Shrek is an adaptation and subversion of classic fairy tales. In the original story, the beast turned into a handsome prince with the true love of the beauty. But in the movie, it reverses: the beautiful princess turned into an ugly beast after expressing her love toward Shrek. In addition, the dragon has a feminine character instead of a furious and destructive masculine figure. In fairy tales, the princess are always beautiful and will always find her Mr. Right, who's bound to be handsome and charming. But in this way the character of the protagonists becomes fuzzy and far from the reality. On the contrary, this movie contains more human stuff. Magic or supernatural here aren't that important, what matters is Shrek and Fiona themselves. Shrek wasn't meant to save the princess;the princess wasn't meant to fall in love with him either-but their own decisions brought them together. In the end, Shrek and Fiona, the two ugly ogres, lived happily-They are like all of us. This is not just make -believe. I bet most adults would appreciate this movie because they can see themselves-the imperfect yet unique ones-, which may account for the enormous success of the Shrek series.
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