The first 'Shrek' movie came out in 2001, and audiences fell in love with the grouchy, kindhearted ogre. Originally, Chris Farley was hired to voice the character, and recorded almost all of the dialogue, but before he could finish, he tragically died from an accidental drug overdose. Fellow Saturday Night Live alum Mike Meyers was brought in to replace him, and decided to give the antennae-eared ogre a Scottish accent. Today it's hard to imagine him with any other voice, isn't it?
And who could forget Eddie Murphy as the hyper-active Donkey, Cameron Diaz as the independent princess Fiona and John Lithgow as the greedy Lord Farquaad? The celebrity cast combines with thr hilarious parodies of classic fairy tales created an instant hit. And like every successful movie, it became a franchise, spawning three sequels, two TV specials, a 4-D theme park ride, a Puss in Boots spin-off movie, a Puss in Boots spin-off TV series, and many short films.
The Shrek franchise has been dormant since 2010, but obsessed fans have kept it alive through memes. Some of the memes are inexplicably weird, like fan-art of Shrek in love with Shadow the Hedgehog, the dark anti-hero from the Sonic video game And some of them are very NSFW, like the YouTube series Sherk, and the metameme story "Shrek is love, Shrek is life." These fans affectionately call themselves 'brogres,' a portmanteau of 'bro' and 'ogre,' and a play on how adult My Little Pony fans call themselves bronies. (And yes, that's a thing.)
Well, rejoice, brogres! Variety reports that Chris Meledandri, the creator of Despicable Me, is rebooting both Shrek and Puss in Boots. And don't worry - the plan is bring back the celebrity voice cast, which includes Myers, Murphy and Antonio Banderas.
"When you look back on those vocal performances they’re awesome, and while you certainly could make a case for a complete reinvention, I find myself responding to my own nostalgic feelings of wanting to go back to those characterizations," stated Meledandri. (No word yet on if the soundtrack will still include that timeless classic, All-Star by Smash Mouth.)
The plan is to revive the franchise with a new movie that doesn't feel like Shrek: Chapter Five. "The challenge for us has been to find something that really does feel like it’s not simply yet another film in a series of sequels," explained Meledandri. "There’s a tremendous amount of fun to be had in that world, but it’s a high bar to find a story that’s truly world," said Meledandri. “You want to find something in the narrative that really feels like a departure."
Well, I guess we'll to wait and see if Meledandri can pull off a Shrek reboot. Maybe in this one, they'll do parodies of Pixar films? Anyway, in the meantime, there's plenty of dank, disturbing Shrek memes on the internet. But be warned - what you see, you cannot unsee.
