I had to. Shrek (2001) is one of my favorite movies ever, and Jessica had never once seen it.
I have many fond memories of Shrek as a kid. I remember that my brother and I had a CD with all the songs that were in Shrek 2, I believe, and it became one of our most-used. It was used so much that the entire back of the CD was scratched beyond oblivion. I still don’t know how we managed that.
Getting back to the movie, I picked it for this week as I wanted Jessica to watch it. By the time we got around to watching a movie on the night that we did, I didn’t want to torture both of us with a movie that was over 2 hours. While I originally had no thoughts that were pointing me to choosing Shrek, it appeared before me on the TV screen.
Now, Jessica will say that I “cheated” by picking Shrek because I have already seen it, but oh well! I may have seen it before, but it’s the first time we are watching it together, and that she is watching it at all, so it’s basically my first time too, right?
Shrek goes through “The Hero’s Journey,” which is a common movie trope. In short, the “hero” of the story has a call to adventure that causes them to leave their “ordinary world,” has aids in this adventure, has challenges that ultimately culminate in a “death and rebirth” that continues on the hero’s journey back home from the “special world,” and returns to their ordinary world a new person.
Shrek is ultimately alone in his swamp at the beginning of the story. He has no desire to leave and only does so because his isolation is disrupted. Donkey is his aid in his adventure to the world outside of the swamp, and he is tasked with saving Princess Fiona for Lord Farquaad so that the Lord can marry her and become a King.
On this journey, we discover that Shrek’s isolation is imposed upon himself as he feels that everyone just judges him for how he looks as an Ogre, and not who he is as a person. Shrek and Fiona ultimately fall in love on the way back. Unbeknownst to Shrek, Fiona turns into an Ogre at night, and she is afraid to share this with Shrek.
The two have a falling out after a misunderstanding where Shrek believes Fiona is talking about him being an ugly creature that nobody can love, but she was talking about herself. Shrek shuts the door on a relationship with Fiona due to this misunderstanding and returns to his swamp.
Donkey eventually tells Shrek the truth behind what was said, and the two go to the kingdom to free the Princess from her marriage to the Lord. After the Lord is eaten by a dragon, Shrek and Fiona kiss, and it is revealed to be out of true love, and the two live happily ever after.
Unsurprisingly to me, Jessica loved the movie. Her review follows below.
“I didn’t expect Cyrus to pick Shrek because he had already watched it before, and I feel like that’s cheating a little bit, but it’s okay.
I actually have basically never watched Shrek before. I know, crazy, but I recall trying to watch it a few times, and then I just never got to the end. Watching it finally, I realized I literally watched not even like five minutes of the start of it, so I basically had never watched anything.
I thought this would be some sort of villain story, not a straight-up love story. I figured Shrek would have to have some kind of a battle with Lord Farquaad than he did. The way that he ended up getting Princess Fiona was surprising to me. I figured that Lord Farquaad was lying to him about needing to save the princess, and it would be some sort of setup.
I was thinking there would be more malicious intent to the movie, and there wasn’t, which was really sweet. It’s nice to have a movie that is mostly just all happy and positive things, especially the love story at the end.
It was actually kind of funny, too, because I recall seeing an ogre that looked like Fiona as an ogre, and I had mentioned it to Cyrus. I was like, ‘I swear she was an ogre’ because I had seen her as the princess as a human, and I was like, no, that’s weird. He said, ‘No, that must’ve been some fan edit,’ and lo and behold, she became an ogre.
I think it’s such a feel-good movie, and with all the good tunes, I will say I really do like animated movies more than anything else. Really good movie, and now I want to watch Shrek 2 to see what happens next. I give it a five out of five. It was really cute. I loved it.”
Well, I did not expect Jessica to give Shrek a perfect five out of five stars. I am glad that we can agree! Shrek is one of my favorite movies of all time, and certainly my favorite movie as a kid. I am glad that our love for the movie could be shared. I would totally recommend this movie to couples, even if both have already seen it!
Jessica’s rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cyrus’ rating – ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Check out our review of The Drama (2026)!
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