Being almost 20 years old, Shrek has become a classic animated movie thanks to its parodying of fairytale tropes, which is why the movie is one of the comedies that earned an Academy Award nomination. But being a parody of the genre is one of the very reasons why the film makes little sense and often trips over its own feet.
Though the movie may have looked a lot different, as it’s one of the movies Steven Spielberg almost directed, Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson did a great job of directing the movie, but the narrative is one illogical scene after the next. Whether it’s the villain’s plan, the characters’ accents, or mystical relationships, Shrek is a minefield of errors and inaccuracies.
When Donkey and Shrek first set out on their quest to find the princess, they are given no idea of the whereabouts of the castle that she is trapped in.
Considering that the world that the unlikely duo lives in is bustling with thousands of fairytale creatures and the land is vast, it’d be near enough impossible to find the castle, let alone do it in just a few short days without a compass or a map.
In a movie full of explicit innuendos, fat-shaming, and other problematic jokes, Fiona is one of the reasons the movie has aged well, but there are still some things that don’t make sense about her in the first Shrek movie.
As it’s established in the second movie that both of her parents are English and are voiced by two of the most English actors ever (John Cleese and Julie Andrews,) Fiona should have a similar accent, not the American vernacular of Cameron Diaz.
When it comes to the gigantic fairytale land that Shrek inhabits, every creature around him seems to be getting captured by Farquaad’s knights, as the Lord wants to banish all of the fairytale creatures from the land.
But the plan makes no sense, as Farquaad surely knows that he himself is living in a Fairytale land. Not only does he live in a giant castle and has an army of knights at his disposal, but he also speaks to a magical talking mirror.
The Gingerbread Man is one of the funniest side characters of the movie, whether it’s his high pitched accent or his melodramatic delivery during the interrogation scene, and he’s one of the characters fans want to see return for Shrek 5.
But in what makes no sense, Farquaad tortures The Gingerbread Man to find out the whereabouts of the fairytale creatures, but later on, it’s implied that he already knew where they were, as he was the one who dumped them on Shrek’s swamp.
As everything is based on existing fairytales and parodies those tropes, a donkey is a very specific animal to be one of the main characters and isn’t seemingly part of any specific fairytale.
And despite that, it is still never explained how Donkey came to be or how he can talk. It could be possible that he was a human who was transformed into a donkey or he was one of the boys who ended up on Pinnochio’s cursed island. It’s an interesting concept that hasn’t been explored, not even in the any of movie’s sequels.
Lord Farquaad might be the subject of some hilarious memes, but he’s still the focus of some of Shrek’s best scenes, including the climactic finale at the wedding.
However, the whole drama of the scene is completely illogical, as Shrek interrupts the wedding to deliver the news that Farquaad only wants to marry Fiona to become king. It makes no sense because Shrek was never told this in the first place.
There are a lot of things that don’t make sense about the dragon, but one of the most confusing things is why she was holding Fiona captive in the castle, to begin with. It’s explained in Shrek 2 that Fiona’s parents kept her there to makes sure she was safe, so was the dragon there to protect her or keep her captive?
It’s typical of fairytales that there are dragons, and they’re often guarding something or keeping something captive, so it’s logical that the trope is featured in a movie the parodies such things, but the backstory is completely illogical.
When Shrek and Donkey meet Fiona, the two creatures begin to make fun of Lord Farquaad’s height, but considering how Shrek had never met the antagonist, he wouldn’t have ever had any clue how tall or short Farquaad was.
It could be possible that he was told about Farquaad at some point off-screen, but Shrek didn’t even know who he was at the beginning of the movie.
Being by far the weirdest moment of the movie in a movie full of strange scenes, the end of Shrek sees Donkey madly in love with Dragon and that they now have a bunch of baby dragon-donkeys.
It begs the question, how on earth did Dragon get pregnant? As dragons are mystical creatures, maybe their anatomy is beyond our understanding, but it leaves audiences having to suspend disbelief quite a lot, even for a Shrek movie.
The whole movie is based around the fact that the entire land lives in fear of ogres and especially doesn’t want anything to do with Shrek, and though he doesn’t like the fact that the land is scared of him, he plays into it a lot.
However, when Donkey shows up, the ogre doesn’t scare him one iota, and when Shrek roars at the animal to shoe him away, Donkey just makes a joke about his breath. It’s never explained why Donkey has no fear of such a deathly creature, even though Donkey is clearly frightened of other things in the movie.
