8 March 2001

The highlight of the day was an in-progress screening of Shrek, DreamWorks’ new computer animated summer movie, which they are pushing as the first computer animated fairy tale. As conventioneers entered the theater, they all got Shrek ears… or ear trumpets, really. That allowed Jeffrey Katzenberg to make the joke, "I have a thing for ears," as he took the stage. Before the main feature, there was a trailer for DreamWorks other big summer movie, which was just pushed into the June 8 slot, Evolution. The Ivan Reitman directed flick looked a bit like Ghostbusters meets Galaxy Quest, with Orlando Jones, Seann William Scott and David Duchovny as they trio of beyond-the-norm guys running into something that’s going to get way, way out of hand. Reitman came on stage and explained the June 8 date… 17 years ago (yoikes!) Ghostbusters opened on June 8. Then, the starring trio arrived, though only Duchovny tried to be funny. On with the show…

Shrek is an interesting movie. It would be unfair to really review this unfurnished version, as some of the important moments and some of the subtle touches aren’t quite finished. But it is safe to say that the film was a big hit with the all-adult audience in the theater. A big reason for this is that about half the jokes in this film are written for baby boomers…lots of references, lots of dick jokes and lots of references to Disney’s catalog of animated fairy tales. Snow White, the dwarves, Pinnocchio, Sleeping Beauty, The Three Pigs, Tinkerbell, Peter Pan, the It’s A Small World ride, lines at Disney parks, Disney merchandising and other characters and items that I just can’t think of all show up in non-Disney-enough-to-avoid-lawsuit form.

The film is a kind of inverted Toy Story. The hero is an Ogre. His sidekick is a jackass… literally. The villain is a politician whose stature makes Phil Kaufman’s swipe at Napoleon in Quills look subtle. And the princess is as full of surprises as the dragon who keeps her captive. Woody might make a very subtle reference to bodily functions, but Shrek seems to go for the flatulence gag every 15 minutes or so. (The body as comedy appliance issue turns up prominently in the Evolution trailer as well.) If the mission of the toys is simple and clear, Shrek’s journey is nothing if not unclear. And don’t expect sentimentality from Shrek. There is no sentimental moment that can’t become a tough, funny joke. (The only reference that they didn’t go for was Benjamin, as represented by Shrek, banging on the church window, a la The Graduate.)

Shrek is a reversal on Toy Story in another way. The landscapes created by PDI are spectacularly beautiful. The look of the characters reminded me a series of Mother Goose books I had as a child, which had 3-D images of the characters that were photos of staged puppets. But the problem I had was that as magical as the settings were, the facial articulation was not as clear as Toy Story or traditional animation. Mike Myers is very good as Shrek, but I could imagine his real life performance in the role and his voice was funnier than the animation. This was even more true of Eddie Murphy as a donkey. Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow were the most recognizable, but they were playing humans. It was odd, almost like I wanted more of a good thing.

But none of that will keep Shrek from being a hit. It is a crowd pleaser. The one question is whether adults will want to go back to the theater more than kids will. I would be very, very curious to see this play to a room of kids. But $100 million is all but guaranteed. The question is, how much bigger can Shrek be. And the kids will answer that.

Tomorrow is a new day. Warner Bros. hosts what some people are suggesting may be the last ShoWest studio banquet ever, looking at a future of more screenings and lower costs to the studios. Then, in the afternoon, there is a non-ShoWest event by a major studio. I’ll tell you who and what tomorrow (Friday).

Before I go, a word of optimism. The entire industry is in flux right now. Studios are cutting back, even on Oscar night parties. ShoWest was, and is, a very expensive proposition for them. There are also lots of problems with the new team here. I have been told by a number of people that this group has been claiming they could "fix" ShoWest for years. Well, this year it is broken… more broken than I have seen it in my eight years. But it is not impossible to imagine it getting fixed. These people paid a lot of money to buy the convention, so it won’t be going anywhere for a while. But it may change a lot. Regardless, the event is still about people who are in and who love the movie business. And when they roared in appreciation at the end of Shrek, one couldn’t help but to see a better future ahead. But for now, I’ll wait for tomorrow.

READER OF THE DAY: No ROTD today. My hard drive crashed upon arrival at the hotel. Hopefully, I can get it fixed.

E ME: Please keep writing and I’ll be operational as soon as possible.