Shrek: Special Edition (2001)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Menu Animation & Audio Scene Selection Anim & Audio Featurette-HBO First Look: The Making Of Shrek Trailer-Sneak Peek:Spirit-Stallion Of The Cimmaron;Theatrical Trailr Interviews-Character Biographies-Cast & Crew DVD-ROM Extras-ReVoice Studio; Learn To Draw Shrek; Gingerbread Hangman DVD-ROM Extras-Soup Slam; Fairy Tale Lanes; Bugs and Slugs; Charming Dragon DVD-ROM Extras-Coloring Pages;Color A Scene;Ogre Masks;Pin Tail On Donkey DVD-ROM Extras-Fire Donkey; Shrek Pinball Featurette-Shrek In The Swamp Karaoke Dance Party; Technical "Goofs" Game-Mirror, Mirror On The Wall; Shrektacular Trivia; Xbox Hints Production Notes-Production Notes; Gallery-Progression Reel (9) Featurette-Favorite Scenes (15); The Tech Of Shrek; Dubbing Music Video-Best Years Of Our Lives-Baha Men Featurette-The Making Of The Baha Men Video Music Video-I'm A Believer-Smashmouth Game-Rescue The Princess;Char Morph;Dress Up The Gingerbread Man Audio Commentary Multiple Angles-Storyboard Pitch Of Deleted Scenes (3x2)
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	86:23 (Case: 90)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (51:12) Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Andrew Adamson Vicky Jenson
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Mike Myers Eddie Murphy Cameron Diaz John Lithgow
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Harry Gregson-Williams John Powell

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, the Karaoke Dance Party plays after the credits.

    At first glance, Shrek does not present itself as anything more than a slightly strange blend of different fairy-tales all combined into the one. Shrek (famously voiced in a Scottish accent by Mike Myers), an ogre, has his peaceful swamp life interrupted when the local lordling, Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow), evicts all the fairy-tale creatures from their current abodes and throws them onto Shrek's land. Being the recluse that he is, Shrek sets off with a talking Donkey (Eddie Murphy) who has declared himself Shrek's new best friend, to ask Farquaad to move all the fairy-tale creatures off his land. Before Farquaad will give Shrek his swamp back, he sets a quest that Shrek must complete - rescue the princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from a castle guarded by a fire-breathing dragon and deliver her back to him so they can be married and he can become King in truth. And so Shrek sets off, still with Donkey in tow, to rescue the princess and get his land back. Along the way, as well as battling the dragon, Shrek, Donkey and Princess Fiona encounter a number of fairy-tale characters (including an hilarious French-styled Robin Hood), and Shrek discovers - much to his own horror - that he likes Fiona more than he would care to admit.

    What makes Shrek so special, and so different, is that while it uses the advantages of an animated world to the fullest extent (there is no way a live-action production could feature the fantasy locations used in this film), it plays very much like a high-camp action-adventure movie filmed live-action. The result is that while it is most certainly an animated feature, and never could be anything else, it is more open and engaging to those who think that animation is only for children.

    An added enjoyment in the world of Shrek is that the film serves very much as one long insult to Disney. This works because, despite how revered Disney is, at one stage or another everyone has become just a little annoyed by exactly how nice Disney films are. Almost every convention existing in the generations of Disney animated films is taken and turned on its head (although it is for this reason that the success of the more traditional "values" packed Monsters, Inc. was all the more sweeter for Disney). This less-than-friendly stance has been attributed to Dreamworks (the studio behind Shrek) co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg's less-than-friendly relationship with Disney (they fired him then allegedly refused to pay him what he was owed). What truth there is in that is probably only known to Katzenberg himself, but as this project was his from inception, it is certainly fair to suggest that he had some influence on the tone.

    Shrek is another genre-defining film. Toy Story began the trend - it was a film that parents actually enjoyed taking their kids to. Shrek is a film that anyone can go to and enjoy, but that parents can easily take their kids along to - the tables have turned. This is the second time I have looked at Shrek on DVD, and it is a film that bears repeated viewings well, albeit not as much as some. The largely parody-based humour is still funny, and there are still many laugh-out-loud moments, but the very campy nature of the story (that thing that the children are actually paying attention to) does tend to drag the film at times - and in a film that runs for less than 80 minutes before the credits roll, that is saying something. Shrek will always be a stand-out of the early CGI-animated films, but if it will still be as loved in sixty years time as some of the now sixty-year-old films it makes fun of remains to be seen..

Video

    This disc is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and is 16x9 enhanced. This is not the original aspect ratio, nor is it the theatrical aspect ratio. In theatres, Shrek was shown at 1.85:1, while it was actually produced at 1.66:1. This transfer, therefore, is slightly cropped at top and bottom from the source files.

    Coming from the memory banks of a computer, this transfer is incredibly sharp. There is no film grain present at all to reduce the resolution, and so every single item on screen is perfectly visible in the most incredible amount of detail. There are many examples - such as at 9:30, 16:10, 22:55, and so on - when the transfer in fact looks hyper-real being so detailed that the image seems to be three dimensional in nature. Shadow detail is also perfect - the filmmakers are at total liberty to show exactly as much or as little as they desire. Being a totally digital transfer, there is obviously no low-level noise.

    Colours are also spot-on. There is no fading, all colours leaping off the screen with the same vivid detail that was originally conceived by the artist that created them. This film paints with such a rich colour palette that looking at live-action movies again is somewhat disappointing.

    There are no compression artefacts at all, nor are there any film artefacts (again, the benefits of staying completely away from actual film are demonstrated). The only problem with this transfer is the aliasing. Although it is almost all minor, it is not at all uncommon. The first time through, the rest of the transfer is so stunning that it can easily be missed (I know - I did not notice it when I looked at this film last year), but it is there. Probably the worst instance is at 24:05 on the rope, but there are many, many times when small detail on the screen is broken by aliasing. The armour of the knights (especially their helmets) and other small lines are the principal cause. The level does reduce significantly once Shrek and Donkey head away on their quest (as there is no more armour around), but it is not banished completely.

    The subtitles are very accurate, being almost word-for-word, are easy to read and are well paced. They are also rendered in a font that is more fluent and rounded than many, being all the more pleasing to read.

    This is an RSDL formatted disc with the layer change occurring at 51:11 during Chapter 11 (the same place as on the previous transfer, and the same place on the 4:3 version). The change is rather obvious, but does not detract from the movie.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three audio tracks present for this transfer, being the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1 (at 448 Kbps) and DTS 5.1 (a half-bitrate soundtrack), as well as an English audio commentary track in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround (at 192 Kbps). As a side note, the 4:3 transfer on disc one features only the Dolby Digital 5.1 track, further relegating it to "kiddies" use.

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times, being perfectly integrated into the soundtrack.

    Audio sync is more of a problem. The Dolby Digital track is not too bad - any issues with it can be attributed to the difficulty of matching animated lips to sound. The DTS track on the other hand has more significant problems. There are a number of instances (such as the sequence from 17:38 to 17:45, and many other one-line instances) where the lip movements are not well matched to the dialogue. The difference is not huge, and for an animated movie, it would normally pass without notice, but the fact that the Dolby Digital has fewer issues in this regard points to a minor problem with the DTS track.

    The soundtrack for Shrek is a combination of contemporary music and an orchestral score. The score is credited to Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell and is very immersive and emotive, suiting the movie very well. The contemporary music gives a more direct and visceral link to the world of Shrek through which older viewers will feel more connected to the movie, and younger viewers will simply enjoy.

    This is a relatively active surround soundtrack, presenting good use of the rear channels to carry score, music, and ambient effects. There are only a few instances of directional sound effects, but they are well placed, and used to good effect.

    The subwoofer is also used extremely well, both to back up the score and for the many deeper sound effects within the film itself. There is less bass here than in many other movies of this genre, but the more reserved style suites the movie well.

    The DTS vs. Dolby Digital battle is essentially even, with the slight advantage going to the Dolby Digital in this case. There is no difference at all in the aural stakes, leaving only the slight sync issues to mar the DTS and give the Dolby Digital the upper hand.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Disc 1

Returning Extras

Cast and Crew Bios

Featurette - Shrek In The Swamp Karaoke Dance Party (2:45)

Production Notes

Game: Shrektacular Trivia

DVD-ROM - Shrek's ReVoice Studio

New Extras

Featurette - HBO First Look: The Making Of Shrek (24:33)

Sneak Peak (2:03)

Game: Mirror Mirror On The Wall

Shrek Fun Facts

DVD-ROM

• Learn To Draw Shrek - this "game" is actually a well detailed set of instructions about drawing your very own Shrek. It even comes with printable templates to aid the drawing.
• Gingerbread Hangman - this is a fairly traditional game of hangman, except that instead of slowly drawing a hanging man when an incorrect letter is picked, Lord Farquaad gradually eats the poor old Gingerbread Man. A good fun game, with a relatively expansive selection of words and phrases.
• Soup Slam - a game in which the player controls Shrek's soup spoon as he tries to push all the creepy things in his soup (bugs and eyeballs mainly) to the bottom. Really only of interest to young children - anyone with competent mouse skills can easily get top score.
• Fairy Tale Lanes - a bowling game using gnomes as pins, and an eyeball as the ball. The speed/targeting mechanism is similar to that of the early PC golf games.
• Bugs and Slugs - naughts and crosses by another name. The computer "AI" is well designed as it is beatable, but will win if you are not paying attention.
• Charming Dragon - sort of like a reverse space invaders. Instead of having to dodge the progressing aliens, the lady dragon needs to catch as many falling charms in her love heart as possible.
• Colouring Pages - this is a selection of line drawings of Shrek and other Shrek characters that can be printed out and coloured in.
• Colour a Scene - this provides four static scenes and a choice of colours to allow colouring of the characters in a similar manner to using Windows "paint". It will consume hours for children, and the images are printable when they're finished, assuming a colour printer is available.
• Ogre Masks - a selection of Shrek masks, complete with cutting lines, and eye-holes for children to print out, cut out, and wear.
• Pin the Tail on Donkey - this is a large printable image of Donkey (he will print out across 4 A4 sheets of paper) with an extra sheet for tails. Print out Donkey, put him together, give everyone a tail, and see who (once blindfolded) gets it closest to where Donkey's tail should be.
• Fire Donkey - The fire breathing dragon is trying to burn down the rope bridge to her castle, but Donkey is there to guard it. Donkey can be moved (and jumped) back and forward along the bridge to stomp out fires where they occur, but look out - if fire burns for too long in one spot the bridge will fall down. This is the most complex game included, and is more suitable for slightly older children.
• Shrek Pinball - A basic pinball game. It is simple enough that constantly moving the flippers seems to be the best way of doing well.

Dreamworks Kids

Game Swamp

• Rescue The Princess - a "branching" game that provides three choices at each step along the route to rescuing the princess. The wrong answer will play a clip from the movie, but take you back to the original page, while the right answer will play a clip from the movie and move on.
• Shrektacular Trivia - this is the same game available from the Special Features menu.
• Character Morph - this game was present on the original release. Switch the head/body/legs of your favourite characters. Some are quite amusing
• Decorate The Gingerbread Man - this game was present on the original release. See him in various costumes....
• Mirror Mirror On The Wall - this is the same game as available from the Special Features menu.

Favourite Scenes

Shrek's Music Room

    Music Video: Baha Men - Best Years Of Our Lives (3:08)

    The Making of the Baha Men Video (1:48)

    Music Video: Smash Mouth - I'm A Believer

Disc 2

Returning Extras

Audio Commentary - Aron Warner (Producer), Vicky Jenson and Andrew Adamson (Directors)

Featurette - The Tech Of Shrek (22:09)

Cast and Crew Bios

Production Notes

International Dubbing (2:03)

Featurette - Shrek In The Swamp Karaoke Dance Party (2:45)

New Extras

Storyboard Pitch of Deleted Scenes

X-Box Game Playing Hints

Technical Goofs (2:51)

Progression Reel

Theatrical Trailer (2:00)

    The video quality is astounding, even taking some light aliasing into account. There has never been a DVD that looked better, and all this transfer does is make you salivate for an increase in the number of all-digital transfers - bring them on!

    The audio quality is superb, with only a few sync problems in the DTS soundtrack marring an otherwise technically brilliant disc.

    The extras are even more extensive this time, and it can be said that Dreamworks has targeted them correctly. There are hours of games, videos, and entertainment here for the kids (and that is the area in which this new release picks up most compared to the initial single-disc release), but there is also much in the way of behind the scenes information, and commentaries for the more serious film fan. This is something that a certain other "children's" film of late failed to do, so it is nice to see the older demographic (as in the ones who actually pay for these discs) being considered.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall