Shrek: The Politics and Aesthetics of Dreamworks’ Digital Fairy Tale(Animation: Key Films/Filmmakers)

This book is a comprehensive analytical study of stop-motion studio DreamWorks Animation's 2001 breakthrough hit Shrek. On its release in 2001, Shrek (Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson) became an international smash hit, a breakthrough success for the upstart DreamWorks Animation studio, and a milestone in the history of the computer-animated feature film. Today, the film stands as one the most influential animated movies of the 21st century, and its main character as an icon on internet counterculture. This book brings together an international group of scholars from animation studies and beyond, to explores a wide range of topics from a diverse set of academic perspectives. It looks at the film's representation of gender, race, disability, and queerness, and its relationship with the Disney studio and its audiences. Other chapters focus on its music and costumes, its aesthetics and and performances, its themes and motifs, and its curious online afterlife. Together, these essays seek to peel back the film's many layers, contextualize it in the history of contemporary animation and postmodern popular culture, and explain its long-lasting impact.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Sam Summers (Middlesex University, UK) Section 1: Tone and Aesthetic 1. “You Ain't Never Seen a Donkey Fly!”: Shrek's Complicated Rejection of Disney Amy M. Davis (University of Hull, UK) 2. The Tech of Shrek: Flesh, Fluid, and the Digital Grotesque Sam Summers (Middlesex University, UK) 3. Costume Design and Character Representation in the Shrek Franchise Maarit Kalmakurki (Aalto University, Finland) 4. The Book of Shrek: Animated Tomes in the Shrek Franchise Jodie Coates (Cambridge University, UK) 5. “Hey Now, You're an All Star?”: Mike Myers and Shrek as Stars and Characters Julie Lobalzo Wright (University of Warwick, UK) & Tom Hemmingway (University of Warwick, UK) 6. “Stop Singing!”: Shrek the Anti-Musical Musical Fairy Tale Ryan Bunch (Rutgers University, USA) Section 2: Representation and Politics 7. The Normalcy of the Ogre: Dispelling Stereotypes of Disability in Shrek Jessica Gibson (University of York, UK) 8. “Man, This Would Be So Much Easier If I Wasn't Colorblind”: The Shrek Franchise and Aversive Animation Christopher Holliday (King's College London, UK) 9. The Beauty of Ugliness: Dependent Beauty and the Inversion of Aesthetic Categories in the Shrek Universe Irida Zhonga (University of Groningen, the Netherlands) 10. Loving the Monster: Shrek, Intimate Proximity, and (Sub)genres of the Human Olivia Friend-Spencer (Ultrecht University, the Netherlands) 11. “What Kind of Knight Are You?” “One of a Kind”: Embracing Monstrous Queer Joy in Shrek Kodi Maier (University of Hull, UK) Section 3: Reception and Remediation 12. Shrek and “Relatability” in Contemporary Hollywood Animation Noel Brown (Liverpool Hope University, UK) 13. Let Your Freak Flag Fly: Staging Diversity and Inclusion in Shrek: the Musical Caleb Lee (University of Exeter, UK) 14. "Shrek is NOT Drek": Shrek Greentexts, Irony, and Performed Fandom Bence Bardos (University of Kent, UK) Guide to Further Research Endnotes Works Cited Index

About the Author :
Sam Summers lectures in Animation History & Theory at Middlesex University, UK. He is the author of DreamWorks Animation: Intertextuality and Aesthetics in Shrek and Beyond (2020) and the co-editor of Toy Story: How Pixar Re-Invented the Animated Feature (Bloomsbury, 2018). His specialisms include computer animation, intertextuality, adaptation and aesthetics, and he has published numerous articles and book chapters on these subjects. He is the co-convener of the Animation SIG at BAFTSS, and the co-host of the animation history podcast Disniversity.