The Lesson Learned from Professor Shrek
By Catherine Leng
Cinderella, Snow White, and the Three Little Pigs have always been memorable fairy tales we reminisce about from our childhood. They attracted millions because of the romantic courtships, horrendous villains, and perfect, alluring princesses. During the “golden ages” we grew up with videotapes, cassette tapes, and brick-shaped cell phones. However, the new generation of young people is immersed in a culture of iPods, cell phones, and other gadgets – times have changed. Rather than remembering the “classic” fairy tales, young people are more acquainted with Monsters, Inc., Toy Story, and Mulan.
The New Fairy Tale
One of the most prominent of these new fairy tales is Shrek, a popular children’s movie released in 2001. The most charming factor of the movie is the characterization and how it contributes to the plot. Shrek, an ogre who lives near a swamp, is disrupted from his quiet, hermit-like lifestyle when all of the fairy tale characters in the land (the ones we are familiar with) are forced to congregate on Shrek’s property. In order for Shrek to evict all of the characters from his land, he is forced by Lord Farquad (the ruthless ruler of the Kingdom of Duloc) to rescue his princess bride-to-be, Princess Fiona.
On this mission, Shrek is accompanied by a talking donkey, who is a prominent character because he points out specific moral values and underlying facts about Shrek. As the plot progresses, the audience sees how Shrek’s former hardened, bitter self melts into a more emotional, compassionate person. The opening of the movie depicts Shrek attacking the village people who were planning to burn his house down. This contrasts with the romantic boyfriend who woos his soon-to-be bride with flowers and balloons at the end of the tale. Because Shrek is an ogre and is always treated as a monster, he soon became so on the outside. Shrek’s former self can be likened to before knowing Christ, unaware of his priceless worth and qualities. Only through trials and tribulations and with the help of his friend Donkey and Princess Fiona, does he unveil his real self, a kinder and more generous person.
This relationship would soon progress into something deeper and more serious. However, Lord Farquad and the princess are scheduled to be married and during the wedding ceremony, Shrek bursts into the chapel to save his beloved from a loveless marriage. During this scene, Donkey asks Shrek to wait until the priest says, “Does anybody object to this marriage?” to burst into the wedding hall dramatically to stop the wedding. Incredulous, Shrek replies, “Who cares?” and impatiently makes his entrance to stop the prince from taking away his beloved. His reply shows a break from tradition, shedding former niceties and moving forward into a new age.
The New Generation
This new age can be labeled “Generation X” – a time when appearances and superficialities are no longer important. Teens nowadays go by what they feel and want to do at the moment. They no longer think things through carefully or plan their futures. It seems as time flies by, a larger and larger generation gap occurs. As an outsider (and teenager) sitting in on the editors’ meeting to discuss the moral aspects of Shrek I felt that there was some truth behind what these elder Asian parents were saying. As I grow older, there does seem to be some sort of defect or shortcoming that is occurring more frequently among youth these days. At first I assumed that this was only an Asian-American, or “American Born Chinese” occurrence, but apparently this is an epidemic happening all over the world. Barbara Myerhoff’s novel, Number Our Days, mentions how children of Jewish immigrants to America experience a disconnection from their parents and have a lack of understanding or appreciation for their own culture. Of course, one could argue that there have always been generation gaps between the elder and the younger. However, there seems to have been a revolutionary change ever since the increased amounts of immigration from Asia. This can be seen with the rapid development of technology as well as a drastic change in media and how current societal events are portrayed.
All of this ties back to this seemingly simple and innocent movie, Shrek. Many times, old clichés of politeness and chivalry are eliminated while new norms of crude and sometimes rude behaviors emerge. For example, no longer do lovers have to be of the same race or even same species; which is shown when the talking donkey marries the fire-breathing dragon. One later finds out in the third installment of the series that they have five baby flying donkeys as their offspring. Lord Farquad is portrayed not as a loving, handsome king, but rather a short, evil prince who has to compensate for this deficiency by riding with fake legs on a tall horse. In fact, the ugliest-looking creature in the movie, the star hero Shrek, is actually the most compassionate, kind character of them all. An important moral the producers of Shrek seem to want to highlight for the audience is that people have layers of depth and can slowly reveal their inner, true self to others once they are given a chance. At first, because Shrek is seen as a hideous monster, he is fooled into believing this and treats others the way they treat him. After he meets his friend the donkey and the love of his life, Princess Fiona, they are able to help him find his true self. In fact, Princess Fiona also takes a journey to find her true identity. The audience finds that at night she is burdened with a spell that turns her into an ogress and back into a human princess during the daytime. When she finds her true love, the spell will be broken and she will turn into her true identity, which Fiona assumes to be a human princess. However, she breaks the spell and emerges as an ogress. Despite this, she is happy with her image and, “happily ever after” she and Shrek celebrate their lives together at the swamp with the rest of the fairy tale characters. As the two ride off in their onion carriage to celebrate their honeymoon, another well-known cliché of the pumpkin carriage is broken. From this movie one realizes that the youth nowadays are exposed to new ideals that contrast with those of the older generation.
What It Means for Us
The new paradigm that is suggested by the movie has both its good and bad aspects. The filmmakers concentrate more on substance and what is beneath the surface while utopian ideals of manners and well-behaved Barbie dolls are shunned. Together with this, youth are also taught to satisfy their desires immediately, without delay. The older generation was taught to skimp and save, cherish and be thankful for what they had. Their parents were strict on them, allowing little room for personal creativity, and valued (perhaps to some extreme) ethics of education and knowledge. These things clash with youth who indulge in what the world has to offer by satisfying their appetite for money, power, and freedom.
Perhaps by sharing in some of our youths’ culture through movies, books, or befriending your youth’s buddies, parents can learn to familiarize themselves with what is “hip” and “new.” One thing that Chinese Christian (conservative) parents need to learn is how to be their child’s friend as well as parent. By doing both, one can narrow the gap that is inevitable between immigrant parents who grew up in a culture entirely different from their youth’s. Of course there will always be advice to give about things that will never change: crushes on “that cute boy in her class,” conflicts between friends, and how to handle a harsh professor. In the meantime, parents should learn to actively engage (to a certain extent) in their child’s life. Attend their extracurricular activities, enjoy a Saturday at the park by playing ultimate Frisbee, or go rock climbing!
If only the Christian Church could help meld present and past ideals together, while also attempting to understand the youths’ thoughts of today. Churches can proactively instigate parent/youth classes or retreats. Religious values can be presented in a different manner, using humorous, lightweight jokes and incorporating them into a cartoon. Veggietales, a Christian animation featuring vegetables as its main characters to tell Bible stories, is a perfect example of taking that frontier. By better understanding our youth, we will be able to reach them more extensively and make a large impact on their lives. The most important advice that I can give is to spend time with your youth in fun activities that both parent and child will enjoy. You might even consider watching the movie Shrek (as well as its two sequels) for a family night together, and discuss its content with your youth. Doing so would be two hours well spent!