As I get older, I think about the movies I used to watch as a kid, and Shrek is definitely one of them. Released in 2001, "Shrek" introduced the world to an ugly green ogre with a heart of gold and spawned three sequels, a Broadway musical, a theme park movie, a video game and more. I've been doing some digging into the background of Shrek due to the film's 15th anniversary, and boy, has the Shrek cast changed a bit over the years.
If you haven't seen "Shrek," don't think it's just a children's animated movie. DreamWorks did a great job of making this film suitable on both an adult and kid's level - some of the jokes are pretty risqué, to be honest. Adapted from William Steiger's 1990 picture book, Shrek follows the ogre Shrek as he attempts to rescue hordes of banished fairy tale creatures from his isolated swamp. Shrek prefers to be alone, but Farquaad, Lord of Durok, forces all fairy creatures to stay away from Durok - he considers them all to be freaks. Before Shrek and his donkey friend Donkey solve the whole problem, Shrek finds himself falling in love with the beautiful Princess Fiona, who has a secret of her own - due to a curse she received as a child, she transforms into an ogre every night . I won't ruin it for you, but Fiona and Shrek fall in love by the end of the movie, and Farcade finds himself banished.
Austin Powers and "Saturday Night Live" actor Mike Myers voiced Shrek's thick Scottish brogue, while Donkey's voice was voiced by comedy superstar Eddie Murphy. Those voices were integral to Shrek , but neither actor was the film's first choice. Find out who else was considered for the Shrek movie.
bill murray
Can you imagine the star of "Caddyshack" and "Groundhog Day" playing an ogre in a swamp? I have a hard time myself, but Steven Spielberg apparently can. Back in 1991, when Spielberg purchased the rights to the Shrek book, he envisioned it as a regular 2D animated film for his company, Amblin Entertainment, with the voice of Bill Murray.
Steve Martin
That thing about Bill Murray? Steve Martin was the man Spielberg had in mind to voice Donkey. Again, I just can't see it. Fortunately, Spielberg didn't start working on the film until 1994, when he founded DreamWorks SKG, and by then things had changed.
Chris Farley
Chris Farley, the original voice of "Shrek ," recorded nearly all of the film's lines before his tragic death from a drug overdose in December 1997. This "Shrek" was written specifically for him - Miles stepped in shortly after to commemorate his death. friend.
Janeane Garofalo
In 2007, Garofalo told MTV that she was supposed to voice Princess Fiona in Shrek , but she was inexplicably fired. She insists no one told her why she was pushed away from the project by Cameron Diaz.
Nicholas Cage
The star must have been defeated by vanity - DreamWorks head Jeffrey Katzenberg considered Cage for Shrek, but Cage turned it down because he didn't want to play an ugly green man-eater magic. In 2013, he told the Daily Mail , "Looking back now, maybe I should have done that." Uh, yeah, Nick. You should have.
While Shrek would be very different from either of these starring actors, Miles and Murphy's iconic characters are well-deserved treasured parts of animated film history.
Image: DreamWorks
