A question or two about Shrek...

February 14, 2010 ·

Finally got around to watching Shrek. More interesting than I had anticipated. But I do have a question or two…

The central theme of the story is that beauty goes beyond surface appearances, etc., etc. Hence the opportunity for a love interest between a fairy-tale princess (Princess Fiona) and a good hearted but fat and green-skinned ogre. All well and good.

And, as with all good fairy tales, we have a villain, Lord Farquaad, a shallow would-be king who wants to marry a princess in order to become a king. However, along with his shallowness and sleaziness, he is also...short.

Now this is basically a charming story about learning to look beyond appearances, but at every step along the way we are allowed and encouraged to belittle Lord Farquaad for his shortness. (His huge castle? “What’s he compensating for?”) Even good-hearted Shrek alludes none too subtly to Farquaad's stature, and preceding the wedding, the princess squashes the staturine of Lord Farquaad down into the cake to make it appropriately short. And, of course, for the denouement, the snack-size kinglet is gulped down by the dragoness. (Way too much symbolism to begin to take on.)

So, ugly is fine. Short, well maybe not. In fact, just plain not.

In addition, and I realize I'm beating this poor little film to death here, the princess, who has shown admirable qualities of kung fu fighting and independence from convention in her enjoyment of Shrek's menu, remains convinced that her green self is ugly (even as she falls in love with big green Shrek, who in turn is falling in love with the beautiful daytime princess); the princess is horrified when her true love's kiss leaves her a 24/7 shade of green. It is only when Shrek tells her that she is in fact beautiful that she finally accepts it.

So, main lessons are:

1. Beauty is not about outer appearances – but short is really, really ugly and it's fine to make fun of short people.

2. Beauty is in the eyes of other people; our beauty depends on what they think and what they say.

I'm thinking I need to watch Fight Club again, for moral clarity.