Intro for February 28, 2025

Dear Gossips,

How about some low stakes cartoon conflict to kick off Oscar Friday? Yesterday, a sub-30 second teaser announcing Shrek 5 dropped, and everyone lost their damn minds over Shrek’s glow up, or glow down, depending on your preference for slimy or sticky looking boogers. 

Check it out:

 

The big news is that Zendaya will voice Felicia, Shrek and Fiona’s daughter. No word on who will voice her fellow triplets, brothers Fergus and Farkle. Also, the film will be released during Christmas 2026, which signals high hopes from Universal that the flagship animation franchise can return to pop culture dominance after a sixteen-year gap between Shrek 5 and Shrek Forever After. 

But what really got people going was the character redesign, particularly Shrek and Donkey (who will once again be voiced by Mike Meyers and Eddie Murphy, respectively, with Cameron Diaz returning as Princess Fiona). You can compare the old and new Shreks here:

https://bsky.app/profile/juno.bsky.social/post/3lj73bh2zp22c

 

Jokes aside, Shrek looks the same except for advancements in animation—the tools are better now. I suppose Universal could mandate that they stick with the old design, but Shrek-verse character Puss in Boots has evolved over the years to great fan acclaim:

The animation in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish was REALLY good. Did you see the scene where Death reveals himself? It feels like a throwback to old school kids’ movies that were slightly too scary for their intended audience, in a good way. 

 

To be fair, over the years Puss became LESS realistic, especially in the face. In The Last Wish, his face almost looks like hand-drawn animation. Shrek is going the other way, transforming from the simpler lines of early digital animation to the more naturalistic appearance we see in the Shrek 5 teaser (the Toy Story franchise has undergone a similar transformation except for one no one gave a damn). Just compare Shrek’s eyebrows, they’re clearly animated to look like real hair now. But Shrek’s new face has some people wondering if they can bully the studio into changing his look, like they did with Sonic the Hedgehog.

But all this is happening against a troubling background of labor contractions in the animation industry. Last year, DreamWorks Animation, which is owned by Universal and originated the Shrek franchise, cut 40-50% of their workforce. They called this “natural attrition” as projects like The Wild Robot wound down and they chose not to renew contract workers, but they also cancelled projects in development, which led to more cuts. However you spin it, DreamWorks Animation is smaller today than they were this time last year. (This as VFX and animation conglomerate Technicolor Group is in the midst of collapse. These are not healthy industries.)

Which has some people wondering who is even animating Shrek 5. DreamWorks Animation is still the company in charge of the film, but Illumination’s Chris Meledandri is producing the film alongside them (the film is being co-directed by Trolls veteran Walt Dohrn, Minions alum Brad Abelson, animated Addams Family director Conrad Vernon). Illumination is another animation house under Universal’s umbrella, best known for foisting the Minions upon us. The temptation is to blame the Illumination influence on the Shrek redesign, but they do cheerfully cartoony digital animation, and the look here is more realistic, not less. I think this is just how they want Shrek to look now. Like a real booger ogre. Because that’s what we all want…?

While jokes were rampant yesterday, it is clear no one likes the new Shrek. Maybe they really can bully Universal into redesigning the characters, just like Sonic fans did to Paramount. The Sonic movies ended up mostly okay looking. What I’m saying is, sometimes bullying is good. 

Live long and gossip,

Sarah