"SHREK THE THIRD" Movie Production Notes
(Photo: left) Donkey (EDDIE MURPHY), Puss In Boots (ANTONIO BANDERAS), Shrek (MIKE MYERS) and Fiona’s underachiever cousin Artie (JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE) pay a visit to the magician Merlin (ERIC IDLE) in DreamWorks’ SHREK THE THIRD, to be released by Paramount Pictures in May 2007. DreamWorks Animation S.K.G. Presents a PDI/DreamWorks Production, “Shrek the Third.” Directed by Chris Miller, the film features the voice talents of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Rupert Everett, Justin Timberlake, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Cheri Oteri, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Amy Sedaris, John Krasinski and Ian McShane. The story is by Andrew Adamson. The screenplay is by Jeffrey Price & Peter S. Seaman and Chris Miller & Aron Warner. The film is produced by Aron Warner and co-directed by Raman Hui. Executive Producers are Andrew Adamson and John H. Williams. This film is rated PG for some crude humor, suggestive content and swashbuckling action. Photo Credit: DreamWorks Animation LLC
The Evolution of Shrek
What began as a short children’s story by William Steig has evolved into one of the most successful and beloved film franchises in the history of entertainment.
With stunning advancements in technology, the look and feel of the “Shrek” films have changed dramatically over the years. As for Shrek himself, he has made some new friends, walked into some new responsibilities and developed a new outlook on life.
Yes, our green hero has come a long way from his solitary days in the swamp.
As the filmmakers see it, they never had to lead Shrek anywhere. He has always been making his own way – marching down a trail that everyone can follow. The story of “Shrek the Third” is “the natural progression of this guy’s life and his development as an adult,” explains producer Aron Warner.
“Shrek and Fiona fell in love and got married in the first film. In the second movie, they met the parents and got to know the family. And so it seemed there was a natural next step for them,” continues director Chris Miller. “But as it turns out, it’s not a natural step for Shrek, because he’s convinced that he would not make a good father.”
The man who gives his voice to Shrek is thrilled to see that, while the lovable ogre is as irascible as ever, he has also evolved since the first film. “What's great about the third ‘Shrek’ is that it's the continuing adventures of somebody who has to learn to believe in himself,” says Mike Myers.
“In the first film, he didn't think that he was worthy of falling in love, in the second he didn’t think he was worthy of being a husband and now he’s struggling with worthiness because he's afraid of being a king and a father. So it's a really great story of how, throughout all the different periods of your life, you really have to rely on yourself, believe in yourself and not listen to what other people think about you.”
Eddie Murphy, who has been bringing the film’s lovable Donkey to life from day one, is elated by the fact that “each movie gets better and better. The characters get more developed, and the stories get more complex.”
Making fans of critics and audiences worldwide, the “Shrek” franchise has amassed an astonishing $1.4 billion in box office receipts and has sold more than 90 million DVDs to date.
The original “Shrek” had a happy ending, indeed, as it tallied $479 million in global box office receipts and has sold more than 50 million DVDs. The first film capped off its triumphant run by winning the first-ever Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature in 2002.
But that was just the start of a tremendous story for this humble fairy tale. Picking up where the first movie left off was the multi-sensory, multi-media experience that was Shrek 4-D®. The film’s stellar cast reprised their roles in a unique Universal Studios in-theater sensory immersion that expanded “Shrek’s world and bridged the story between the first adventure and the phenomenon of “Shrek 2.”
When “Shrek 2” was unleashed on theaters on May 19, 2004, it posted the largest five-day opening of all time. This magical monster-hit went on to become the third highest-grossing film of all time with a total worldwide box office of $920 million, and the subsequent “Shrek 2” DVD has gone on to sell over 40 million copies.
Later in the year, on the heels of the release of “Shrek the Third,” there will be an original animated holiday special on ABC entitled “Shrek the Halls,” starring Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and Antonio Banderas. And next year, the saga will take on a new life in the Broadway-bound show “Shrek: The Musical.”
A Family Affair
As Shrek’s world expands, so too does the family of actors who bring the expertly animated characters to life. Though it would be impossible to imagine any “Shrek” film without the commanding voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz, it is now just as difficult to picture Shrek’s world without such familiar additions as Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, Rupert Everett, John Cleese and Larry King.
For “Shrek the Third,” the family expands further to include such notables as Justin Timberlake, Eric Idle, Cheri Oteri, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Amy Sedaris, John Krasinski, Ian McShane and Regis Philbin. “At the beginning, you write down every person you would ever want to work with or would fit a role well,” beams director Miller. “Fortunately, there are many great performers who want to work on a ‘Shrek’ movie. So, we've been really blessed with not only wanting the best, but actually getting them.”
“A lot of us have known each other now for 10 years or more,” adds producer Aron Warner. “It's a good thing we like each other.”
That sense of camaraderie and playful competition, which has evolved through years of late nights and deadlines, has been fruitful for the filmmakers. “We’re motivated to make things funnier and funnier,” explains co-director Raman Hui. “We’re constantly saying ‘Why don’t we try that?’ It’s amazing working with this crew.”
Even though the hours can be backbreaking, co-producer Denise Nolan Cascino never tires of being in the company of her fellow filmmakers. “We laugh a lot,” she says. “The great part about this work is that you're given such great material by the actors, and every day something new comes in that makes you laugh.”
Of course, much of the production revolves around the title character. Myers has been looking forward to “Shrek the Third” like it was a family reunion, which in a sense, it is. “I have a good time doing ‘Shrek,’” he says. “You get to be silly, and I love Donkey and Fiona and Puss In Boots and the whole thing. I get very happy when I’m in this world.”
“Mike brings a tremendous amount of care to Shrek and to the series,” says Warner. “He really thinks in-depth about who the character is, what his journey is like and how to best be true to that journey. His experience is always in the forefront, because he obviously understands comic timing better than almost anybody.”
“Mike brings a lot more than just a performance,” continues Miller. “He’s a great writer. He understands story. We get a lot of input from Mike to help us make sure we're telling the best story that we can."
The filmmakers also look to Princess Fiona for help when they need a little something extra. “I’d just love to go do a whole movie with Cameron as Fiona because she's hilarious,” says Warner. “She’s the rock of the ‘Shrek’ world. She brings such a great spirit to these movies.”
“These films touch people. They give them a message along with a very good time,” says Diaz. “It’s really a privilege to be a part of the ‘Shrek’ legacy.”
Her sentiments are seconded by Rupert Everett, who, according to Warner, brings just the right balance of “malice, melodrama and comic timing” to the self-absorbed Prince Charming. “It's the best job an actor could have, because they are really carefully thought-out films,” says Everett. “They're a real pleasure to be involved with. You get to see the whole thing happening. I find it more exhilarating in some ways than being in ordinary films.”
Everyone’s favorite donkey, voiced by acclaimed actor Eddie Murphy, expands on Everett’s sentiments as he compares acting in this series of films with his normal live-action role as a leading man. “When you make an animated film, you get more of a sense of being part of a collaborative effort. You’re just one of the pieces instead of the whole thing being on you. So you really feel part of a team. It's not just the actors; it's not just the production; it's not just the animators. It's everybody coming together and making this movie work.”
“Eddie brings so much to that character of Donkey – he lights him up,” raves Warner. “There's a fire and an innocence and a joy to Donkey’s character, and Eddie fully captures all those aspects. It also helps that he can improvise or take the most ordinary line we give him and make it funny.”
“He improvs on the fly, and that makes all the difference for the Donkey character,” adds Miller. “Eddie is an endless stream of funny.”
The voice behind the beloved cat Puss In Boots knew he was going to be a part of “Shrek the Third” and any other films that followed as soon as he saw “Shrek 2.” “Jeffrey (Katzenberg) approached me and said the character is going to continue in the saga of these stories,” explains Antonio Banderas. “Now I feel like I'm part of the group. My relationship with Donkey will always be competitive in a playful way, but deep down, we love each other very much.”
“Antonio is a filmmaker, so he comes in with an understanding of what it's like to do what we do,” says Warner. “He is not shy about doing anything we ask him. When he comes in, he'll sing, he’ll dance, he'll cough up a hairball. And he’ll do it with love and gusto.”
Julie Andrews, who voices the regal Queen Lillian, was equally eager to rejoin the Shrek family. “They just asked, and that’s all they had to do,” she says with a smile. “It was so much fun before, so when they asked, I was delighted.”
For the newcomers, the prospect of seeing themselves animated in “Shrek the Third” elicited a variety of responses. Being a fan of the first two films, Justin Timberlake couldn’t wait to do his part for “Shrek the Third.” “To come in and create your own character is really a treat. I'm having a ball doing it,” he says. “Voice acting is so different from any other type of acting. You imagine what your character is going to look and sound like, so your energy is greater than it would normally be.”
Miller, who originally thought of Timberlake to play Artie after being impressed by his work as guest host on “Saturday Night Live,” says that the more time he spent with the performer, the more he was certain Timberlake was bringing something special to the role. “Justin has a certain charm. He is a very natural comedian, and the more we interacted with him, the more the character of Artie became like Justin.”
Warner concurs. “He’s got a great soul and he brings that to Artie. Even when Artie says stuff that isn't necessarily likeable, you can tell he’s just a teenager trying to use this kind of language to kind of cover up his own insecurity.”
Author and comedian Amy Sedaris was initially wary, but soon warmed to the idea of creating a new character on “Shrek the Third.” “No one's ever asked me to play a princess before, so I thought it would be challenging. Once I heard who the other princesses were going be, I couldn’t pass it up.” And there was a second reason. Like Timberlake, Sedaris was excited to amp up the action. “With TV and film, it's always ‘Bring it back; pull it back; make it smaller.’ I never hear that with animation. ‘Can you go bigger?’ And that's my dream – to hear that. ‘Bigger’ and ‘one take’ are my two favorite phrases.”
Being called upon to join the pool of diva princesses was just too good to be true for “Saturday Night Live” star Maya Rudolph as well. Warner raves that “she knocked me out with her beautiful voice.”
“I am part of a really cool group of ladies,” beams Rudolph. “All the princesses are played by great comic ladies, and I was honored to be part of that little group. It’s pretty amazing.”
Another of those great comic ladies is Maya’s “SNL” cohort Amy Poehler, who likes the street-cred her new role gives her with the younger generation. “I'm a pretty cool lady now to a lot of my young cousins, and my friends' kids. It is one of those films that really does span age. Everyone from young to old really likes it. So I felt pretty psyched to be part of it, and I can’t deny that I strutted around a little bit.”
“Amy just seemed to understand the process incredibly well,” says Warner. “I don't know whether that has anything to do with performing on a live show, but she managed to do it without any problem.”
Rounding out the “SNL” trio is alumna Cheri Oteri, who was thrilled to jump into the shoes of Sleeping Beauty. “I felt so lucky and honored to be a part of ‘Shrek’ because the humor is so wonderful, and there are so many subtleties in the characters that make it a great deal of fun to watch.”
“These women are such a solid group of performers and comedians,” raves Miller. “They're incredible at improvisation. You give them a little and they give you back so much more.”
In the case of John Krasinski, the voice of Lancelot, the opportunity to join the cast was truly a lifelong dream. “I will admit now that the one thing in life I've always wanted to do is be in an animated film, and I've been talking about it since I was six, sooo…that's awkward to announce,” he joshes. “But seriously, I was so thrilled to just be a part of this in any way. I've loved the whole series of movies, and to be part of this one is such an honor.”
Warner is among the growing number of people who think Krasinski is a star on the rise. “He’s got great comic timing. He doesn't have a huge part in the film and when we started working with him, we considered how big we could make Lancelot's part, because we loved working with him so much.”
Someone who knows a thing or two about comic timing is legendary British comedian Eric Idle. “He’s a brilliant performer and writer,” says Miller. “It’s great to have Eric in the film and John Cleese as well. They’re two performers I’ve always idolized and they bring a sense of comedic history along with them.”
Idle, who plays Merlin the magician, sees things a little differently. “I think Jeffrey Katzenberg has some old pictures of me from the ‘70s,” he jokes. “He offered to send them to the tabloids. That’s why I agreed to do this.”
The Tech of Shrek
Not content to rest on their laurels, the “Shrek” creative team constantly strives to move past the expected in search of new ways to dazzle moviegoers. Huge leaps in technology have afforded them the ability to refine and enhance important details of the characters – from the enormous presence of Shrek all the way down to the tiny bits of fur on the Three Blind Mice.
DreamWorks Animation developed advanced systems for the two movies “Over the Hedge” and “Madagascar,” which were produced in the years between “Shrek 2” and “Shrek the Third,” and now the filmmakers are pushing the creative envelope once again.
“Going into each new film, we will have a list of tools and techniques that we want to improve,” says Matt Baer, one of the effects supervisors on “Shrek the Third.” “A lot of times, the tricky part is deciding which improvements will have the biggest impact on the show. Almost half the department has worked on almost every ‘Shrek’ film, so we’ve set lofty goals for ourselves.”
“One of the biggest challenges for this film was the fact that it was a number three, and there’s that tendency to kind of just go on autopilot when it's something that you know so well,” says head of layout Nick Walker. “Fortunately, we have people who consistently bring their ‘A’ game and really deliver good quality stuff.”
Another “Shrek” veteran of special effects is Arnauld Lamorlette, who is fascinated by what the latest technological advancements have allowed the filmmakers to do. “It’s basically the difference between drawing and sculpting,” he says. “We have been able to make this film so much more beautiful.”
“I think it's very important that PDI/DreamWorks started as a computer animation company, and we always developed our own software,” says co-director Raman Hui. “When we started working on the movie, we would look at each other and say, ‘Okay, what can we push now?’”
During production on "Shrek the Third," DL145 HP ProLiant servers and HP xw9300 workstations powered by AMD Opteron processors were used by DreamWorks Animation artists, providing them with the computing power necessary to render incredibly detailed characters and simultaneously work on props and environments at a faster pace. The artists were able to create the individual strands of hair in Merlin's beard and Fiona's hair, as well as the impressive magic spells seen in the movie, in a fraction of the time it previously took. Additionally, the production management staff used HP nx6125 notebooks based on AMD Turion 64 X2 dual-core mobile technology to streamline a variety of production activities.
Character Studies
One of the great attributes of the “Shrek” film series is its unique and personable characters. The filmmakers were particularly excited about their new tools, because it meant they would be able to capture the depth and emotion of Shrek and his friends better than ever before. “When we started ‘Shrek the Third,’ we gave a lot of thought to what we were going to do with what we call the ‘legacy characters,’” explains Lucia Modesto, one of the film’s character TD supervisors.
“Shrek, Fiona, Donkey and Dragon are eight-years-old. We can’t handle an eight-year-old character like we do a brand new one, because the technology has changed so drastically. Now, we are able to achieve more. We have more control of the face; we have higher resolution; we’re able to add many details that the original characters didn't have. Since we feel that these characters deserve the best, we decided to redo everything.”
“Our characters have a lot of life to them,” says Tim Cheung, head of character animation. “We’ve added a lot of details to them this time around that are truly astonishing. For instance, when Shrek winces, you can actually see the wrinkles in his nose. We weren’t able to do things like that in the first two films. It really helps to add a sense of realism to the character.”
Enhanced Reality
These details give “Shrek the Third” what Lamorlette calls a new “stylized reality”– a more natural look that adds up to an extraordinary visual experience. “You can really feel the material of the fabric in Fiona’s dress,” explains Hui. “It’s a little bit shinier when it's facing the light. I swear you can feel the texture of it; you can feel the softness.”
“Technologically, this movie has taken a huge leap, which seems to happen every time, but is particularly noticeable this time around,” says director Miller. “The clothes, the princesses’ hair – it's an amazing level of reality.”
Baer echoes that sentiment. “We’ve refined many aspects of our effects work – down to the most subtle details. We developed new hair simulation tools allowing for more realistic motion and collisions with geometry.”
“What we try to do is create a fantasy that is believable,” says production designer Guillaume Aretos. “When you walk into a forest in ‘Shrek,’ you feel as if you can touch the trees or the grass – you can actually feel things.” Character TD supervisor Lawrence D. Cutler was excited about what his team was able to accomplish with the throngs of people in the background during some of the film’s most dramatic scenes. “We were able to populate the world with very different and sophisticated secondary characters. Before the movie started, we created this catalog of nearly 5,000 characters, and we actually made sure each of them was approved by the directors and the art directors. It was the equivalent of having a casting sheet with all the extras at your disposal. In this way we were able to make sure that anyone who appeared in a shot – whether it was a secondary character or even someone way off in the background that you might not even notice – looked good and moved just like they ought to. It’s amazing to see.”
“I think there were something like 4,500 different possibilities, but I think they were narrowed down to about 2,500 different looks for the crowd scenes,” says costume designer Israel Segal. “If you can find two who look alike, you get a reward.”
These advancements do more than provide a treat for the eyes, according to visual effects supervisor Philippe Gluckman. “If you look at the princesses, they wouldn’t be nearly as funny or distinct if we weren’t able to execute all these different hairstyles. Sometimes it actually enables the storytelling. We have one scene in which Shrek and Fiona are in royal outfits and they look ridiculous – they can barely move and, through a series of events, all hell breaks loose. That scene is only possible because we’ve expanded what we could do with our technology.”
The Magic Show
New characters bring with them new opportunities for special effects exploration. One such character who makes his debut in this film is the legendary magician Merlin. “Since Merlin is in ‘Shrek the Third,’ that means a lot of magic,” says Baer. “There has always been magic in the ‘Shrek’ films, but each film has to have its own unique look.”
In this case, Baer and his team had another issue to consider when it came to creating the perfect effects for Merlin. “We came up with this really cool, crazy-looking concept that we suggested to the directors, which we thought was great, but in the end we realized it was too scientific and almost too modern to fit into the ‘Shrek’ universe. So, we went back and made it more medieval. Here's where we enter into a period of discovery with these magic effects.”
“Magic always ends up being the most difficult thing for us – mostly, because it's hard to define,” continues Gluckman. “What magic looks like is very subjective. And with Merlin, of course, he’s a bit rusty with his incantations, so something might start out looking one way and then look completely different when he figures out how to do it right.”
Another discovery that occurred in the animation process was the result of a story twist in “Shrek the Third.” Donkey and Puss In Boots drink a potion and magically switch bodies, and the animators were charged with this tricky task. “I think the biggest challenge for the animators, who were so used to animating Donkey in Donkey's body and Puss in Puss's body, was to transfer their personalities so Puss moves like a cat in a donkey’s body, and he reacts like a cat at times. Yet it's also Puss trying to exist in Donkey's body, which is really awkward. It made for a lot of great comedy.”
Raising The Bar – Again
From the film’s most minute details to its vast environments, “Shrek the Third” sets a new standard in animation. “It is absolutely stunning,” states co-producer Denise Nolan Cascino. “The moment we saw the pencil sketches we knew this was going to be something special. We have a different kind of environment for ‘Shrek The Third’ and it stands out as something very special.”
Aretos describes how some of those special environments came to be: “These creations are getting very challenging. The one at the end, which is a gigantic theater show, is based on medieval machinery in theater and Vatel’s craft for Louis the XIV. It was the most fun to design as well as the most difficult. And, because the film is a road trip, the high school where Arthur is studying is in northern Europe. So, we went with more of a Brittany feel, taking our inspiration for Oxford, as well as monasteries across Europe. The other thing that we did to reinforce the idea of the Northern feeling is that everything happens in fall. We wanted to have an aesthetic shift from the eternal spring we had in the previous two movies and give it a more colorful, and at the same time, deeper, more sentimental feel.”
“Most of the environments in this film are even larger and more detailed than what we saw in ‘Shrek’ and ‘Shrek 2,’ and we tried to stay pretty accurate to the medieval time period,” says art director Peter Zaslav. “Of course, we exaggerated things, we put carvings into the wall and even created a medieval vending machine. If you look closely, you'll spot several clever little jokes. It’s always fun to infuse contemporary humor into a medieval world, so a school bus is a modified carriage. These are the little things that add to the film’s character.”
When they are combined, these new approaches and effects create an amazing new world for “Shrek the Third” – a world the filmmakers could barely imagine when Shrek’s story began. “It’s so great to see it all come together,” says Gluckman. “There are some amazing moments when, after all the years that you put into the movie, you finally see specific characters or shots on screen. It’s a fantastic feeling.”
“Doing animation is like doing magic,” says Hui. “We try to perform magic every day.”
Making Beautiful Music Together
With full knowledge that some show-stopping musical numbers helped define “Shrek” and “Shrek 2,” the filmmakers were again eager to raise the bar with “Shrek the Third.”
“When it comes right down to it, it almost feels like music is half the movie,” says Miller. “It's such a big part of what makes these films work.”
This time, Harry Gregson-Williams, who composed music for the first two “Shrek” films, was not only asked to rejoin the team, but to build on his previous work and move it forward. “It was a great challenge,” says Gregson-Williams. “I do a lot of scores every year, but my children only care that I keep doing the ‘Shrek’ movies. It's been quite a trip. I don’t think any of us knew quite what we were embarking on when we started. I love ‘Shrek the Third.’ It's got all the elements of the first two and more. It's got a slight angle. It's quite subversive in places.”
“It would have been really easy for Harry to kind of give us the stuff he'd done before and call it a day, but this time around, he really amazed us,” says Warner. “He spiced it all up big-time for us. We have this big musical number at the end in which many of the characters are playing instruments they don’t know how to play, so Harry made things sound bad on purpose, which is always hard for a composer to do. Then he had to blend it into the real score. It was a tough job.”
“Film music is very important, and can bring another dimension to what you're seeing on screen – particularly in animation, because remember, in animation there's nothing that’s real,” explains Gregson-Williams. “If this were live action, and Shrek and Arthur were sitting on that log by the fire, there would be sounds of the night; there would be an ambience. But, in this case, you're starting with a blank canvas. What we're doing is filling in the mood.”
Choosing just the right soundtrack is another way to convey the mood of the characters and the story. “Shrek the Third” boasts an impressive array of classic rock songs and new tunes penned specifically for the film.
“It’s really important to us to find music that matches the integrity of the first two films. It's very eclectic, very wide-reaching,” says Warner. “We have a lot of great older songs. We also have new artists who created original songs, and then we have new artists covering older songs. What we always tell bands is that we want the songs to represent the voice of Shrek. That means they've got to be kind of rough, and the feeling needs to be real. We tend to shy away from stuff that's got a lot of production value to it.”
“I remember when we started off, we had a few songs in mind that we sort of built the picture around,” adds Miller. “But as the film changed, so did the songs. We were always searching. It was a vital part of making the film work.”
Among the songs picked to represent Shrek’s story are Wings’ “Live And Let Die,” “Do You Remember Rock ‘N’ Roll Radio” by The Ramones, “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin, “Barracuda” performed by Fergie, “Joker And The Thief” by Wolfmother, “Cat’s In The Cradle” by Harry Chapin, “Thank You (Falettin’ Me Be Mice Elf Again)” by Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas and “Losing Streak” by the eels, as well as an original song by the eels, “Royal Pain.”
The “Shrek the Third” soundtrack will be released by Geffen Records.
2007 Film Entertainment Magazine / EMOL.org. All rights reserved.
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