Anyway, thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

Make Shrek ugly again. (10/10)

After all, how can you say ugly people are deserving of love and joy when you won’t even show ugly people on screen?

Animation should not just be about aesthetics or pushing the boundaries of realism. Stylistic choices in animation are as important to a film as writing style is to a novel. (9/10)

But it’s a big step in that direction. He’s certainly less ugly. His face is more proportionate, his are eyebrows neater. The softer lighting gives him almost dewey skin. And don’t even get me started on the ogresses.

And I do think these changes undermine the main message of Shrek. (8/10)

And the early 2000s ugly computer animation supports this story. The direct, harsh lighting brings out flaws and makes even conventionally attractive characters jarring to look at.

I wouldn’t say that Shrek is conventionally attractive in the new animation style. (7/10)

Shrek (the movie) is about Shrek learning that he can be horrible and ugly and at the same time worthy of giving and receiving love. And Fiona’s character arc is pretty similar, it’s about choosing to stay true to herself over conventional attractiveness and her parents’ expectations. (6/10)

Side note—I’m pretty sure the reason Disney keeps making live action remakes and CGI additions to series like The Lion King even though everyone likes the 2d animation more is because they literally don’t have any 2d animators working for them anymore.

Anyway back to Shrek. (5/10)

It’s messy, colorful, and emphasizes the less flattering details in character design.

I feel like large animation studios like Dreamworks and Disney have lost a lot of intentionality in style and character design because this specific type of CGI animation has become so prevalent. (4/10)

I think people sometimes forget that aesthetic choices are an important part of storytelling. If you look at picture books or comics you’ll see a huge range of different art styles, which serve to set the tone of the story before it begins. The style of Shrek! does a great job of that, imo. (3/10)

For a bit of context, the movie Shrek is based on the picture book Shrek! by William Steig. It tells the story of a delightfully ugly and horrible ogre Shrek who meets an uglier and horribler ogress. They get married and continue being ugly and horrible together. Here are my favorite pages: (2/10)

omg I have a Minke too!

a whole rainbow! nice!