Shrek 2 is a 2004 American animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, and Conrad Vernon from a screenplay by Adamson, Joe Stillman, and the writing team of J. David Stem and David N. Weiss. Loosely based on the 1990 children's picture book Shrek! by William Steig, it is a direct sequel to Shrek (2001) and the second installment in the Shrek film series. The film stars Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz, who reprise their respective voice roles of Shrek, Donkey, and Princess Fiona. They are joined by new characters voiced by Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, and Jennifer Saunders. Shrek 2 takes place following the events of the first film, with Shrek and Donkey meeting Fiona's parents while the zealous Fairy Godmother, who wants Fiona to marry her son Prince Charming, plots to destroy Shrek and Fiona's marriage. Shrek and Donkey team up with a sword-wielding cat named Puss in Boots to foil her plans.
Development began in 2001, and following disagreements with producers, the first film's screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were replaced with Adamson. The story was inspired by Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), and new animation tools were utilized to improve the visual appearance of each character, particularly Puss. The lead actors also received a significant bump in salary to $10 million, which at the time was among the highest contracts in their respective careers. Like its predecessor, Shrek 2 also parodies other films based on fairy tales and features references to American popular culture. The film is dedicated to the memory of Shrek creator William Steig, who died on October 3, 2003, seven months before the film was released.
Shrek 2 premiered at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival on May 15, 2004, where it competed for the Palme d'Or, and was released in theaters on May 19, by DreamWorks Pictures. Like its predecessor, it received positive reviews from critics and is considered by many to be one of the best sequel films ever made. The film grossed $933.8 million worldwide, and scored the second-largest three-day opening weekend in United States history and the largest opening for an animated film at the time of its release. It went on to become the highest-grossing film of 2004 and the fifth-highest-grossing film overall at the time of its release. Shrek 2 is also DreamWorks Animation's highest-grossing film to date and the highest-grossing film released by DreamWorks Pictures, and it held the title of being the highest-grossing animated film of all time worldwide until Pixar Animation Studios' Toy Story 3 surpassed it in 2010. The film received two Academy Award nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, and its associated soundtrack charted in the Top 10 on the US Billboard 200. Two sequels—Shrek the Third (2007) and Shrek Forever After (2010)—had soon followed, with an upcoming sequel, Shrek 5, scheduled to be released on June 30, 2027. The film's character Puss in Boots has also received his own series of spin-off media—a feature film Puss in Boots (2011), a streaming series The Adventures of Puss in Boots (2015–2018), and a sequel film Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)—following his debut.
Plot
Newlyweds Shrek and Princess Fiona return from their honeymoon to find they have been invited by Fiona's parents to a royal ball to celebrate their marriage. Though Shrek is mortified about visiting the kingdom as an ogre, and resents Fiona's parents for locking her in the tower, Fiona convinces him to attend, and they travel to the kingdom of Far Far Away with Donkey in tow and the fairy tale creatures house sitting. They meet Fiona's parents, King Harold and Queen Lillian, who are repulsed to see they are ogres. At dinner, Shrek and Harold get into a heated argument, and afterwards, Fiona encounters Fairy Godmother, a celebrity potions saleswoman who offers to help Fiona but is mortified to see she is married to Shrek. Shrek worries he is losing Fiona, especially after finding her childhood diary and reading that she was once seemingly infatuated with Prince Charming.
Harold is secretly reprimanded by Fairy Godmother, who had arranged with Harold for her son—Charming—to be the one to rescue and marry Fiona; she hopes to use the marriage to rule Far Far Away through Charming. She orders Harold to get rid of Shrek or else lose his own happy ending, so Harold hires swashbuckling outlaw and mercenary Puss in Boots to assassinate Shrek.
Unable to overpower Shrek, Puss reveals that he was paid by Harold and offers to help him in gratitude for having his own life spared. Shrek, Donkey, and Puss meet with Fairy Godmother at her potions factory to find something to help Shrek appeal to Fiona, but she coldly rejects his request, insisting ogres do not deserve happy endings. They retaliate by stealing a potion labeled "Happily Ever After" and accidentally trashing the factory. Shrek and Donkey drink the potion and soon fall asleep. Back in Far Far Away, Fiona notices Shrek is missing and tries to find him, but she too falls asleep.
The next morning, Shrek and Fiona awaken to find they are now human, and Donkey is a white stallion. To make the change permanent, Shrek must kiss Fiona by midnight. Shrek, Donkey, and Puss return to the castle; however, Fairy Godmother, having discovered the theft, has sent Charming to pose as human Shrek and win Fiona's love. At Fairy Godmother's urging, Shrek leaves the castle, believing that the best way to make Fiona happy is to let her go.
Fiona is skeptical of Charming; therefore, to ensure the two will wed, Fairy Godmother gives Harold a love potion to put into Fiona's tea. This exchange is overheard by Shrek, Donkey, and Puss, who are arrested by the royal knights after Donkey inadvertently exposes them. While the ball begins, the fairy tale creatures - having seen the arrest on the news - rescue the trio from the dungeon. They all storm the castle with the help of Mongo, a monstrous living gingerbread man created by the Muffin Man.
Though Mongo is destroyed, the group manages to break into the ball. Shrek fails to prevent Charming from kissing Fiona, but instead of falling in love, Fiona knocks him out. Harold reveals that he swapped Fiona's tainted teacup with his own, refusing to go through with the plot. Livid, the Fairy Godmother tries to strike Shrek with a spell from her magic wand. Harold jumps in front of it and is struck; the rest of the spell reflects off his breastplate and hits the Fairy Godmother, causing her to disintegrate into bubbles.
Harold reverts to his true form as the Frog Prince, having used the "Happily Ever After" potion years earlier to gain Lillian's love. He approves of Shrek and Fiona's marriage, while Lillian assures Harold that she still loves him. As the clock strikes midnight, Fiona declines Shrek's offer to remain human, and they revert to ogres, while Donkey also returns to normal, much to his sadness. Everyone celebrates as the ball continues. In a mid-credits scene, Dragon, who had recently married Donkey, arrives with several dragon-donkey hybrid babies.
Voice cast
Mike Myers as Shrek Eddie Murphy as Donkey Cameron Diaz as Princess Fiona Julie Andrews as Queen Lillian Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots John Cleese as King Harold Rupert Everett as Prince Charming Jennifer Saunders as Fairy Godmother Larry King as Doris the Ugly Stepsister Jonathan Ross provides the voice for the British version Aron Warner as Big Bad Wolf Cody Cameron as: Pinocchio The Three Little Pigs Christopher Knights and Simon J. Smith as Three Blind Mice Conrad Vernon as: Gingy Muffin Man Mongo Cedric Announcer Chris Miller as Magic Mirror Mark Moseley as Dresser Kelly Cooney Cilella as Fast Food Clerk Kelly Asbury as: Page Elf Nobleman Nobleman's son Andrew Adamson as Captain of the Guard
Cameos Joan Rivers' cameo as herself marked the first time that a real person had been represented on screen by the Shrek animation team. Her part (though retaining her visual representation) was re-dubbed by presenter Kate Thornton for the United Kingdom release. Simon Cowell appears as himself on Far Far Away Idol, a parody of American Idol, on the DVD special features and just before the credits on the American VHS edition (see Home Media).
Production
In 2001, soon after the original Shrek proved to be a hit, Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz negotiated an upfront payment of $10 million each for voicing a sequel to the film. This pay increase represented a significant rise from the $350,000 salary that each of the three were paid for the first film. According to Jeffrey Katzenberg, the executive producer of Shrek 2 and a co-founder of DreamWorks Pictures, who led the negotiations, the payments were probably the highest in the actors' entire careers. Each of the actors were expected to work between 15 and 18 hours in total. The film was produced with a $70 million budget.
Director Andrew Adamson returned to direct Shrek 2, after previously directing the first Shrek film. Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the screenwriters and co-producers of the first film, insisted that the sequel would be a traditional fairytale, but after disagreements with the producers, they left the project and were replaced by Adamson. His writing for Shrek 2 was inspired by the 1967 comedy-drama film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and was completed with the help of the film's co-writers Joe Stillman (one of the other writers from the first film), and screenwriting duo J. David Stem and David N. Weiss, and co-directors, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon, the latter two of whom spent most of the film's production duration in Northern California while Adamson spent most of his time with the film's voice actors in Glendale, California.
DreamWorks began production of Shrek 2 in 2001, before the first Shrek film was completed. The studio added more human characters to the film than there were in its predecessor and improved character appearance and movement with the use of several new animation/rendering systems.The Tech of Shrek 2 – Shrek 2 DVD. Retrieved July 8, 2011. In particular, Puss in Boots necessitated development of a whole new set of film production tools to handle the appearance of his fur, belt, and hat plume; Puss' fur especially required an upgrade to the fur shader. All of the character setup was completed in the first three years of production.
In an early version of Shrek 2, Shrek abdicated the throne, and called for a fairy tale election. Pinocchio's campaign was an "honesty" campaign, while Gingy's was a "smear" campaign. Adamson said that although this plot did have many funny ideas, it was also too overtly satiric and political, and considered "more intellectual than emotional". Shrek 2 also appears much darker in terms of lighting when compared to the original film. Designers reportedly took inspiration from 19th century French illustrator and engraver Gustav Doré to improve the film's richness of detail and setting. According to production designer Guillaume Aretos, "There are a lot of medieval paintings and illustrations [and] my own influences, which are classical paintings from the 15th and 16th centuries...The design of Shrek is always a twist on reality anyway, so we tried to [pack] as much detail and interest as we could in the imagery."
Casting