DreamWorks Animation has announced that “Shrek 5″ is officially in development, with a far, far away release date of July 1, 2026. Original “Shrek” stars Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz are all confirmed to return.
Antonio Banderas’ return as the feisty feline Puss in Boots is not yet confirmed. “Shrek 5” will be directed by Walt Dohrn, who served as a writer and artist on “Shrek 2” and “Shrek the Third,” and as head of story on “Shrek Forever After,” in which he also voiced Rumpelstiltskin. “Shrek 5” will be produced by franchise returner Gina Shay and Illumination founder Chris Meledandri; Brad Ableson serves as co-director.
Murphy let it slip in June that he had already begun voice recording for the film and will next do a Donkey spinoff movie.
The worst thing to happen to Hollywood animation since the House Un-American Activities Committee, Shrek remade an ever-widening swath of the medium in its own smirking image: softball pop culture references passed off as jokes, a hyperactive shrillness betraying a sweaty desperation to hold the attentions of the distractible, hideously untextured computer rendering that nonetheless won the first competitive Oscar for animation, the interminable dance party in place of an ending, the self-satisfied irreverent ‘tude. (The potshots at princess fairytales got the film’s ad campaign blackballed from Radio Disney on direct orders from Walt’s cryogenically preserved head.) DreamWorks paved the way for Illumination and their plague of Minions, not just in their cocked-eyebrow register of unhip snark, but in the semi-ironic memefied embrace using scare-quoted online lolz as a cover for simple indulgence of lowest-common-denominator tastes. “Shrek is love, Shrek is life” goes the mantra drawn from a 4chan thread detailing a sodomitic encounter with the ogre of note, and indeed, the virulent pushback against a disparaging 2021 retrospective in The Guardian proved that this flatulent lummox still wields an intense sway over shitposters of a certain age. But the induction into the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry on grounds of being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” more precisely captures the (perplexing, considering the thing itself) totality of Shrek’s influence. Culture is now his swamp, and we’re all just wading through it. CB
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