MovieChat Forums > Shrek Forever After (2010) Discussion > I felt sorry for Shrek

I felt sorry for Shrek

posted 13 years ago by hrmscott
12 replies | jump to latest

the start of the film sees Shrek in his family life gradually losing it because, well, he's an ogre, and he's not doing the ogre thing

so .. he trades for a day of being a real ogre again, which is understandable because he's an ogre

but he gets tricked by sneaky Rumple and risks losing his true love and the kids and just manages to make it all right again, and realizes that he doesn't want to lose them, fair enough

so then the moral of the film is that he has to choose : either he denies his ogre-ness or he loses his family.

I really did expect to see some kind of ending where Fiona would understand his ogre needs and let him go off on an ogre road trip with Donkey from time to time and scare the hell out of some people in another kingdom - they could even have done it as a series of stills over the end credits

but no, Shrek just goes back to his previous frustrated life ... how is that a happy ending ?

[–] lemorisashcraft-1 13 years ago

All movies have that moral at the end, the message that maybe some, maybe all can recognize and sympathize with. Just because something feels like the right choice, doesn't mean it IS the right choice. Going off and abandoning the family just to be happy again probably isn't the message they want to send to people :3

[–] Howlin Wolf 12 years ago

He wouldn't be abandoning his family though, would he?! It would just be some guy time (or ogre-time... ) Every relationship needs space to allow both individual parties to do their own things. The OP is spot on.

Born when she kissed me, died when she left me, lived whilst she loved me

[–] thatisaniceboulder 13 years ago

Huh, I never thought of it like that, that's really interesting actually.

When I first saw it, I figured at the beginning he'd begun to take his family and friends for granted and didn't really appreciate them. When he signs the contract, sure he enjoys his old lifestyle for awhile, but when he realizes that his family doesn't exist (because HE never existed), he finally knows how much they meant to him. Like without them, there would be no him, literally.

But I like your take on it. This plot is pretty stale, so everyone knows what happens, but no one really digs deeper or questions it.

Though I will say, in the Halloween special "Scared Shrekless" that came out this year, they do have Shrek and his family scaring villagers on Halloween night, so maybe that's the filmmakers' way of showing that Shrek can be a "real ogre" from time to time now.

[–] destinafaroda 13 years ago

He's not denying his own ogreness by going back to his old life. If anything, he's actually learned that he doesn't have to scare people and be a menace to be an ogre (something I presumed he had learned long before this point). He interacted with others of his own kind in the alternate universe, and the ending implies that their relationship continued in the normal continuity. If anything, the whole ordeal made him more in touch with his own identity.

I admit the movie's story is very flawed, but I think the Aesop itself is fine.

[–] evil_henchman 13 years ago

I thought about this as well and I think it would have been funnier, if Shrek and Donkey would have gone on such a trip during the ending credits, instead of the standard song and dance routine. :)
But as the others said, the ending they used is the more standardized version. That usually wins over the more interesting alternative. ;)

[–] tody711 13 years ago

I think the ending credits went on so long cause they honored all those who had anything to do with all 4 movies. I liked this last one and am sorry it was the last. I have played the DVD many times and still a tear falls in the end...

[–] ValkyrieOakenshield74 13 years ago

I love Shrek, but if you stop and think about the message... hum.
I must say the message of this movie saga is twisted and a bit creepy.

In this movie particulary.
I must say I prefer the so "altered reality" of Shrek rather than his life as a father.

Along the serie I see Shrek is forced to have a life he doesnt want. Probably people who hvae been in the same situation can understand what I am saying.

IT HAPPENS THAT WAY IN REALITY. How many of us feel related to Shrek especially in film 2, meeting the parents, the new "family". Gosh!
but you get used at the end cuz you have no other choise.

Sorry, but I believe the true message is twisted.

OP, your solution is not good for that kind of reality:

I really did expect to see some kind of ending where Fiona would understand his ogre needs and let him go off on an ogre road trip with Donkey from time to time and scare the hell out of some people in another kingdom - they could even have done it as a series of stills over the end credits

but no, Shrek just goes back to his previous frustrated life ... how is that a happy ending ?

Is not a happy ending as I explained before but I dont think father must go on travels all the time to recover their previous life...

He is a father and he has a family, so he can NOT BE as he was before that.
Having children change absolutely everything.

So, the reality is: think again about having a family.
Think about that very much.

Its not a duty every body has to be a family person.

I have seen lots of frustrated women and men becoz they were somekind forced to have a family life they didn´t really want.

But our world somehow force everybody to have a family.

Do you recognize my voice...?

[–] hrmscott 13 years ago

"But our world somehow force everybody to have a family."

you've made some good points there.

I guess the film struck a nerve for me : I have a family and I would never be separated from them but I realized after a few years that the myth that Hollywood (and maybe even our entire western culture) repeatedly sells to us - you know the one, the 'person in search of meaning in life suddenly becomes wholly fulfilled by getting a wife and kids' story - just wasn't enough for me and caused problems.

So I made a space in the family set-up for the stuff I like doing, the stuff that makes me what I am, and everyone is happier now.

That's what I meant about Shrek not being able to find a compromise between his family life and his Ogre-ness

[–] Jnbfwc 13 years ago

You sound wise to me, sir.

[–] Shalotka 12 years ago

Shrek has always broken fairy tale stereotypes.
It's good that they showed that life after a fairy-tale ending (i.e. marrying your true love) needs a bit of sacrifice and compromise.
When Shrek was single, he had his freedom so to say, but wasn't happy. The point was that even ogres need love and friendship. When the 4th movie starts everyone in the kingdom knows that and are not affraid of ogres.

I found it very positive that the family started hanging out with other ogres at the end. And they are no evil ogres either. I think new bros would help Shrek feel ogre enough without eating people and so on ;-)

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] teapot106 11 years ago

That was a very wise and well thought out viewpoint.