Imagining Shrek by Steven Spielberg: Shrek, the beloved animated film, was produced by DreamWorks Animation, a company co-founded by Steven Spielberg. However, not many people know that Spielberg had bought the rights to a children’s book called Shrek! by William Steig in 1991, long before the inception of the animation studio.
Although Spielberg moved on to other projects, he always had a vision for the now-famous animated feature. Murray and Martin were his top choices to play the lead roles of the ogre and donkey, respectively. Even though Spielberg did not continue working on the project, imagining Shrek through his directorial vision is intriguing.
Imagining Shrek by Steven Spielberg
If asked to write a screenplay on the development process of Shrek, the animation team behind the project would tell you that it would easily be categorized as horror. DreamWorks experienced difficulties around every corner of Shrek’s production, which goes down as a severe case of development hell for years.
The animation process was absurd, and so much help was needed on the film that animators were reassigned from other projects to work on Shrek, which eventually became known as being “Shreked” and being sent to “the Gulag.”
Andrew Adamson and Kelly Asbury were set to co-direct, but the latter left the project in 1998 to work on Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. An American director named Vicky Jenson eventually replaced Asbury, and the project was greenlit with the two directors finally decided on. Although there’s no telling what the finished product would’ve been like by comparison, there’s also no doubt that a Shrek adaptation by Steven Spielberg would’ve been a sight to behold.
Spielberg has only one animated outing under his directorial belt: The Adventures of Tintin. It was based off a comic book of the same name from Belgian artist Hergé. In terms of success, Tintin made $374 million at the worldwide box office off a $135 million budget, and it holds a 74% approval rating on critical consensus website Rotten Tomatoes. Spielberg was more than capable of creating a high-quality animated outing based on someone else’s material.
Spielberg originally wanted a traditionally animated adaptation of Shrek produced specifically by Amblin Entertainment. Chris Farley was cast as the titular ogre, but unfortunately, he passed away in 1997. Mike Myers then gave the character his trademark Scottish accent.
Ultimately, Shrek was undoubtedly in the correct hands with Adamson and Jensbury. The movie made $491.8 million in ticket sales off a budget of $60 million and received widespread acclaim from industry pundits and general film fans alike, boasting an 88% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Shrek became the first-ever winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 74th ceremony and has been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry. Although there’s no telling if Spielberg’s version would have garnered those same honors, it’s still exciting to imagine what could have been.
Starring Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, and Cameron Diaz, Shrek was made by DreamWorks Animation, a company that Steven Spielberg co-founded. But before the inception of that famous animation studio, near the turn of the decade in 1991, he bought the rights to a children’s book called Shrek!written by William Steig. And despite moving onto other projects as the decade went by, Spielberg nonetheless had a vision in mind for the now-famous animated feature.
He wanted Bill Murray to play the titular ogre, while Steve Martin was his first choice for Donkey. That wouldn’t be the cast he moved forward with for the short time that Spielberg actually worked on the project. But with the director’s penchant for adding scenes to screenplays and storyboards in tandem with the vastly disparate voices in the lead roles, imagining Shrek through the family-oriented, adventure-packed lens of Spielberg’s directorial vision nonetheless makes for an intriguing prospect.
The Development Process of Shrek
If asked to write a screenplay on the development process of Shrekthe animation team behind the project would tell you its genre off the bat, before any outlining or storyboarding had even been contemplated: it would easily be categorized as horror. DreamWorks experienced travails around every corner of Shrek’s production — which, for what it’s worth, goes down as a severe case of development hell for years thanks to one primary travail.
The animation process was absurd. Eventually, so much help was needed on the film at hand that DreamWorks would reassign animators who came up short with other projects to come and work on Shrek. Working on the outing in that particular capacity eventually became known as being “Shreked” and being sent to “the Gulag”. And those are only the stories of its problematic animating efforts.
Andrew Adamson and Kelly Asbury were set to co-direct, but the latter left the project in 1998 to work on Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), an animated film with Matt Damon in the titular role. An American director named Vicky Jenson eventually replaced Asbury, and the project was greenlit with the two directors finally decided on. And although there’s no telling what the finished product would’ve been like by comparison, there’s also no doubt that a Shrek adaptation by Steven Spielberg would’ve been a sight to behold.
What Would Shrek Have Been Like if Steven Spielberg Directed It?
Throughout his vast, critically acclaimed filmography, Spielberg has only one animated outing under his directorial belt: The Adventures of Tintin (2010). It was based off a comic book of the same name from Belgian artist Hergé. And in terms of success, Tintin made $374 at the worldwide box office off a $135 million budget, and it holds a 74% approval rating on critical consensus website Rotten Tomatoes. Obviously, this proved that Spielberg was more than capable of creating a high-quality animated outing based of someone else’s material.
That was usually the case with Spielberg — even with more than thirty features among his filmography, Spielberg only wrote the scripts to four of his titles. Aside from those, he was picked to direct the scripts of many famous screenwriters, like Steven Zaillian and Lawrence Kasdan. And with regard to Shrekwith a screenplay from four screenwriters collaboratively, Spielberg originally wanted a traditionally animated adaptation produced specifically by Amblin Entertainment.
And it actually made decent headway. Chris Farley was cast as the titular ogre, and he even recorded the majority of his dialogue. Unfortunately for film fans around the world, Farley passed away in 1997. That’s when Mike Myers hopped on board and gave the character his trademark Scottish accent. Imagining Chris Farley in the titular role should be easy thanks to his boisterous intonations and lively laughter. It would have been quite the vocal performance to take in.
But ultimately, Shrek was undoubtedly in the correct hands with Adamson and Jensbury. The movie wound up making $491.8 million in ticket sales off a budget of $60 million, and it received widespread acclaim from industry pundits and general film fans alike, boasting an 88% approval rating on the aforementioned critical consensus website.
Although, what’s perhaps more impressive is that Shrek became that first ever winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 74th ceremony, and since, it’s been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry. There’s no telling if Spielberg’s version would have garnered those same honors, but it’s still fun to imagine what could have been.
