. Ultimately, this is a movie for children, albeit one that has a joke in it about Gingy being “caked up” with gumdrop ass cheeks, and that’s who it’s designed for.
Animation jump scares aside, the trailer doesn’t give much away about the plot: Shrek and Fiona’s teen children — played by Zendaya, Skyler Gisondo, and Marcello Hernandez — end up going on an adventure to “Further, Further Away” with Donkey and end up in jail at some point. After a few delays, Shrek 5 will come out June 30, 2027, in time for Fourth of July weekend. It’s silly to be too much of a purist about Shrek, of all things, so I’ll just temper my shrekspectations.
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