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Description
This book is a comprehensive analytical study of stop-motion studio DreamWorks Animation's 2001 breakthrough hit Shrek.
On its release in 2001, Shrek (Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson) became an international smash hit, a breakthrough success for the upstart DreamWorks Animation studio, and a milestone in the history of the computer-animated feature film. Today, the film stands as one the most influential animated movies of the 21st century, and its main character as an icon on internet counterculture.
This book brings together an international group of scholars from animation studies and beyond, to explores a wide range of topics from a diverse set of academic perspectives. It looks at the film's representation of gender, race, disability, and queerness, and its relationship with the Disney studio and its audiences. Other chapters focus on its music and costumes, its aesthetics and and performances, its themes and motifs, and its curious online afterlife.
Together, these essays seek to peel back the film's many layers, contextualize it in the history of contemporary animation and postmodern popular culture, and explain its long-lasting impact.
Table of Contents
Sam Summers (Middlesex University, UK)
Section 1: Tone and Aesthetic
1. “You Ain't Never Seen a Donkey Fly!”: Shrek's Complicated Rejection of Disney
Amy M. Davis (University of Hull, UK)
2. The Tech of Shrek: Flesh, Fluid, and the Digital Grotesque
Sam Summers (Middlesex University, UK)
3. Costume Design and Character Representation in the Shrek Franchise
Maarit Kalmakurki (Aalto University, Finland)
4. The Book of Shrek: Animated Tomes in the Shrek Franchise
Jodie Coates (Cambridge University, UK)
5. “Hey Now, You're an All Star?”: Mike Myers and Shrek as Stars and Characters
Julie Lobalzo Wright (University of Warwick, UK) & Tom Hemmingway (University of Warwick, UK)
6. “Stop Singing!”: Shrek the Anti-Musical Musical Fairy Tale
Ryan Bunch (Rutgers University, USA)
Section 2: Representation and Politics
7. The Normalcy of the Ogre: Dispelling Stereotypes of Disability in Shrek
Jessica Gibson (University of York, UK)
8. “Man, This Would Be So Much Easier If I Wasn't Colorblind”: The Shrek Franchise and Aversive Animation
Christopher Holliday (King's College London, UK)
9. The Beauty of Ugliness: Dependent Beauty and the Inversion of Aesthetic Categories in the Shrek Universe
Irida Zhonga (University of Groningen, the Netherlands)
10. Loving the Monster: Shrek, Intimate Proximity, and (Sub)genres of the Human
Olivia Friend-Spencer (Ultrecht University, the Netherlands)
11. “What Kind of Knight Are You?” “One of a Kind”: Embracing Monstrous Queer Joy in Shrek
Kodi Maier (University of Hull, UK)
Section 3: Reception and Remediation
12. Shrek and “Relatability” in Contemporary Hollywood Animation
Noel Brown (Liverpool Hope University, UK)
13. Let Your Freak Flag Fly: Staging Diversity and Inclusion in Shrek: the Musical
Caleb Lee (University of Exeter, UK)
14. "Shrek is NOT Drek": Shrek Greentexts, Irony, and Performed Fandom
Bence Bardos (University of Kent, UK)
Guide to Further Research
Endnotes
Works Cited
Index
Product details
| Published | Oct 01 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (PDF) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 256 |
| ISBN | 9798765130285 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 30 bw illus |
| Series | Animation: Key Films/Filmmakers |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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