A soundtrack of non-stop bangers and a setting full of weird and wonderful fairy-tale action is what takes Shrek from a great series of animated films to one of the best series’ of animated films ever made. The slow evolution of Shrek and Donkey’s partnership is great to see, and, while the third and fourth films might be a little more devise, it’s rare that a sequel (Shrek 2) tops the original film.
No matter how good a film is, however, there is no way of avoiding some inevitable plot holes. With four films to choose from, we’ve narrowed it down to ten of the biggest plot holes in Shrek.
How Did Shrek Know Farquaad’s Plans?
Shrek rushes into Fiona and Farquaad’s wedding with pretty good intentions. He wanted to stop her from marrying him because he only wanted to marry Fiona so he could become king himself.
The only thing is, no one had ever really told Shrek that. Farquaad is a shift guy, so I guess he could have worked it out through context, but you’d think he’d want to collect a little more concrete evidence before making such a bold public gesture.
How Did They Find The Tower?
Given that the world Shrek and co-inhabit is pretty huge, and, in comparison, the actual tower Fiona lives in is pretty small, you’d think it would be almost impossible for them to find the tower. This is especially prudent when you consider how it is implied that they don’t even know where it is and they have no map or compass with them. Somehow, it only takes them a couple of days rather than basically the rest of their lives.
Where Did Fiona’s Accent Come From?
Both of Fiona’s parents have English accents, which makes sense because they’re voiced by John Cleese (of Monty Python fame) and Julie Andrews (from The Sound Of Music). Technically, it makes sense for Fiona to have an American accent because she is voiced by Cameron Diaz.
In terms of the story, however, her American accent doesn’t really have a reason to be American. She was brought up in a castle, surrounded almost exclusively by her parents’ accent, and then lived for many years alone in a tower, where no one else could have influenced her accent.
Prince Charming Wasn’t Shocked By The Lack Of Dragon
When Prince Charming goes on his own mission to find Princess Fiona at the start of Shrek 2, he should be incredibly scared of the mighty dragon guarding the princess. As we learn in the first Shrek film, it is the biggest threat to those trying to save Fiona and has killed many brave knights who attempted rescue. When he arrives and finds that he can just wander into the castle with no dragon in sight, he doesn’t seem particularly bothered, and when he and the Fairy Godmother are retelling the story, there is no mention of this confusion.
Gingy Should Be Missing A Leg
Gingy is a cute, innocent little gingerbread man. He should be being looked after throughout the entire series, but instead (thanks to his surprisingly outspoken nature) ends up in some of the scariest positions of all. His legs have been glued back on for the purposes of Shrek 2, but when one of them was crumbled into thousands of tiny pieces by Farquaad, that should have been it. Technically, unless they’ve somehow figured out a way to bake a new leg onto him, Gingy should have only had one leg from that moment onwards.
You’d Think They Might Be Suspicious Of The Swamp
When Shrek and Fiona arrive at Far Far Away, both the King and Queen seem very shocked and surprised that their daughter is about to marry a huge green ogre. Fair enough, just seeing an ogre would be a big deal in the real world. But they aren’t in the real world.
The universe in which Shrek is set has ogres in it. They are real, everyone is scared of them and everyone knows they live in swamps. When the king and queen sent their messenger to the swamp to summon the couple, you’d think they may have given it at least a couple of seconds of thought, especially considering the fact that they already knew Fiona was an ogre.
Donkey Is Missing A Child
Donkey is a pretty happy go lucky guy, but you think even he’d freak out if one day one of his children had gone missing. Well, that time came and neither he nor his dragon wife batted an eyelid. The end of Shrek 2 shows that Dragon and Donkey had six little hybrid babies, but in Shrek 3, there are only five. Where did that other little guy end up?
Surely Shrek Knew Fiona Wasn’t In The Tower?
Shrek 4 forces the titular character into a strange, almost apocalyptic alternate universe in which Fiona is a powerful force to be reckoned. We see her face on wanted posters all around Shrek’s swamp, indicating that she is known for her villainy.
Obviously, this means she isn’t still just sitting in a tower on her own. Despite this, Shrek wastes his own time on a mission he must know deep down isn’t going to get him anywhere.
Shrek Goes Back To The Wrong Point In Time
When Shrek 4 reaches the only conclusion time travel films can ever really have (the time travel reversed and everything went back to the way it was before), there is a big mistake that makes the entire storyline very unclear.
When Shrek signs Rumpelstiltskin’s contract, it seems that he is transported to an alternate reality right there and then, meaning when he reverses the whole thing, that should be the point he returns to at the end of the film. In fact, he ends up back at the party from the opening scene. This seems to suggest something more along the lines of the entire plot being some sort of daydream.
The Other Ogres Shouldn’t Be His Friends At The End
Whether the story of Shrek 4 was, in fact, a daydream or a jump into an alternate reality, the final scene of the film doesn’t make a lot of sense. Shrek, because he undid his parallel life, never met any of the other ogres, yet they appear at the end of the film as if they’re all old friends. This one seems a little too obvious to have missed, so maybe it was simply included as a reference to Shrek’s fake life. Or he’s imagining them. Or he was still in the parallel universe. Theories.