Dreamworks used to punish animators by forcing them to work on a classic film

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Mimi Lederer’s 1997 action film “The Peacemaker” was the first film released by then-fledgling DreamWorks Pictures. The studio then rushed to release several high-profile films into theaters immediately afterward, dropping Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning drama “Amistad” and Gore Verbinski’s stylish children’s film “Mouse Hunt” before the year was out. DreamWorks quickly proved that to be the case A massive player in mainstream animation as well as the unveiling of “Antz” and “The Prince of Egypt” in late 1998. 2000 was also a good year for the animation division, with DreamWorks releasing both “The Road to El Dorado” and “Chicken Run” for Aardman Animations.

Then, in 2001, DreamWorks Animation released “Shrek,” an explicitly anti-Disney satire based on a comic book by William Steig. “Shrek” featured endless fairytale storylines, and audiences ate it up. The first “Shrek” movie was a huge hit at the box office and spawned a huge entertainment franchise that continues to this day. In fact, an entire generation has grown up watching “Shrek” and many of its sequels are now considered classics. The property became so profitable that Disney itself began imitating its satire, with the studio’s “Frozen” having some of the same anti-Disney sentiment that “Shrek” had generated.

No one could have predicted how popular “Shrek” would become, especially the higher-ups at DreamWorks. In fact, according to Nicole LaPorte’s book “The Men Who Would Be King: An Almost Epic Story About Mughals, Movies, and a Company Called DreamWorks” “Shrek” was once considered a punishment by the studio. The hot ticket production of the late 1990s was “The Prince of Egypt.” If you mess something up while animating this movie, the DreamWorks honchos will demote you to “Shrek” production. There is certainly an irony in this, as Shrek made much more money than the Prince of Egypt ever did.

To remind readers, “The Prince of Egypt” was a full musical reimagining of the Book of Exodus featuring an all-star cast including Val Kilmer as Moses and Ralph Fiennes as Ramesses, as well as Michelle Pfeiffer, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Jeff Goldblum, Sandra Bullock, Danny Glover, Steve Martin and Martin Short. Lists like this haven’t been regularly compiled for anime features yet. “The Prince of Egypt” was also a high-profile picture intended to combat Disney’s dominance of the animation market at the time during the famous Disney Renaissance. He put a lot of time and energy into the film, and it ended up receiving two Academy Award nominations, and winning Best Song. This was a few years before the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was presented, otherwise it would have been a surprise.

Meanwhile, Shrek was a silly comedy centered around a ghoul. Although it also had an all-star cast (including Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, John Lithgow, and Cameron Diaz), it was viewed as the “lesser” film. In fact, the animator (who preferred to remain anonymous) spoke to LaPorte, explaining that “Shrek” was used as a punitive measure:

“It was known as a gulag. (…) If you failed in ‘Prince of Egypt’, you would be sent to the dungeons to work in ‘Shrek’.”

It seems that no one wants to be a “partner”. We should also remember that “Shrek” was originally viewed as even more disgusting than it became. Like the book Stig, Shrek was supposed to be the most terrible creature in the world. He married the second most horrific creature and they produced disgusting offspring. No one wanted to work on a film like this. It was also a computer-animated film, which many traditional animators felt was beneath them.

as New York Post It was pointed out in 2010 that even the “cleaned up” version of “Shrek” was still considered too gross for the animators at DreamWorks. Remember, the titular character was an ogre who lived in a swamp and bathed in mud. In the opening minutes of the film, Shrek emerges from an outhouse and then enters a swamp where he aggressively farts, killing nearby fish. It seems cumbersome in retrospect, but a major studio release starting with gags and feces was a risk at the time. The film’s co-director, Vicky Jenson, recalled feeling antsy when “Shrek” premiered at Cannes, saying: “Here we are sitting in tuxedos and evening dresses, wearing borrowed jewelry, and everyone is watching Shrek dive into the water.”

Even DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg, who was also DreamWorks’ head of animation at the time, recalled that he thought “Shrek” was going to inspire withdrawal and anger at the premiere:

“For the first ten minutes – nothing. (…) My heart was beating hard, and my forehead was dripping with sweat. I said to myself: ‘They will burn the place down.’”

Instead, “Shrek” became DreamWorks’ biggest hit. The sequel was quickly put into production, and “Shrek 2” was released in 2004, becoming the highest-grossing film of that year at the global box office. The franchise also gave rise to Spin-off films based on Antonio Banderas’ iconic character from “Shrek 2” and Puss in BootsPlus a high-grossing Broadway musical. Shrek has also appeared in at least a dozen video games since then, in addition to just theme park attractions. If Shrek was supposed to be the most terrifying creature alive, he has transformed into a friendly, smiling, family-friendly companion. Shrek might have farted in the swamp, but that wasn’t a bad thing.