Celebrating a Life of Shrek

By Jakob Johns | Misfit Media Columnist

Somebody once told me that Shrek was their favourite film, unironically, and I didn’t hesitate to believe them. It’s not my personal go-to for number one, since I’m a snobby asshat, but seeing someone my age declare love for Shrek is like seeing a fellow patriot raise a flag. It’s not about personal preference – it’s about the respect.

Just like the film, part of me is just being a bit of a meme, but the rest of me is being completely genuine. Shrek came out in 2001, directly in the middle of the zoomer-era of births, and in fact the year I was born. This year, it turns 20. They’ll be late to the party in Hollywood thanks to their weird-ass law against drinking before 21, but here, we’ll be raising a glass to our green boy (as we have been for a little while).

I wholeheartedly believe Shrek is a culture milestone for this generation. You’ve either grown up with the film, been born with it, or grown up alongside the memetic ripples in internet culture. The movie has had the absolute shit memed out of it for a decade now, meaning it’s difficult to watch it with the original effect (I mean, watching Shrek bust out of that toilet alone has an uncanny effect nowadays). But, thanks to the memes that have come about over time, a finer layer of hilarity has coated the aging flick, making it twice as charming as it was originally, like a cinematic George Clooney.

But even without that, Shrek speaks for us on an even deeper layer than that. It tells us not to judge by appearances. It tells us to be happy with ourselves, inside and out. It tells us to be wary of those that use power to compensate for themselves in petty ways. It tells us that humble homes can beat cold castles. It tells us that learning about others can teach us things by ourselves, and similarly, doing right by others can do right by us.

It’s also actually really high quality, even without the memes and morals. Mike Myers and Eddie Murphey kill it and the writing is terrific. As I’m sure many great critics have said at some point: films are like onions – they have layers.