The making of a monster

By ROBERT WARD

DreamWorks paid $US500,000 ($1.21 million) for the film rights to a 28-page children's picture book by William Steig called Shrek.

That's not much compared with the $US200 million that the computer-animated film has taken at the box office already. But all the studio got for that cool half-million was a character and an attitude, not a story.

The book is a simple tale of an ugly, smelly green ogre who is kicked out of his swamp home by his parents. He travels through a forest, meets a fortune-telling witch, a peasant whose lunch he steals, a dragon he fells with a fiery glare, and a talking donkey who takes him to an ugly princess' castle. They fall in love, get married and "lived horribly ever after."

The screenwriters locate the swamp in a land called Duloc ruled by a pint-sized despot called Lord Farquaad (voice by John Lithgow). To beautify Duloc, Farquaad exiles annoying fairytale characters such as Snow White and Cinderella to Shrek's swamp.

Shrek (Mike Myers) objects and Farquaad agrees to remove them if Shrek rescues beautiful Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from a castle guarded by a dragon so Farquaad can marry her. The film turns the donkey into a motormouth sidekick with Eddie Murphy's voice and ends with a twist that can't be revealed.

As an anti-fairytale, the book inspired the film's parodies of previous animated films, especially Disney's. Fiona sings a Snow White-like duet with a bluebird that ends with the bird exploding, and Farquaad's town is a dead ringer for Disneyland.

But the main debt the film owes the book is the image of Shrek as a ogre with trumpet-shaped ears who's ugly and foul-smelling and doesn't care.

Steig, author and illustrator of the book, is now 93. He started doing cartoons for The New Yorker in 1930 and turned to children's books when he was 61.

One of the producers of Shrek took the film to show Steig. Says New Zealand co-director Andrew Adamson: "He was very complimentary. He felt we'd stayed very true to his character. He showed it to his three grandchildren and asked them to rate it out of 10. We got a 10, 10 and 100."

Finding a voice for Shrek proved a much bigger expense. Comic actor Chris Farley recorded some sessions as Shrek until he died in 1997.

DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg chose Mike Myers, Farley's castmate on the TV show Saturday Night Live and the spin-off Wayne's World films, to replace him.

Myers recorded Shrek's lines, including some he invented, over a year or two, the animators created Shrek on computer using Myers' voice and expressions, and then Katzenberg screened an early cut of the movie.

The studio head says Myers then told him: "Well, the movie is truly a breakthrough film, and I am really proud to be a part of it. The only problem you have is, I'm no good. The least good thing in this movie is Shrek. He's just boring. The good news is I actually think I can invent something for you."

Katzenberg hadn't seen anything wrong with Myers' performance, but he gave the actor a chance to prove his point. Myers recorded Shrek with a Scottish accent, had some pictures cut against it and Katzenberg had to admit it was much better.

"I threw out $4 million worth of animation that had been done with his original voice."

Katzenberg has been producing animated films for 18 years, including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King at Disney, and says this was the first time an actor invented a new voice instead of using the one he or she was cast for.

It cost Myers, too. Voice recording sessions for animated films are usually three or four hours long and actors do six to eight sessions over two or three years. After the initial sessions with his own voice, Myers did 25 more.



Katzenberg's recent suit against Disney for a share of the profits of the films he produced while he was the Disney film chief has been cited as the reason for the digs at Disney in Shrek, but he claims there is no vendetta.

First, he says, you couldn't have fun with the conventions of Disney animated fairytales if they weren't so recognised and beloved all over the world, so "there's a bit of a homage."

Second, "I do not believe that we do anything that is mean-spirited. It's done for fun, as opposed to hurt.

"Does it get playful, does it get edgy with these things? Absolutely. Is it meant to insult somebody or put them down? Absolutely not."