 crop.jpg)
| Name | Shrek |
|---|---|
| Caption | Theatrical release poster |
| Director | Andrew AdamsonVicky Jenson |
| Producer | Jeffrey KatzenbergAron WarnerJohn H. Williams |
| Writer | |
| Based on | Shrek! by |
| Starring | Mike MyersEddie MurphyCameron DiazJohn Lithgow |
| Music | Harry Gregson-WilliamsJohn Powell |
| Editing | Sim Evan-Jones |
| Studio | DreamWorks AnimationPacific Data Images |
| Distributor | DreamWorks Pictures |
| Released | |
| Runtime | 90 minutes |
| Country | |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $60 million |
| Gross | $484,409,218 |
| Followed by | Shrek 2 |
The film stars Mike Myers as a big, strong, solitude-loving, intimidating ogre named Shrek. Shrek also features Cameron Diaz as the beautiful but very down-to-earth and feisty Princess Fiona, Eddie Murphy as the talkative Donkey, and John Lithgow as the villain Lord Farquaad.
The film was commercially successful on release in 2001 and it helped establish DreamWorks as a prime competitor to Pixar in the field of feature film animation, particularly in computer animation. The film's success also made Dreamworks Animation create three sequels: Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, and Shrek Forever After. There was also a Christmas special called Shrek the Halls and a Halloween special called Scared Shrekless. Furthermore, Shrek was made the mascot for the company's animation productions. It was critically acclaimed as an animated film worthy of adult interest, with many adult-oriented jokes and themes but a simple enough plot and humor to appeal to children. It made notable use of popular music; the soundtrack includes music by Smash Mouth, Eels, Joan Jett, The Proclaimers, Jason Wade, The Baha Men, and John Cale (covering Leonard Cohen).
During June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its "Ten top Ten"; the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community Shrek was acknowledged as the 8th best film in the animated genre, and the only non-Disney-Pixar film on the top ten. It is also third on Bravo's 100 funniest films. Shrek was also ranked second in a Channel 4 poll of the "100 Greatest Family Films", losing out on the top spot to E.T..
Shrek leaves the swamp to ask Farquaad for the return of his privacy, with Donkey happily tagging along. Meanwhile, Farquaad tortures the Gingerbread Man into revealing the whereabouts of the remaining fairytale creatures until his guards rush in with an object Farquaad has been searching for: the Magic Mirror. The Mirror tells him that Farquaad can only become a real king by marrying a princess. The Mirror gives him three princesses to choose from: Cinderella, Snow White, and Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz). Farquaad chooses Fiona and silences the Mirror before he can mention "the little thing that happens at night" (which is later revealed to be a curse).
Shrek and Donkey arrive at Farquaad's palace in Duloc, where they find themselves in the midst of a tournament. The winner will have the "privilege" of attempting to rescue Fiona from a castle surrounded by lava and protected by a fire-breathing dragon so that Farquaad may marry her. Shrek (with some help from Donkey) easily beats the other knights in a fashion that resembles a wrestling match and Farquaad agrees to remove the fairytale creatures from the swamp if Shrek rescues Fiona.
Shrek and Donkey travel to the castle and split up to find Fiona. Donkey encounters the dragon and sweet-talks the beast to save himself before discovering that the dragon is female. Dragon takes a liking to Donkey and carries him to her chambers. When Shrek finds Fiona, she is appalled at his lack of romanticism. As they are leaving, Shrek manages to save Donkey, caught in Dragon's tender clutches, and causing her to become irate, chasing Shrek, Fiona, and Donkey out of the castle. At first, Fiona is thrilled to be rescued but quickly becomes disappointed when she finds out that Shrek is an ogre. The three make their return journey to Farquaad's palace, with Shrek and Fiona finding they have more in common with each other along the way, and falling in love. However, at night, Fiona refuses to camp with them, taking shelter in a nearby cave until morning. Shrek and Donkey stay awake and watch the stars while Shrek informs Donkey that he plans to build a wall around his swamp when he returns. When Donkey persists as to why Shrek would do this, Shrek tells him that everyone judges him before they know him; therefore, he is better off alone.
The next night, Fiona takes shelter in a nearby windmill. When Donkey hears strange noises coming from the windmill, he finds Fiona has turned into an ogress. Fiona explains she was cursed as a child and turns into an ogress every night, which is why she was locked away in the castle, and that only a kiss from her true love will return her to her "true love's form." Shrek, about to confess his feelings for Fiona, overhears part of their conversation, and is heartbroken as he misinterprets her disgust at her transformation into an "ugly beast" as being disgusted with him. Fiona makes Donkey promise not to tell Shrek about the spell, vowing to do it herself, but when the next morning comes, Shrek has brought Lord Farquaad to Fiona. The two return to the castle, while a hurt Shrek returns to the now-vacated swamp.
Shrek finds that, despite his privacy, he is miserable and misses Fiona. Donkey comes to the swamp, angry at Shrek, and Shrek reveals that he overheard their conversation. Donkey keeps his promise to Fiona and tells Shrek that she was talking about someone else. He then tells him that Fiona will be getting married shortly, urging Shrek into action to gain Fiona's true love. They are able to travel to Duloc quickly, thanks to Dragon, who had escaped her confines and followed Donkey. They interrupt the wedding before Farquaad can kiss Fiona, but not before the sun sets, which causes Fiona to turn into an ogress in front of everyone. While her transformation causes Shrek to fully understand what he overheard at the windmill, Farquaad, disgusted over the change, orders Shrek killed and Fiona imprisoned, but Shrek whistles for Dragon, who bursts in and devours Farquaad. Shrek and Fiona admit their love for each other and share a kiss; Fiona is bathed in light as her curse is broken, but is surprised to find that she has remained an ogress. Shrek calms her by assuring her that she is still beautiful. The two of them get married in the swamp and depart on their honeymoon while the rest celebrate by singing "I'm a Believer".
Chris Farley was originally going to do the voice for Shrek and recorded at least half of the dialogue for the character, but died before the project was completed. DreamWorks then re-cast the voice role to Mike Myers. After Myers had completed providing the voice for the character, and the film was well into production, he asked to re-record all of his lines in a Scottish accent similar to the one his mother had used when she told him bedtime stories. Myers had also employed a Scottish accent for a Saturday Night Live skit, a sketch in Wayne's World 2 and also for the characters Stuart MacKenzie in the motion picture So I Married an Axe Murderer, and Fat Bastard in and Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Don Bluth revealed in an interview that halfway through production of An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, Steven Spielberg approached Bluth with the concept of making Shrek as a traditionally animated film. Bluth agreed, and throughout the rest of the production of Fievel Goes West, he thought about what he was going to do to expand a small story into a feature length script. Spielberg only had two demands: Bill Murray would play Shrek and Steve Martin would play Donkey; both actors were available at the time. However, when Fievel Goes West was released in cinemas, Spielberg spoke highly of it, but spoke even more highly of rival Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Bluth felt betrayed by this, leading to a bitter falling out between the two and Shrek being put in development hell.[Citation needed]
Shrek was originally set up to be animated as stop-motion. The tests were too costly and the executives were not pleased with the overall look and lack of facial expression in the main character. A test was then shot on live-action background plate miniature sets and the main characters were composited into the scene as computer graphics. Again, the look of the technique of the test wasn't conducive to produce an entire feature length animated film so the entire test was done as full computer graphics. Shrek was born and the project was green lit.
Early sketches of Shrek saw Shrek first living in a garbage dump near a human village called Wart Creek. It was also thought one time that he lived with his parents and kept rotting fish in his bedroom. These sketches were done in 1996/1997.
Donkey was modeled after Pericles, a real miniature donkey from Barron Park, Palo Alto, California.
Roger Ebert praised the film, giving it four stars out of a possible four and describing it as "jolly and wicked, filled with sly in-jokes and yet somehow possessing a heart."
Category:Shrek films Category:2001 films Category:American animated films Category:Best Animated Feature Academy Award winners Category:Annie Award winners Category:Computer-animated films Category:DreamWorks Animation films Category:American fantasy-comedy films Category:American children's fantasy films Category:Films based on children's books Category:Films directed by Andrew Adamson Category:American parody films Category:Films featuring anthropomorphic characters Category:English-language films Category:DreamWorks films Category:Animated features released by DreamWorks SKG
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Rufus Wainwright |
|---|---|
| Background | solo_singer |
| Birth name | Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright |
| Nickname | RuE |
| Born | July 22, 1973Rhinebeck, New York, United States |
| Origin | Montreal, Canada |
| Instrument | Vocals, piano, guitar |
| Genre | Baroque pop, Operatic pop |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Label | Geffen Records Dreamworks Records |
| Url | www.rufuswainwright.com |
Wainwright came out as gay while a teenager. In 1999, he told Rolling Stone that his father recognized his homosexuality early on. "We'd drive around in the car, he'd play 'Heart of Glass' and I'd sort of mouth the words, pretend to be Blondie. Just a sign of many other things to come as well." Wainwright later said in another interview that his "mother and father could not even handle me being gay. We never talked about it really."
Wainwright became interested in opera during his adolescent years, and the genre strongly influences his music. (For instance, the song "Barcelona" features lyrics from the libretto of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, Macbeth.) During this time, he became interested in Édith Piaf, Al Jolson, and Judy Garland.
At 14, Wainwright was sexually assaulted in London's Hyde Park after picking up a man at a bar. In an interview years later, he described the event: "I said I wanted to go to the park and see where this big concert was going on. I thought it was going to be a romantic walk in the park, but he raped me and robbed me afterwards and tried to strangle me".
Wainwright toured with Sean Lennon in 1998 and began his first headline tour later that year. In December 1998, he appeared in a Gap commercial directed by Phil Harder, performing Frank Loesser's "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?". In March 1999, Wainwright began a headlining tour at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Wainwright became addicted to crystal meth in the early 2000s and temporarily lost his vision. His addiction reached its peak in 2002, during what he described as "the most surreal week of my life." During that week, he played a cameo role in the UK comedy television program, Absolutely Fabulous, spent several nights partying with George W. Bush's daughter Barbara, enjoyed a "debauched evening" with his mother and Marianne Faithfull, sang with Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons for Zaldy's spring 2003 collection, and experienced recurring hallucinations of his father throughout. He decided after that he "was either going to rehab or I was going to live with my father. I knew I needed an asshole to yell at me, and I felt he fit the bill."
Want One and Want Two were repackaged as Want for a November 2005 release to coincide with the beginning of a British tour. This version of Want One contains two extra songs: "Es Muß Sein" and "Velvet Curtain Rag". The Want package in the UK has two bonus tracks: "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" (a Leonard Cohen cover) and "In With the Ladies", which replace "Coeur de Parisienne — Reprise d'Arletty" and "Quand Vous Mourez de Nos Amours" from 2004's augmented edition.
Wainwright's fifth studio album, Release the Stars, was released by Geffen on May 15, 2007. The album was produced by Wainwright and featured Richard Thompson, friend Teddy Thompson, sister Martha Wainwright, mother Kate McGarrigle, Neil Tennant, Joan Wasser, Julianna Raye, Larry Mullins (professionally known as Toby Dammit), and actress Siân Phillips. It reached #2 on the UK Albums Chart, and debuted at #23 on the Billboard 200. The first single, "Going to a Town", was released on April 3, 2007 in the iTunes Music Store. The second single released was "Rules and Regulations", and the third single was a 500-copy (12" vinyl) release of "Tiergarten", a one-track EP with the Supermayer remix of Tiergarten, which was released exclusively through iTunes and 7digital on October 29.
Two video clips were released for the album: "Going to a Town", directed by Sophie Muller, and "Rules and Regulations", directed by Petro Papahadjopoulos and styled by J.W. Anderson. Release the Stars was certified gold in the UK. The accompanying world tour saw Wainwright visit North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, ending on February 14, 2008 with a concert at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
On June 10, 2006, NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday broadcast an interview of Wainwright by Scott Simon. The segment concerned Wainwright's sold-out pair of Carnegie Hall shows on June 14 and June 15, 2006 in which he performed the entire Judy Garland concert album that was recorded there in 1961. He later repeated his performance at the London Palladium, the Paris Olympia, and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. Live CD and DVD recordings of the concerts were released on December 4, 2007. The DVD is entitled . The CD album, Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall, is a recording of his show at the legendary New York venue. In 2008, Garland's daughter Lorna Luft expressed strong approval of Wainwright's recordings of her mother's songs. The album was nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album.
As the sun sets on the evening of Blackoutsabbath, participants write ways they can contribute to the Earth's well-being throughout the rest of the year. Annual benefit concerts take place to raise awareness of the cause. Special guests performing at the concert included Joan Wasser, Jenni Muldaur, and friend and fellow singer-songwriter Teddy Thompson. The organization's official site contains updates about the program and contains links to various tools, green products and services, studies, and groups that promote energy conservation and environmental protection.
Following his 2007–2008 tour, Wainwright began writing his first opera, Prima Donna, about "a day in the life of an opera singer", anxiously preparing for her comeback, who falls in love with a journalist. There are four characters, and the libretto is in French. The opera was originally commissioned by Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb. However, because of a dispute over Wainwright's decision to write the libretto in French and the Met's inability to schedule an opening in the 2009 season, Wainwright and the Met have ended their relationship. Instead of a New York opening, Prima Donna was staged during the Manchester International Festival, where the first performance took place at the Palace Theatre on July 10, 2009. Reviews for the performance were mixed, with one publication suggesting Wainwright "may struggle to convince critics he is worthy of a place among the greats".
In December 2008 Rufus performed alongside his sister, Martha Wainwright, and mother Kate McGarrigle as well as many more of his family at the Knitting Factory in downtown Manhattan. Joined by other artists such as Grammy Award-winner Emmylou Harris, Velvet Underground front man Lou Reed and famed performance artist Laurie Anderson, the eclectic cast performed original and traditional Christmas-themed songs. In November 2009 Revelation Films released the concert on DVD.
In November 2009, Wainwright announced that he had finished recording his sixth studio album, and was calling it . The album was released on March 23 in Canada, April 5 in the UK and April 20 in the US, with the first single "Who Are You New York?".
In December 2009, Wainwright appeared with sister Martha Wainwright and mother Kate McGarrigle at the Royal Albert Hall in London, raising $55,000 for the Kate McGarrigle Fund, which was established in 2008 to raise awareness of sarcoma, a rare cancer that affects connective tissue such as bone, muscle, nerves, and cartilage. It was the last performance made by his mother before her death in January 2010.
In April 2010, Wainwright came out publicly in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States because he wishes to marry his partner of five years, Jorn Weisbrodt. Wainwright stated, "I wasn't a huge gay marriage supporter before I met Jorn because I love the whole old-school promiscuous Oscar Wilde freak show of what 'being gay' once was. But since meeting Jorn that all changed."
He often performs with his sister, Martha Wainwright, on backup vocals. Despite critical acclaim, Wainwright has experienced limited commercial success in the United States, although the release of Release the Stars saw increased media attention there, as did the associated 2007 U.S. tour.
Stephen Petronio commissioned Wainwright to write a score for his dance production BLOOM, which was performed at Joyce Theater in New York in April 2006. For the lyrics, the two selected poems by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, and Petronio arranged for the Young People's Choir of New York to sing them.
In May 2006, Wainwright was one of three guests (along with Robbie Williams and Frances Barber) to star with the Pet Shop Boys in a concert at London's Mermaid Theatre. He covered the Pet Shop Boys' "Casanova in Hell" (from Fundamental). The critically acclaimed show was broadcast on the UK's BBC Radio 2 and repeated on BBC 6 Music, and released as a CD (Concrete) in October 2006.
In June 2007, Wainwright was a part of the multi-artist True Colors Tour, which traveled through 15 cities in the United States and Canada. The tour, sponsored by the Logo channel, began on June 8, 2007. Hosted by comedian Margaret Cho and headlined by Cyndi Lauper, the tour included Debbie Harry, The Gossip, the Indigo Girls, The Dresden Dolls, The MisShapes, and Erasure. Profits went to the Human Rights Campaign. In August 2007, Wainwright said that he considered it a "great honor" to perform on the gay rights tour.
Wainwright continued to tour during 2007 and embraced forms of expression not usually part of mainstream American music concerts. These included dressing in red lipstick and stiletto heeled shoes to perform Judy Garland songs, and expressing his concerns against the current U.S. political situation. His performances were critically acclaimed.
In April 2009, Wainwright worked with the Berliner Ensemble and the avant-garde director Robert Wilson, who hired Wainwright to supply the music for a joint staging of Shakespeares Sonette based on Shakespeare's sonnets.
Religion and religious imagery also appear in his music ("Agnus Dei", "Gay Messiah", and "Greek Song"). Wainwright also sings about experiences in the world and distant geography ("Oh What a World" and "April Fools"). Several songs address his experiences with crystal meth and rehab ("Go Or Go Ahead" and "I Don't Know What It Is"). Wainwright wrote the song "Millbrook" about his high school, Millbrook School in affluent Millbrook, New York. The song "Matinee Idol" from that album was written about River Phoenix. "Memphis Skyline" is a tribute to the late singer Jeff Buckley, who drowned in Memphis in the Wolf River (a tributary of the Mississippi) on May 29, 1997. The two met briefly in the 1990s when Wainwright was an up-and-coming act. By this time, Buckley had already released his first album Grace, and was well on his way to stardom. He has said that he had been irritated that Buckley played at Sin-é, a café on the Lower East Side, as Wainwright had been rejected three times by the club. The two met several months prior to Buckley's drowning, during a gig by Wainwright. Buckley helped out with some technical problems, and the two chatted over beers for a few hours. The song references "Hallelujah", a Leonard Cohen song covered by Buckley (and later by Wainwright).
The song "Sanssouci" ("carefree" in French) was inspired by 18th century Prussian monarch Frederick the Great's Rococo summer palace of the same name in Potsdam, outside Berlin, Germany. "Tiergarten", also from Release the Stars, refers to the Berlin Tiergarten, and is written about his boyfriend of three years, German arts administrator Jörn Weisbrodt.
Also from Release the Stars, "Nobody's Off the Hook" is said to be written to close friend and fellow musician Teddy Thompson, whom Wainwright has known for about 10 years.
Category:1973 births Category:Living people Category:American male singers Category:American musicians of Irish descent Category:American pop singers Category:American pop pianists Category:American singer-songwriters Category:English-language singers Category:French-language singers Category:Latin-language singers Category:People from Montreal Category:People from Dutchess County, New York Category:Canadian pop pianists Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian people of Irish descent Category:Canadian pop singers Category:Canadian singer-songwriters Category:LGBT musicians from Canada Category:LGBT musicians from the United States Category:People self-identifying as substance abusers Category:American people of Canadian descent Category:American libertarians Category:Canadian libertarians Category:Stuyvesant family Category:Anglophone Quebec people
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
