252 - Shrek (feat. Memoria)

In Upstate NY, we also had a weird emphasis on the Iditarod.

Memoria yay!!!!!

I also learned a weirdly large amount about the Iditarod in elementary school in Massachusetts

Fuck that I’ve seen Encino Man at least fifty times, and I grew up fine…….mostly.

I’m from Alaska, that Balto unit happens in elementary, middle, and high school, iirc.

Stabbing in the dark here but is it possible that the introductory song about Dulac is a rip on Celebration, Florida? It was portrays as a perfect little community and they played music in the streets.

As someone who grew up in the American southwest and was in Elementary School in the 2000s, I also had a whole unti on the Iditarod

I'm 26 my very Christian parents never let me watch live action films as a kid. Shrek is where I first saw the Matrix scene. 🥹 Also I remember thinking Fiona's ogre form was 💚💚💚 better than her human form. Prolly cause she was chubby and her face was round and her nose broad and plump lips and I was a little black girl with similar features. (It may also explain some monsterfucker tendencies srry Jesus😚) Karaoke dance party is where i heard all those songs for the first time. Also because we were living in Iceland at the time we had the Icelandic dub. The film was also a double feature with Shark Tale.

Adding another layer to the fucked up three bears bit: later in Farquad's bedroom we see the mama bear as a pelt on his floor in front of the fireplace...lmao truly wild stuff I saw as a 6yo

I grew up watching the French dubbing so a lot of the puns get lost in translation. The first time I watched it in English was for the 25th anniversary earlier this year. So for instance, the “fuckwad” pun means absolutely nothing to me. But the way they translated the height jokes was hilarious. Also, Donkey sings in frenglish. The dubbing is also in France French so there’s a few words that weren’t in my vocabulary as someone from Quebec but you can understand in the context. Also, the “I need a hero” song was fully translated in French. Anyways, Shrek is love, Shrek is life.

From Northern-Lower Michigan here and yes, we also had a very large Iditarod lesson plan in school

Generational run of eps

Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wiseau

(to the tune of shots) SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK SHREK EVERYBODY

I think that what really makes Shrek work is it's dual irreverence and sincerity. This movie and its characters are crass, gross, and absurd, and they reval in it. Shrek is fully accepting of who he is, and has no desire to conform to the society which rejects him. There's a radical authenticity to Shrek where you can be happy and accepting of yourself, warts and all, and following that, be ridiculous and boundary pushing. The reason why just seeing Shrek is enough to make people laugh is because he is this absurd figure whose very nature breaks apart "normalcy" and allows for ridiculousness. Shrek is a liberatory character. Additionally, I think that the reason the ending is so stereotypically fairy tale "happily ever after" is because the movie isn't the sum of its tropes; the core of it is that true experience that these kinds of stories are trying to tell, which gets lost in the endless adaptations and retellings. That's the Disneyification of stories, where they become hollow and derivative. But with Shrek, its sincerity allows it to embrace what "happily ever after" really means. It can play to those tropes without being cliche.

Two thoughts about the staying power piece. One is that I think for a lot of kids growing up in the 2000s (speaking from experience), children's entertainment felt really cosseted and restrictive in this unpleasant, too-perfect way. As a boy, there was something kind of liberating about how Shrek bucked this trend while still indulging in the fun fairy tale setting. The character is a stand in for kids that like grosser and weirder, or even just less perfect stuff, and it hit at a moment when so much kids entertainment was so saccharine and cloying. Second, I think there's a good comparison to be drawn with Garfield. Both have had this sort of afterlife in meme culture partly because people were genuinely attached to the original media but also partly because the properties had such an absurd amount of marketing and sequels and mechandising, especially for people of a certain age, that there's something absurd about taking the media and characters super seriously.

Shrek Super Slam is a genuinely good brawler set in that universe. 10/10 would recommend

Grew up in South Dakota. Lots of Iditarod content in school!

Grew up in Ohio and we absolutely had a few weeks in 6th grade devoted to the Iditarod

As someone who grew up with Shrek (and Shrek 2) dubbed, Brian and A.J. sounds like english speaking version of what I associate Shrek and Donkeys voices with respectively. So I dont agree you need to do a scotish accent (or a Eddie Murphy impression) for the performance to work.

Perfect interstitial. Perfect writing, voice work, and timing. Immediately relistened to it 3 times. Thank you Shrek and Wabilliam B-B-Bush

Listening to the clips in this episode, I realized that I have never seen this movie in English. It makes sense, since I haven't seen it since I was a child and I'm Danish. But still. Makes me want to watch it in both languages to see how different the references are.

It was a throwaway comment, but Steven Spielberg getting into cartoons because of Jessica Rabbit has an extra dimension. Her speaking voice was famously provided by Kathleen Turner, but her singing voice was provided by Amy Irving. Amy Irving is Spielberg's ex-wife.

Born 1991, Oregon, we had a whole ididerad unit in 5th grade and even was assigned a racer team and we followed it basically all day during the race.. pretty wild now that I’m reflecting.. We also learned about the trail of tears… maybe ur school district was not woke enough!?

My mom is an elementary school teacher so I also grew up with Steig books, and I remember watching Shrek when I was 6 and being angry that they weren’t faithful to the original story lmao There was also a kid in my class who would just rewrite the opening scene from memory for every writing exercise we had to do.

There’s a special place in my heart for parody/subversion media that, over time and with more widespread exposure, become the face of the very thing it’s parodying/subverting. Just off the top of my head, The Princess Bride, Scream, Megamind, Ella Enchanted, Shrek… it’s so fascinating to see it morph—even just in the culture and the eyes of the audience, not necessarily from the creators themselves—into the opposite of what was intended. I mean hell, Shrek got a stage musical much like the many Disney princesses before and after.

I'd love to see a video game episode with AnyAustin as a guest. That would be incredible

YEEESSS! ENCINO MAN!

I was 6 when Shrek came out and, much like 9/11, I distinctly remember a time before and after. Shrek was INCREDIBLE to witness for the first time. I remember thinking the animation was like super impressive, which it was for its time

Distinct childhood memory: Shrek was the first movie my parents took me to see in theaters (age 4). We had to leave 1/3 of the way through because Lord Farquaad was too scary and I started crying. Edit: weirdly enough there is a high likelihood this was also at the Edward’s cinema in Vista, CA so sorry if you were annoyed by a crying preschooler while trying to enjoy Shrek, AJ!

Chicago chiming in to say we also had an Iditarod unit.

I love this movie, so thanks for the nostalgia trip, but thanks also for talking about Shrek super party, which weirdly was like the only video game I ever liked that much as a kid. I don’t think I even understood the scoring system or was good at it, but I really liked it for some reason

Donkey shots

This was the stupidest interstitial that also made me laugh the hardest. Learned a good bit about Iditarod in Central PA but a good bit of that may have been Boy Scouts-related.

I was born in '96 and Shrek was the first PG movie I got to see. I remember my mom loudly gasping at "maybe he's compensating for something"

For me, THE Shrek scene that cements the series in my head is the 'I Need A Hero' scene from Shrek 2

can confirm that we spent half a year in elementary school learning about the Iditarod as far south as Georgia

"I don't remember a world before Shrek." I hate young people. 😉

New Englander born and raised. We also had an entire section about the iditarod race when I was in like second grade.

I just want to say that the spanish dub of gingy and farquaad is something that is forever engraved in my brain. Im not sure what the american equivalent of Pin Pon and Dr. Simi is

as a grand rapids kid, yes, i have a whole series of lessons on Iditarod

There is a real fear and joy in anticipating to shout SOMEBODY in sync with Shrek

Reporting in from Iowa, yes we learned a weird amount about the Iditarod in school.

Thank you boys. I thirsted for my precious drops of bug juice and you have sated me

banger after banger