FILM · 2001 · USA
Shrek
- Directed by
- Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson
- Runtime
- 90 min
- Studio
- Pacific Data Images, DreamWorks Animation, DreamWorks Pictures
184 archived facts 8 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
It ain't easy bein' green -- especially if you're a likable (albeit smelly) ogre named Shrek. On a mission to retrieve a gorgeous princess from the clutches of a fire-breathing dragon, Shrek teams up with an unlikely compatriot -- a wisecracking donkey.
Summary: TMDB
137 Interesting Facts About Shrek
- #001
The lead voice actors never met each other. Each recorded their parts separately, with a reader feeding them their lines. John Lithgow later admitted he enjoyed playing Lord Farquaad but was somewhat disappointed that he never worked directly with Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz or Eddie Murphy.
- #003
(At about 2 minutes) Smash Mouth's "All Star," heard in the opening title sequence, was only a placeholder for test screenings until a new song could be found. Test audiences loved it, however, and the producers kept it. Once they decided to keep "All Star," they also decided to let the band perform "I'm a Believer," the film's final song.
- #005
Eddie Murphy says it ranks among the best work of the Shrek series.
- #006
(At about 14 minutes) Mike Myers was in New York when the team realized the line "What are you doing in my swamp?!" had never been recorded. Producer Jeffrey Katzenberg then flew to New York and had Myers record the line in the back seat of a limousine.
- #007
After going to see DreamWorks' hit animated film, Neil Diamond heard a group of teenagers in the theater lobby giggling and singing "I'm a Believer." The 61-year-old singer-songwriter said in December 2002: "I couldn't resist. I went over and joined in, and we sang the song together."
- #013
Before the film was released, it was screened by DreamWorks' lawyers because of concerns that Disney would sue over the film's not-so-subtle satirical jabs at the company's films and theme parks.
- #014
Computer animation production on the project began on 31 October 1996 and took more than four and a half years to complete.
- #016
Shrek contains 36 unique locations, more than any other computer-animated film of its time.
- #017
The film's art director, Douglas Rogers, visited a magnolia plantation in Charleston, South Carolina, to research the look of Shrek's swamp. He ended up being chased off by an alligator.
- #019
The entire animation team of Antz (1998), DreamWorks' first animated film, was hired to work on Shrek.
- #020
(At about 1 hour 21 minutes) "I'm a Believer," which became one of the series' theme songs, was chosen specifically for its line "I thought love was only true in fairy tales."
- #021
The effects department took mud showers to study how to depict mud realistically in the film.
- #022
Although Donkey is a hoofed animal, his movements are based on those of dogs and rabbits.
- #023
Steven Spielberg was originally set to produce the film in 1991 while he was in charge of Amblin Entertainment. At that time the film was to be a hand-drawn animation, with Bill Murray as Shrek and Steve Martin as Donkey.
- #024
Contains a major spoiler — show
Mike Myers improvised many of his lines in the film, including the moment when he addresses the guests at Fiona and Farquaad's wedding.
- #025
In an interview, Eddie Murphy joked that Shrek and the character Donkey had become so popular that if he had died the year the film was released, newspapers would probably have used a picture of Donkey instead of Eddie Murphy.
- #026
The production of Shrek was so grueling that DreamWorks was reportedly said to use it as a form of punishment. Animators who made mistakes on The Prince of Egypt (1998) were reassigned to Shrek. This came to be known as "getting Shreked."
- #028
In 2007, Jeffrey Katzenberg said the film not only saved the company financially but also gave DreamWorks Animation an image that allowed it to make Madagascar (2005), Kung Fu Panda (2008) and How to Train Your Dragon (2010).
- #029
Robin Williams was supposed to appear in the film but refused to work with producer Jeffrey Katzenberg again. This was because, years earlier during the making of Aladdin (1992), Williams had had a bitter dispute with Katzenberg, who was president of Disney at the time the film was made.
- #031
Co-director Andrew Adamson often found himself in disagreement with Jeffrey Katzenberg over the film's adult jokes. Katzenberg felt some of the adult material was inappropriate for an animated film, while Adamson disagreed. Since many critics liked the film precisely because it was not aimed only at underage viewers, Adamson can be seen as having won the argument.
- #032
In June 2008 it ranked 8th on the American Film Institute's list of the top 10 films in the "Animation" genre; it was the only non-Disney or Pixar film on the list.
- #033
Storyboard artist Cody Cameron provided the voices of Pinocchio and the Three Little Pigs. In fact, many of the artists voiced the smaller characters they had drawn in the scenes.
- #034
Shrek became DreamWorks' mascot for the company's animated productions.
- #038
(At about 10 minutes) Shrek author William Steig also wrote a children's book titled "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble." In the book, a donkey has a magic pebble and, afraid of a lion, wishes to become a rock to protect himself. This is referenced in Shrek in Donkey's famous line "I like that boulder, that is a nice boulder."
- #039
Janeane Garofalo was originally set to voice Princess Fiona but was fired shortly after Chris Farley's death without explanation. To this day, Garofalo has no idea why she was let go.
- #040
DreamWorks began working on Shrek 2 (2004) immediately after the release of the first film.
- #041
At around 33 minutes, when Donkey sets off alone into the castle to look for stairs, he mutters, "I am the stair master." The same line was spoken by Eddie Murphy in The Nutty Professor (1996) after his character transforms into his second personality, Buddy Love.
- #043
At around 53 minutes, Cameron Diaz, who had trained in kung fu during the making of Charlie's Angels (2000), became very physical while recording the kung fu moves for Fiona's fight with Robin Hood and the Merry Men, at times even slipping into Cantonese.
- #045
Fiona's goal was to create the most photorealistic CGI depiction of a human. Before this, people rendered through CGI had a certain stiffness, and their facial features remained somewhat blank. To this end, the animation team enlisted one of Hollywood's leading beauty experts to explain how she applied makeup to stars.
- #047
At the beginning of the film, more than 1,000 fantasy characters invade Shrek's swamp.
- #048
Everything in Farquaad's castle was designed to be angular — with no curves or bends — to reinforce his evil nature.
- #049
Gingy the Gingerbread Man later became the mascot for Wal-Mart.
- #050
The "Fairytale" theme that opens the film (at about 1 minute in) was intended to become DreamWorks Animation's theme music.
- #052
After Mike Myers had completed his dialogue in his own voice and Shrek's animation was finished, Myers decided he wanted to give Shrek a Scottish accent. "When I saw the whole picture, I saw that I had to go deeper. And because Shrek is Scottish, I was able to tap into a certain energy." His mother, who was from Liverpool, often gave characters English dialects when she read him books like Babar or Curious George. "It was a happy memory of my childhood, and in Scottish I was able to connect to that." When Mike Myers begged to be allowed to redo Shrek's voice, Jeffrey Katzenberg and his partner Steven Spielberg agreed after hearing a demo, but the decision required the ogre to be re-animated from scratch. "That incident cost us about 5 million dollars," Katzenberg said. "But it's Mike's total creation, and honestly, it made the movie so much better."
- #053
There are numerous rumors that Lord Farquaad was based on former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. If the rumor is true, it may have been a deliberate attack by Jeffrey Katzenberg, his former partner who worked on this film.
- #054
At about the 31st minute, Shrek says to Donkey, "That'll do, Donkey, that'll do," a reference to the 1995 film Babe (1995), about a farmer and his sheep-herding pig. Shrek probably became the more popular film, and some mistakenly think the line originated with it.
- #057
Shrek's supervising animator Raman Hui stated that Fiona "wasn't based on any real person," that he made many different sketches for Princess Fiona, and that they made more than 100 sculptures of Fiona before the directors chose the final design.
- #058
At about 1 hour 19 minutes, the film's music editor provided the voice of the dragon that 'burps' Farquaad's crown.
- #059
Contains a major spoiler — show
Fiona's capture was storyboarded but never filmed. Instead, it appeared throughout the series.
- #060
Although Antz (1998) was the first computer-animated film DreamWorks produced, it was this film that established the studio as a major name in the field alongside its main rival, Pixar.
- #061
After Chris Farley's death, discussions began at the studio about hiring an impersonator to finish his lines. At one point Chris's brother Kevin P. Farley considered completing the remaining lines, but he did not do so because he was too shaken by his brother's death.
- #062
In the original script, Dragon was going to have hair on her head and be heavier, so that Donkey's flirting with her would be more effective, but the idea was dropped from the final draft because test audiences disliked it.
- #063
Chris Farley's version of Shrek was completely different from Mike Myers's version. Farley's version was about Shrek wanting to be a knight rather than scaring people. Fiona, originally voiced by Janeane Garofalo, was going to be a feisty and sarcastic character.
- #064
At around the 1-minute mark, a crescent moon (the DreamWorks logo) appears on the door of Shrek's outhouse. The filmmakers had planned to open the film by zooming in on the DreamWorks logo on the house's front door, but they abandoned the idea.
- #065
During a voice-recording session, Cody Cameron suggested that Cameron Diaz marry him "… so you can become Cameron Cameron."
- #066
At around the 37-minute mark, the Dragon has a cookbook containing "choice cuts" and a diagram of a chopped-up knight.
- #069
In the original pitch, Shrek was to be a knight who rescued Donkey from an evil witch. Shrek's accent also shifted from Scottish to Canadian and back to Scottish again.
- #071
At around the 16-minute mark, Donkey annoying Shrek by singing was one of the first scenes to be animated. The scene at Fiona's castle was the second.
- #072
At around 1 hour 20 minutes in, toward the end, the Dragon breaks the last pane of the stained-glass window. All that remains is the dragon below.
- #073
Shrek was nearly made with stop-motion animation, but the first tests were too costly and executives were unhappy with the main character's overall look and lack of facial expression. After live-action miniatures and motion-capture graphics also proved inadequate, the studio turned to computer-generated animation.
- #075
There are many conflicting theories about Donkey's origins: one theory holds that he is a take on Winnie-the-Pooh's Eeyore (a melancholic donkey), while another holds that he is a human turned into a donkey (based on Pinocchio (1940), in which bad boys eventually turn into donkeys).
- #076
Donkey's appearance was based on Perikles ("Perry"), a miniature donkey living at Barron Park in Palo Alto, California, right near the Pacific Data Images/DreamWorks animators.
- #077
Cameron Diaz said that Princess Fiona's romantic/practical nature resembles her sister much more than it does herself.
- #079
Shrek was adapted into a stage musical in 2008, with music by Jeanine Tesori and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire. The original cast included Brian d'Arcy James as Shrek, Sutton Foster as Princess Fiona, Daniel Breaker as Donkey and Christopher Sieber as Lord Farquaad. The high-definition recording of Shrek the Musical (2013) was first released in 2013 on DVD/Blu-Ray and online.
- #082
For the first film, 1,250 sets and environments were created on computer.
- #083
Fiona was initially planned to be so realistic that she looked human. However, next to an ogre and a talking donkey, a damsel in distress who looked too human seemed out of place. In an interview with Jeffrey Katzenberg, he said: "When we put Fiona in the film, which is a fairy-tale world, she looked completely wrong. She stood out. She didn't fit. She looked bad… It looked like we'd made a mistake." Co-director Andrew Adamson added: "When you have a talking donkey, you have room to move because no one has seen one. Fiona had to be stylized a bit so she would fit into this slightly surreal, explanatory world."
- #084
In August 2022, animation tests showing Shrek's original 1996 design were uploaded to YouTube. They include Shrek dancing in the streets of a town and encountering a robber who tries to mug him, only to be frightened by his appearance and thrown into the air by Shrek.
- #085
It was Kathleen Freeman's last feature film before her death four months later.
- #087
Radio Disney was told not to air any advertising for the film on the station, stating: "Due to recent dealings with The Walt Disney Company, we are being asked not to align ourselves with this new release Shrek for promotional purposes. Stations can only accept spot dollars in individual markets." The restriction was later relaxed to allow ads for the film's music album to air on the network.
- #088
(Approximately 24 minutes) Director Andrew Adamson chose to replace the earlier tournament scene with a WWF spoof because adding a wrestling scene to the already-written contest would have made the scene too long: "If you're doing comedy and parody, you want to stick to one idea to keep it clean," Adamson said. "We felt this sequence worked best essentially as a WWF parody. [Previously], there were a lot of jokes about traditional tournament ideas; guys coming out to joust and Shrek grabbing the jousting poll and turning it around. He would still do the thing where he pulls the nail out of the beer keg and turns the whole field to mud, and we had him water-skiing or mud-skiing behind one of the horses holding on to the horse's tail. The tail is an aesthetic choice you make as you go."
- #089
It is loosely based on William Steig's fairy-tale picture book of the same name.
- #090
Lord Farquaad uses a small 'F' ("small" f) as his flag. This reflects his small stature.
- #092
It was voted second on Channel 4 (UK) "Greatest Family Films."
- #093
Producer John H. Williams got the idea to adapt Shrek from his sons, who were then of preschool age. "It came to me like a Nickelodeon-type project. They were very successful at the time because kids want iconoclastic things. I had never done that before or since, but I immediately and effectively greenlit Shrek by telling Jeffrey Katzenberg it would work. I had other options; Miramax was also interested in it and wanted to use Henry Selick, who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). And James and the Giant Peach (1996). Henry had a special deal with Miramax and I knew he was an impressive, talented man, but DreamWorks immediately said 'We're going to make this movie.' You know what? The process started right away. We began creating characters simultaneously with our first work on the draft with the writers. To me it was also the greatest process, because there were so many voices, including story draft artists and animators, who weighed in on the evolution of the process and had a big impact. In a way it was a much more collaborative endeavor than a live-action film. All of the named writers made important, notable contributions, but the storyboard artists also made a huge and unrecognized contribution to the story…".
- #095
Shrek Retold (2018), a shot-by-shot remake, premiered online in 2018. Since March 2019 it has gained 2.8 million views on YouTube.
- #096
According to Andrew Adamson, Shrek's height varies between seven and eight feet depending on whom you ask. He was seven feet tall, and he has since grown in people's minds and is now usually cited as eight feet.
- #097
The character Shrek is based on a figure of the same name in Russian folklore dating back to 1200 AD.
- #098
At about 1 hour 7 minutes, the knight who gives Donkey a stern look is the same knight who initially tries to catch him at about 7 minutes.
- #099
It is the only film in the Shrek series not set in Far Far Away.
- #100
Contains a major spoiler — show
At about 1 minute, the opening storybook tells of Fiona's appearance, where she was kept and her curse, as well as the frozen-frame bonus after Shrek tears the page and the wedding at the end. In fact, both weddings appear: Fiona and Farquaad's, then Shrek and Fiona's.
- #101
Tom Bosley and Marion Ross were to voice Shrek's parents in the film's original Chris Farley version.
- #102
The film marks Mike Myers's sixth performance in a Scottish accent, after Saturday Night Live (1975), Wayne's World 2 (1993), So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) and his role as Fat Bastard in the last two Austin Powers films.
- #103
The film has 31 sequences, with a total of 1,288 shots across all of them.
- #104
Contains a major spoiler — show
The film broadly parodies fairy tales heavily. But it also openly mocks Disney films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio (1940) and Sleeping Beauty (1959), and at times draws direct parallels with Beauty and the Beast (1991). In addition, DreamWorks Animation, the rights holder to the Shrek films, was acquired in 2016 by NBC Universal, the long-time rival of The Walt Disney Company, for 4 billion US dollars. Walt Disney had worked at Universal Studios in the 1920s and 1930s and created Oswald Rabbit for them.
- #105
Producer John H. Williams first came across the Shrek book while reading it to his children.
- #106
At about 1 hour 9 minutes, when Shrek, Donkey and Fiona are isolated from one another, John Cale's 1991 cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" plays. Before choosing their directors, Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson tried several other sad songs for "Hallelujah." After settling on "Hallelujah," they ultimately decided that Cale's version was the one best suited to the scene. However, rock musician Robbie Robertson, one of those responsible for the film's music, barred the use of Cale's version on the soundtrack because Cale had no relationship with DreamWorks Records. Instead, DreamWorks recording artist Rufus Wainwright was set to record the song for the soundtrack, but Adamson, judging Wainwright's version "too full" and "too rich," felt "the rawness of John Cale's version seemed to suit the character of Shrek a little better," so Cale's version was kept in the film.
- #107
The list of fairy-tale characters in the film: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; the Wicked Witch of the West (or East); the Three Bears; Pinocchio and Geppetto; the Three Little Pigs; Tinkerbell and Peter Pan; the Big Bad Wolf; the Pied Piper of Hamelin; the Gingerbread Man; Cinderella; the Three Blind Mice; Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Among all the fairy-tale characters, Snow White, Pinocchio, Tinker Bell, Peter Pan and Cinderella are the only ones based on Disney.
- #109
In the early stages of development, Shrek was to encounter a witch who would guide him on his journey. He would take Donkey as a slave he would probably rescue, or he would let him follow Shrek. In later drafts, there was instead to be a scene in which Shrek, Fiona and Donkey pass through a magical forest and go to a witch's gingerbread house, meeting a witch named Dama Fortuna from the Hansel and Gretel story. Her entire front yard was completely booby-trapped with lasers and sticks rising from the ground. Shrek had to overcome all of it. As he tried to do a military leap and somersault to get into the house and rescue Fiona and Donkey, cute little rabbits hopped and shot arrows at him. He too gets caught in the trap, and while the witch stirs a brew, the three of them are left hanging beside a cauldron, and the three work together to turn the witch's spell back on her. The sequence was cut because it was too long. The character got far enough along to be designed with maquettes and concept art, and was to be voiced by Linda Hunt, who would have been added alongside the four main stars in the marketing.
- #111
DreamWorks considered re-releasing the film in a limited number of theaters on November 2, 2001, against Pixar's Monsters, Inc. (2001), but ultimately abandoned the decision. Instead, they released it on VHS and DVD that day.
- #112
The producers also cut numerous cameos of famous fairy-tale characters from the early storyboard scripts. When Shrek scares off a gang of monster hunters at the start of the film, he was originally meant to meet Mary, who was searching for her lost lamb. Vicky Jenson said Mary was cut to simplify the introduction of the fairy-tale subplot and to establish Shrek as a lonely figure no one would want to meet.
- #113
(At about 25 minutes) After Shrek and Donkey defeat the knights in the tournament, Shrek turns to the crowd and says, "Try the veal." The line is part of what Sollozo says to Captain McClusky when they meet Michael Corleone in The Godfather (1972). Both lines come just before a major character experiences a life-changing moment.
- #114
Characters who were planned but not used in the film include Goldilocks and Sleeping Beauty. The latter would go on to appear in Shrek the Third (2007).
- #115
After five years working on the film, assistant director Kelly Asbury left the production to work on Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002). Vicky Jenson was brought in to replace him.
- #116
Contains a major spoiler — show
The film borrows several ideas from Disney movies. Examples include: (at about 49 minutes) Fiona sings with a blue bird, a parody of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). (At about 46 minutes) Shrek and Donkey looking at the stars is a parody of The Lion King (1994), in which Simba is taught about the great kings of the past. (At about 1 hour 20 minutes) Fiona's permanent transformation into a monster through the mist is a parody of Beauty and the Beast (1991), in which the Beast turns back into a human. (At about 6 minutes) Donkey's flight is a parody of Peter Pan (1953) and Dumbo (1941).
- #117
On 13 October 2023, Airbnb listed "Shrek's Swamp," a real-life recreation of Shrek's swamp home in the Scottish Highlands.
- #118
Contains a major spoiler — show
(At about 29 minutes) While climbing the fiery mountain to rescue Princess Fiona, Donkey says "My mouth was open and everything" when Shrek thinks he has passed wind. Eddie Murphy (Donkey) had used the same line in his stand-up comedy film Eddie Murphy: Delirious (1983) while talking about "You could fart in your friend's face while watching the game, he don't care…".
- #120
The film reached $100 million in 11 days, matching the time in which Toy Story 2 (1999) and The Lion King (1994) became the fastest animated films to reach $100 million. However, on its 18th day in release it passed $150 million, making it the fastest animated film to reach that figure. It became the second highest-grossing animated film of all time after Disney's The Lion King.
- #121
(At about 37 minutes) Princess Fiona corrects Shrek when he starts going the wrong way, proving she could have rescued herself if she had wanted to. She says, "Where are you going? The exit's that way."
- #123
By 1997 the project had been completely reorganized: director Ron Tippe was replaced by Kelly Asbury, who would soon also be replaced by Andrew Adamson, who went on to Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002). John Garbett resigned after producer and writer Aron Warner was hired. The film's first act was rewritten and a star cast was persuaded to join the project. The troubled film then seemed to rise quickly from its own ashes. When Mike Myers joined the team, Andrew Adamson admitted: "We went back to the drawing board to adapt to Mike's talents. Suddenly, with Mike in the lead, the giant character began to have a Scottish accent. The outtakes are hysterical. It's really too bad this is only a 90-minute film."
- #125
Shrek has become the subject of many internet memes, ranging from the notorious "Shrek is love, Shrek is life" post on 4Chan to re-edits of the entire Shrek film, such as "Shrek but it gets 5% faster every time he smiles." These edits gained rapid momentum in 2016, after another DreamWorks Animation film, Bee Movie (2007), regained interest as a meme subject of absurd re-editing.
- #127
It is the only Shrek film that was not in production for just three years, but instead for four to five years, and that went through many production obstacles.
- #128
It was the second highest-grossing animated film of 2001.
- #129
(At about 1 hour 22 minutes) The line "God bless us, every one," spoken by Gingerbread Man (walking on a crutch) during the closing "I'm a Believer" song, originally comes from Charles Dickens's book "A Christmas Carol," where it is spoken by Tiny Tim (who also uses a crutch). It also ends nearly every film adaptation of the book.
- #130
It is DreamWorks Animation's second computer-animated film and, after Antz (1998), the second of its films to be rated PG by the MPAA.
- #131
Linda Hunt was originally planned to voice a character named Dama Fortuna in the original Chris Farley version. The character became the Fairy Godmother, voiced by Jennifer Saunders.
- #132
Owen Wilson was considered for the voice of Shrek.
- #134
Tom Kenny was to voice a thug in the original Chris Farley version. The character was to insult Shrek's mother; here Shrek pulls the rope the thug is hanging from and sends him drifting up into the night sky.
- #136
In January 1998, it was confirmed that Shrek would be reworked.
- #137
The character and model design of Lord Farquaad bears a very clear resemblance to Laurence Olivier's portrayal of Richard III in Richard III (1955), as fans have pointed out. Both characters appear determined to do whatever it takes to become king.
- #138
David Newman was offered the job of composing the film's score, but he turned the offer down because of his work on Ice Age (2002).
- #139
Although Shrek's entire body bears a striking resemblance to the former wrestler Maurice Tillet ("The French Angel"), DreamWorks neither confirmed nor denied the rumor that Shrek was modeled on Tillet.
- #140
Farquaad's tournament features strange events, such as horse wrestling and a drinking contest, that would not be considered suitable for a family-friendly film.
- #142
This was the third and, to date, last DreamWorks animated film (and the only film in the Shrek series) for which Harry Gregson-Williams composed the music together with John Powell, following Antz (1998) and Chicken Run (2000). Powell was later left out of composing the music for subsequent Shrek films with John H. Williams due to a disagreement.
- #143
The film became the best-selling DVD of all time in a little over four weeks. With more than 5.5 million DVDs sold to consumers in North America, the big green ogre overtook the previous record holder, Gladiator (2000), which had reached over 5 million sales in a year. Retailers bought a total of 7.3 million Shrek DVDs, and DreamWorks had to keep producing new copies to prevent the product from selling out before the holidays. Kelley Avery, DreamWorks Home Entertainment's worldwide president, said, "This unprecedented sales rate confirms that the Shrek DVD is sought after not only by the DVD collector but also by a wide range of Shrek film fans, including families with children, teenagers, adults and everyone in between."
- #144
Pre-production on Shrek began in 1995. DreamWorks first hired a motion capture company to develop it, but spent a year and a lot of money doing so. A small crack team then spent several months developing a 15-minute 3D demo using the voices of actors Chris Farley and Janeane Garofalo: greatly disappointed by the results he saw in the summer of 1997, Jeffrey Katzenberg felt the project did not justify its very high CGI costs. Before hiring PDI (Antz (1998)) to do most of the character work as well as the background miniatures, he went around to various studios for the project and failed.
- #145
In November 1998, it was announced that DreamWorks was seriously considering releasing the film not only in widescreen theaters but also in IMAX theaters in the IMAX format, which would require the entire animated film to be re-created (and composited). This would give Shrek a true 3D look and put DreamWorks in the record books with the first fully 3D animated feature for IMAX. However, in a surprising move in February 1999, Disney invested in IMAX and planned to release Fantasia 2000 (1999) on IMAX screens starting January 1, 2000.
- #146
At around 17 minutes in, when Lord Farquaad asks the Gingerbread Man "Who's hiding them?", he answers, "Do you know the Muffin Man?", but in the Greek version the Gingerbread Man answers, "Do you know Peter Pan?"
- #148
In 2001, DreamWorks said the Shrek series was expected to earn $1 billion in profit by the end of February 2003.
- #149
Contains a major spoiler — show
The ending, in which Shrek and Donkey run toward Duloc to stop the wedding because Shrek realizes he has fallen in love with Fiona. He stops the wedding and tells Fiona that Lord Farquaad is only trying to marry her to become king, and tells her he loves her. This relates to a scene from another Mike Myers film, Wayne's World 2 (1993), in which Bobby tries to move Cassandra away from Wayne to Los Angeles so he can have her for himself and tries to marry her, but Wayne runs to the wedding and stops it, and Cassandra realizes she loves Wayne and runs off with him.
- #150
This is the second Cameron Diaz film in which her love interest is green. The Mask (1994), Cameron's first film, was the first.
- #151
Bill Murray, Nicolas Cage, Johnny Depp, Chevy Chase, Tupac Shakur, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Dennis Quaid, Bruce Willis, Ice Cube and Robin Williams were considered to voice Shrek.
- #152
William Steig, the author of the original book, saw the film at the age of 93 after its release. Although it deviated significantly from his book, he said, "It's vulgar, it's disgusting - and I love it!"
- #154
This was John Lithgow's first CGI film.
- #155
Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and John Lithgow have all appeared in projects in which they played multiple characters: Myers in the Austin Powers films, Murphy in The Nutty Professor films and Lithgow in 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996). Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy also both wore fat suits in films in which they played multiple characters. Mike Myers did so for the character Fat Bastard in Austin Powers 2 and 3, and Eddie Murphy did so at least in the first Nutty Professor film.
- #156
The film's merchandise included baby cell phones and Shrek, Donkey and Fiona figures.
- #157
Duloc is an anagram of Cloud. Duloc appears to be a perfect place, like Heaven, which is often associated with clouds.
- #158
In July 1997, Eddie Murphy was cast as the voice of Donkey, and in October John Lithgow was cast as the voice of Lord Farquaad.
- #159
At around the 51st minute, Fiona uses a leaf as a hot pad as she takes the stone she uses to cook eggs from the bird she made explode.
- #160
Animation work on the film officially began in November 1998, a month after the premiere of Antz (1998), and was completed in March 2001, only two months before the film's release.
- #161
In August 1998, Mike Myers was cast as the voice of Shrek, Cameron Diaz was cast as the voice of Princess Fiona, and Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were hired to write the screenplay.
- #164
At around 1 hour 9 minutes, "Hallelujah" was not originally meant to be in the film. The song before the wedding scene was supposed to be Dean Martin's "Return to Me", but it was cut at the last minute and replaced with John Cale's "Hallelujah".
- #165
At around the 56th minute, the moment Shrek and Fiona fall in love was supposed to feature Dean Martin's "Love Me Love Me" instead of "My Beloved Monster".
- #166
Jon Lovitz was accepted as the voice of Donkey.
- #167
Nathan Lane was accepted as the voice of Donkey.
- #168
Jim Belushi was accepted as the voice of Shrek.
- #170
DreamWorks bought the rights to the book for $500,000.
- #171
This was the only Shrek film released during the lifetime of William Steig, the author of the original book. He died in 2003, seven months before the premiere of Shrek 2 (2004).
- #173
Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Cruise turned down the role of Shrek.
- #174
The film's theatrical release came exactly three months after Dale Earnhardt's death.
- #175
This is the only Shrek film released in the same year as a film in the Fast & Furious and Monsters, Inc. series.
- #176
At around the 59th minute, Dean Martin's version of "You Belong to Me" was also supposed to be in the film. However, it was replaced by Jason Wade's version of Martin's song.
- #177
At around 24 minutes, during the wrestling scene, Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation", the theme song of WWE wrestler Ronda Rousey, plays.
- #180
For the original 2-Disc Special Edition DVD release, Disc 1 (Full Frame) shows an image of Shrek. Disc 2 (Widescreen), meanwhile, has an image of Donkey.
- #181
Shrek is the first DreamWorks Animation film to receive multiple sequels.
- #182
Shrek is the only Shrek film distributed by DreamWorks Pictures; subsequent films in the franchise were released by DreamWorks Animation.
- #183
Mike Myers, who recorded the burp for Shrek, drank a bottle of Sprite during the recording sessions.
- #184
Shrek celebrated its 25th anniversary on May 18, 2026.
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