DreamWorks has a fantasy movie coming out on May 18. The question is — whose fantasy is it?
“Shrek,” a big-budget, computer-animated tale, is based on William Steig’s children’s book about a fire-breathing ogre on a quest to free a princess.
The parallels with the book end there. “Shrek” includes elements that seem suspiciously like barbs pointed at rival Walt Disney Co. and its chief, Michael Eisner — the mentor-turned-nemesis of DreamWorks principal Jeffrey Katzenberg.
The movie opens with soldiers of the evil Lord Farquaad (voiced by John Lithgow) selling off beloved fairy-tale heroes (best known to the world as Disney characters): Pinocchio, Tinker Bell and Snow White and her seven dwarfs.
When those characters are unceremoniously (and inexplicably) dumped in Shrek’s swamp, the antihero (voiced by Mike Myers) tramps off to Lord Farquaad’s castle, a deserted and squeaky-clean theme park that looks more than a little like the Magic Kingdom. He even enters the castle by passing through a turnstile, and comes upon spinning dolls in a box that sing a bawdy version of a friendship song that seems a parody of “It’s a Small World, After All.”
Most curious of all, the evil Lord Farquaad’s dark Prince Valiant haircut frames a pale, square face — not unlike Eisner’s. And while Farquaad is a midget, unlike the towering Eisner, the 6-foot-3 Disney chief once famously said about the diminutive Katzenberg (5 feet 4), “I think I hate the little midget” — a tidbit that emerged during an acrimonious lawsuit between the two in 1999.
Is “Shrek” Katzenberg’s revenge against a studio where he once ran the movie and television division only to be denied the job as Eisner’s second-in-command? Katzenberg attended a screening of “Shrek” last week and presented the film to the press along with a brief history of animation. Asked about the Disney references, DreamWorks marketing chief Terry Press — another veteran of Eisner’s empire — didn’t deny that there are some inside jokes, but said it was all in fun.
“Yes, the park stuff could be taken in that vein,” she said, but asserted that people shouldn’t make too much of it. “What’s really a little gopher hole is not a well.”
She denied that Farquaad was based on Eisner, a man so litigious he once sued a child-care center in Florida for painting an unauthorized Mickey Mouse on its building.
“This movie has been in production for five years. The trial was two years ago. There’s no connection,” she said. “The character was designed 4 1/2 years ago. Anyway, he looks like John Lithgow.”
She was also quick to note that all the fairy-tale characters are in the public domain, meaning that Disney does not have jurisdiction over Cinderella, the wooden boy or the girl in the glass coffin.
Despite Eisner’s reputation, Press said she is certain that Disney will have a sense of humor about “Shrek.” “I think they’ll realize the movie is a homage to fairy tales. And the stuff is not mean; it’s just funny.”
Disney sources said Eisner hasn’t seen the movie, though several Disney executives saw it in March at ShoWest, an annual trade fair. Some said they thought it was funny, but one senior executive rolled his eyes when asked about the film.
