Shrek the Third DVD Analysis

Shrek the Third DVD has finally been released (release date Monday 26th November 2007) and here is my analysis of the films DVD cover which from looking at gives away a lot of hints about the film and its themes:



· The cover shows all the main characters involved within the film; Shrek, Princess Fiona, Donkey, Puss in Boots, Merlin, Pinocchio, Gingy, Prince Charming, ogre babies.


Media Language


1. The image of Shrek and Fiona wearing crowns connote the theme of royalty, kingdom, king and queen. This theme is further reinforced by the red curtains and the header at the top in the shape of a castle.


2. Princesses Fiona’s pose suggests that she’s ready to battle. This demonstrates female power within the film.


3. Baby ogre’s on the DVD cover suggests the themes of pregnancy, parenthood, father, mother, looking after a baby


4. The theme of magic and fantasy is also illustrated by Merlin the Wizard and the spell dust floating around the cover.


5. Vladimir Propp’s Good v Evil is also evident on the cover. The image of Prince Charming on the bottom left of the cover being pushed down by Pinocchio with Charmings facial expression suggests that Prince Charming is the villain of the film, whereas Shrek and all the other characters are seen and are smiling. Prince Charming is the disequilibrium of the film.


6. The font of the film suggests that the film is aimed at a young audiences kids, however as we know Shrek is unique in that it reaches all audiences from “eight year olds to the thirty eight year olds” (Justin Timberlake aka Artie)

7. The variety of colour used on the cover illustrates that the film is fun and lively.

8. “The Best Shrek Yet” illustrates that this film is successful and even better that the previous films. This is also used to persuade on the onlooker to purchase the DVD.

Institution- DreamWorks Animation SKG

Genre- Animation; shown by the mise-en-scene (characters, font etc.)

Representation-

1. Princess Fiona- strong, active role and posed as though she’s ready for action. However by Shrek being in front of Fiona and being taller portrays the patriarchal society as its still the male character who drives the film forward.

2. Shrek- Shrek wearing the crown connotes that Shrek is the king of the kingdom of ‘Far Far Away’.

3. Donkey- Donkey’s big grin suggests he provides the comedy and laughter to the film

4. Puss in Boots- Puss in Boots is posed as though he is “ready to lay my life on the line” (Puss in Boots, line from Shrek 2).

5. Prince Charming- The villain of the film contrasts the stereotypes of a villain. Instead of being ugly or scary, he looks as though “he has a face that looks like it was carved by angels”’. (Line from Shrek 2). Also his facial expression further hints that he is the villain of the film

6. Ogre babies- Hard to looking after, cute, curious.

Audience

1. Kids. This is illustrated by the mise-en-scene

2. Merlin’s magic and the theme of fantasy further reinforce this.

Ideologies and Values

1. The image of The ogre baby on the left is leaving the cover and going off suggesting the babies wander off and parents have to keep an eye on their children at all times.

2. The image of the baby at the bottom center of the cover has a look of curiosity on its face. Again this illustrates that looking after a baby can being hard and stressful as babies are curious therefore they can easily get themselves into danger.

Narrative- Vladimir Propp’s Good v Evil is also evident on the cover. The image of Prince Charming on the bottom left of the cover being pushed down by Pinocchio with Charmings facial expression suggests that Prince Charming is the villain of the film, whereas Shrek and all the other characters are seen and are smiling. Prince Charming is the disequilibrium of the film.

Media Dictionary 3

1. Edit- the process of shaping and construction of a media text. All films are edited which relates to my text Shrek the Third has been edited by Chris Miller and co.

2. Horror- A type of film genre which aims to frighten its audience. Although Shrek the Third may not be a horror, however it does use certain conventions of the horror genre as seen in the scene involving Shrek having a dream about baby. The scene involved mysterious diegetic sound and darkness in the mise-en-scene to create both fear and tension in the scene.

3. Hollywood- A large US film industry based in Los Angeles, California. ‘Shrek the Third’ (2007) voiceovers are done by famous Hollywood stars e.g. Cameron Diaz














4. Hybrid- A cross between genres in a film. Shrek the Third contains a lot of links to other genres e.g. horror, romance etc. and so it can be said that the film is not only an animation but a hybrid.

5. Patriarchy- A male dominated society. A patriarchal society is evident within Shrek the hero: dominant, in control etc. the film and is also an aspect to cover in my wider context and gender representations in films

6. Vladimir Propp- Theorist who defines good vs evil and the character roles. Shrek the Third applies Propp’s theory of films having a good vs evil battle. In the film the battle is Shrek (hero, good) Vs Prince Charming (villain, evil)

7. Trailer- A short teaser which usually last between 1-30 seconds whereby the film is promoted and advertised. Shrek the Third uses trailers as a way of promoting the film.

8. Typography- the text. This is relevant to my study as the typography of the title Shrek is recognisable through its Shrek- ogre green colour and the two Shrek ears sticking out of the letter ‘S’ (also seen on number 2 in Shrek 2)

9. Youth culture- the stereotypes of youth and culture. This is relevant to Shrek as a wider context because ‘slang’, which is associated with the youth of today, is used in the film.

10. Zeitgeist- the “sprit of the age”. This relates towards my wider context and society at the time

Top 10 Websites

1. http://www.shrek.com/main.html- Homepage of my text ‘Shrek the Third’ (2007)

2. http://www.dreamworksanimation.com/- Institution who created and produced ‘Shrek the Third’ (2007)

3. http://www.answers.com/topic/animation?cat=biz-fin- contains lots of information about the history of animation (wider context)

4. http://www.zenonic.demon.co.uk/zenocgi.htm- impact of CGI animation relates as its how CGI has made an impact and my study is about the impact of CGI animation and how Shrek the Third is prolonging the genres success.

5. http://www.itpmag.demon.co.uk/Downloads/altman.html- genre theorist which relate to my genre study

6. http://www.pixar.com/index.html- Rival animation company to DreamWorks and partners with Disney, also recently released a new animation movie in Oct 07, Ratatouille- used as an other texts to refer to in study

7. http://www.filmsite.org/animatedfilms.html- Provides a large list of animation films and TV shows

8. http://www.animationmagazine.net/- animation magazine which provides the latest news in the world of animation

9. http://www.answers.com/topic/princess-fiona?cat=technology- female character of Shrek, her representations and women in films (wider context)

10. http://www.animationarena.com/animation-articles.html- provides information about the animation world

Top 10 Websites

Blog Buddy Summary with Raj

• Theorist- Laura Mulvey, 'male gaze'
• Useful books- Media, Gender and Identity, David Gauntley,Genre and Hollywood, Steve Neale
• Females have more on-screen time action and more power and dominance in society than in the past. Shrek3 illustrates female dominance through Princess Fiona as she has an active role within the film, whilst X-men has superheroies in Storm, Jean and Rouge.

Blog Buddies- My Class

Blog Buddy- Dilraj

A short summary of each study

Diraj’s study is about ‘to what extent are women to be seen inferior by male dominance today?’

Areas of overlap between each study (texts, topics, issues, debates)

Although my study is about genre and his is about representation, both our texts overlaps in that Diraj’s topic of female power relates to my wider context of my film. In Shrek, Fiona is shown to be strong, intelligent and independent.

What you've each learned from looking at each other's study that might be useful

From Diraj’s blog I feel that his information about female power will help me a lot when it comes to writing about my wider context in my independent study.

Bibliography: Books

1.Barry Purves, ‘Boldly Throwing Down the Gauntlet’, Animation World2.11, February 1998

Quote/s from Book:
1. 'I don’t think after ‘Jurassic Park’ that we can, or should, ever accept a model-animated dinosaur again’.

· This relates to my study in that it talks about the impact of CGI animation. As I had discussed in my presentation on Shrek, it was in 1995, when ‘Jurassic Park’ (1995) was released that is when the world took notice of CGI animation and that it changed the movie industry forever. The animation was so good that ‘model- animated dinosaurs’ should not be done ever again.

2. Neale, Steve (2002): Genre and contemporary Hollywood.UK.BFI.

Quote/s from Book:
1. ‘Genre is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, a phenomenon that encompasses systems of expectations, categories, label, and names, discourses, texts and groups of courses of texts, and the conventions that govern them all’.

2. ‘Genre is a French word meaning ‘type’ ‘kind’.

3. Lawrence Alloway (1963, 1971) - ‘Alloway… resists the temptation to establish “classic” timeless dimensions in popular films. He insists on the transitional and ephemeral characters of genres, of cycles and of any individual popular film’.

4. 'Many Hollywood films-and many Hollywood genres- are hybrid and multi-generic’.

5. Genre Theory- Aesthetic theories- A. ‘Most modern conceptions of genre derive from Romanticism and Romantic attitudes’. B. ‘the putatively routine, formulaic and impersonal nature of genres. C. ‘putative lack of creativity, originality and individuality’. D. ‘Genre texts are more or less ‘all the same’. (see notes for the whole paragraph and other notes)

· This book is highly useful in that it talks about the genre and which is what my whole study is about.

3. Patmore, Chris (2003), ‘The complete animation course-the principle, practice and techniques of successful animation’, UK, Thames &Hudson Ltd.

Quote/s from Book:

1. ‘Toy Story is recognized as the first full-length feature film to be made in CGI. Not only was Pixar’s animation stunning, but, more importantly, the film had a great story, great characters and a great script. And it was believable to an extent that it was easy to forget you were watching a CGI animation

· This book is useful as it provides a lot about animation itself such as how to make animations, history, animation software’s, impact, films, case studies and more.

4. Cooper, Alison (1997), ‘Media Power?’, London/New York/Sydney, Franklin Watts

Quote/s from Book:

1. The ‘hidden messages’ that we subconsciously receive everyday. Messages can have a powerful impact on our attitudes towards ourselves and other people’. (Example: Appearance is important, ‘images of young women and good looking muscular men appear everyday in magazines and on film and television’.

. This book is useful as and it relates to my wider context issues. It looks at how the power of the media can influence texts. By texts containing ideologies that we ‘subconsciously receive everyday’, it affects our attitudes towards ‘ourselves and others’. This relates to Shrek in that Shrek’s appearance and treatment and how others judge him before they even get to know him. How everyday images of attractive people are seen in the media, sending the ideology and values that image is important. This relates to the Effects theory and the cultivation theory. While a single text does not have much effect, repeated exposure e.g. attractive images of people seen ‘everyday’ in the media’, will make audiences less sensitive.

5. Bowker, Julian (2003), ‘Looking at Media Studies, new edition GCSE’, ?, Hodder & Stoughton

Quote/s from Book:
1. ‘Shrek is an upside down fairytale with an ogre as its hero charged with rescuing fairy tale characters from baddies’.

· This book is useful in that it provides information about ‘comic animation’. Comedy being a major convention and ingredient in a successful animation makes the information useful for my study.

6. Downes, Brenda and Miller, Steve (1998), ‘Media Studies’, UK, Hodder Headline Plc.

Quote/s from Book:

1. Hegemony- Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937) argued that society’s economic system could not be used alone to control every aspect of intellectual, cultural and political life. Gramsci’s concept of hegemony was defined as a process by which the dominant ideology was able to naturalize aspects of how society is organized’. (e.g. patriarchal society, appearance is important)

· This relates to my wider context and how hegemony has an effect on our society. Many of the dominant ideologies within media texts are still shown e.g. Shrek the Third- patriarchal society, appearance is important etc.

7. Maltby, Richard (2003), Hollywood Cinema, second edition’, UK, Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Quote/s from Book:
1. As Andrew Tutor puts it, genre “is what we collectively believe it to be”. We know a thriller when we see one
2. Genre may appear to be bound by systems of rules, but an individual genre inevitably transgresses those rules in differentiating itself from other movies in the same genre’.

· This book is useful as it has a lot of detail about Hollywood genre which relates to my text ‘Shrek the Third’ (2007)

8. Branston, Gill and Stafford, Roy, (2003), ‘The Media Students Book’, , Routledge

Quote/s from Book:
1. Genre- a system of expectation is set up around it, one which involves repetition and difference and which depends on a classification’.
2. Genre films have always involved some kind of ‘hybridity’ and are never pure westerns or horrors etc.
3. Hollywood has always tried to attract as many audience segments as possible

· This is another useful book about genre.

9.Sullivan, Tim O’ (2003), Studying the Media: An Introduction, US, Oxford University Press

Quote/s from Book:
1. ‘Repetition in the TV narrative occurs at a level of the series: formats are repeated, situations return week after week. Each time there is a novelty. The characters of the situation comedy encounter a new dilemma: the documentary reveals a new problem: the news gives us a fresh strike, a new government, a new earthquake, the first panda born in captivity… The series is composed of segments. The recognition of the series format tends to hold segments together and to provide them with an element of continuity and narrative progressions from one text to the next.’
2. The concept of genre, developed particularly in the study of film and literature, is a way of classifying particular styles or types of media texts by identifying their common elements and distinctive features, the codes and convention associated with particular genres. These are repeated again and again over time, often across the media, and act as rules used by both producers and audiences to encode and decode certain types of texts.

· This book is very useful in that it gives a detailed idea of the media, its history and aspects of the key concepts which will be highly useful when it comes to researching e.g. genre, audiences. The book covers all the theories we’ve studied e.g. hypodermic needle and discusses issues such as children and media violence.

10. Nelmes, Jill, (1996), An Introduction to Film Studies’, USA and Canada, Routledge

Quote/s from Book:
1. ‘Groupings of actual films inductively linked on the basis of common themes, styles and iconography’

· This book is useful for my study as it has useful paragraphs about genre.

Blog Buddies -'Other class'

Blog Buddy- Athar

A short summary of Athar's study:

Athar's study is about 'How has the hospital genre been subverted to have a comic effect, with particular reference to 'Scrubs'?


Areas of overlap between each study:


Our studies are common in that we are both covering the aspect of genre and so we will be looking at similar things such as theorist. In addition, both our text contains comedy.


What you've each learned from looking at each other's study that might be useful:


Looking at Athar's work what might be useful is the idea of hybrid genre and how that is in text. Also Athar's wider context involves female representation as sex objects whilst I also discuss in my wider context female representation however mine view is how the female's are stronger in society and how they are more equal to men, so in a way its a mini debate right there.