That's a good movie I've been waiting a long time for.
Shrek is the cult animated series of a generation, the one that allowed DreamWorks to compete with Pixar and Disney. Scathing parody of our favorite fairy tales, the story of the greenish and cynical ogre, who must rescue Princess Fiona from a tower guarded by a dragon, alongside her faithful companion, the exuberant donkey, has been a resounding success. Official selection at the Cannes Film Festival and first to receive an Oscar for best animated film, Shrek has entered the legend – and will be entitled to a fifth opus, more than 14 years after the last part (and more than 23 years after the first!).
But the original idea for the film was quite different... After being considered lost for more than 20 years, the first animation tests of the project have just surfaced online. While the first full-length film was released in 2001, a different version was initially in development in 1995. This original version featured Chris Farley (not Mike Myers) as the green protagonist, who brought it to life using early motion capture technologies.
Now, Zoom Art Studio, involved in the design of the film’s production, has uploaded the lost images. In the clip, you can see Shrek dancing to James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good)” as he attacks a knight.
A VERY DIFFERENT VERSION
The description of the video reveals that Shrek’s original idea was a “dark and nervous low-budget film”, far from the parody of fairy tales that became the final product. As the images show, the design of the ogre was also thinner, with emphasis on its exaggerated facial expressions.
Shrek way Disney: Fiona would look like Warcraft and the ass would be as cute as Olaf!
Chris Farley recorded several of his replicas for the film before his death in 1997, new images may also surface one day, giving us more context about the original film and its story.
Shrek 5 is currently in development, while its spin-off franchise, The Potted Cat, released its latest installment, The Last Quest, in 2022.