Media Study: A Serious Analysis of a Not-So-Serious Movie: Multicultural Dynamics in Shrek 2

This paper is an analysis of how multicultural family dynamics are reflected in the Dreamworks comedy Shrek 2, and how the overlapping of fantasy-identities shape the characters' communication. (Feb. 20, 2020)

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Media Representation Analysis: A Formal Analysis of Shrek 2

When most people think of the Shrek movie series, what typically comes to mind is a light-hearted, sarcastic, fun family film saga and all the jokes that come with it. At its core, it is a love story about an ogre and a princess that fall in love, go on epic adventures, and face off against evil villains alongside all of their magical friends. Most tend to associate it with its mildly inappropriate humor and innuendos, iconic soundtrack, and its continuous presence throughout social media, but there are other academic factors it can be analyzed for. Shrek 2 continues where the first installment in the series left off, with Shrek and Fiona happily married. Soon after returning home from their honeymoon, they are called to the luxurious kingdom of Far Far Away to meet Fiona’s parents, Queen Lillian and King Harold, but upon arrival the couple is immediately faced with scrutiny for their unorthodox relationship which has turned the princess into an ogre as well. But how does a cartoon fantasy movie about an ogre relate to communication and identity in multicultural families?

One of the major character arcs in the movie is that of the protagonist himself, Shrek, whose biggest challenge is overcoming the differences in species, backgrounds, and social status between himself and the royal family he has married into. In the world established in the movies, Shrek is literally a species minority (rather than racial minority), stigmatized and stereotyped by a dominantly human society that poses as a constant reminder of that divide between him and his in-laws, as well as his wife who, despite currently being an ogre, was still raised as a wealthy human. Shrek 2 is a contemporary piece that reflects the ins and outs of communication in multicultural families by paralleling the conflicts multicultural families must face when it comes to racework and emotional labor.

As an inter-species (as a parallel of interracial) couple, Shrek and Fiona’s first major encounter with scutiny in this movie comes when they step out of their carriage at the front gates of the castle in which Queen Lillian and King Harold reside. In this scene, the people of Far Far Away, unaware of Shrek and Fiona’s physical appearances, excitedly await their arrival. As the carriage reaches a stop, a trumpet sounds. The crowd cheers and a flying flock of doves is released. But as Shrek and Fiona exit the carriage, the mood shifts from enthusiastic to dreadful. The entire crowd gasps, one of the doves falls from the sky, Harold and Lillian stand with their mouths agape, and the only thing that breaks the silence which has fallen over the crowd is a baby crying. Everyone around the couple is visibly and audibly disturbed by what they see. As it all plays out, it is meant to make the audience laugh and in fact it usually does, but there is something here to be said about the stigmatism interracial couples face for nothing more than their love for one another. Although a hyperbolic representation of this issue, the crowd’s response and Shrek and Fiona’s ensuing discomfort is something present in the real world, especially throughout a history which has looked down on interracial marriages for so long--and still sometimes does to this day.

One of the recurring concepts within communication in multicultural families is race as a social production, established and perpetuated by everyday interactions and the restrictions of social structures. Shrek and Fiona, despite being perfectly content with their relationship, are forced to perform an emotional labor by passively dealing with the stigma placed on them and, by extension, the royal family. They are bluntly reminded that even if they are happy, the social structures in the world around them are in opposition to their intersection of human and ogre, rich and poor, royal and common. One CBS article details the challenges faced by real interracial couples, one couple stating, “We just ran into a lot of racism, a lot of issues, a lot of problems. You'd go into a restaurant, people wouldn't want to serve you. When you're walking down the street together, it was like you've got a contagious disease” (CBS News, 2017). Interracial couples throughout history who have dealt with judgement have also had to either silently accept it or risk further consequences, whether those be legal or social/relational, by acting in defiance.

Parallels can even be drawn between the fantasy-public perception of Shrek and Fiona’s marriage, and the famous, interracial real-life marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Similarly, when Meghan married into the Royal Family, the press and general public were quick to question whether or not she would fulfill what was expected of her, especially being of a different culture and, although still a celebrity to begin with, coming from a somewhat lower social status. An article from BBC discusses their marriage in relation to multicultural families, “When Prince Harry married Meghan Markle there was a lot of attention on Meghan's race. Interracial couples may seem common but the latest figures show they account for only 7% of relationships in England and Wales,” as well as describes other interracial marriages, “‘I got mixed reviews, my mum didn't speak to me for a bit, she thought I was being impulsive’” (“Interracial couples: People”, 2018). Even in such a recent event, people are quick to show levels of skepticism when it comes to forming multicultural families, and this social discourse causes difficulties for those who have to decide whether or their love will hold up against labels they are expected to conform to. This shows the relevance of real-life discourse to a movie like Shrek 2, in which the conflicts are not isolated from the world of the audience despite being a cartoon fantasy.

The struggles in communication that come with interracial relationships are also a source of distress within the family itself when members fail to understand or relate to each other. A study from 2006 explored the types of psychological distress experienced by interracial marriages. In terms of historical context, the study claims that “Scholars writing early in the twentieth century suggested that persons in inter-racial marriages were subject to conflicting social and cultural obligations leading to discrimination, lack of social support from family members, and, consequently, psychological disorganization and distress” (Bratter & Eschbach, 2006, pg. 1026). Race and social class can have a lot of influence over people’s traditions, linguistics, priorities, and mannerisms, the combining of which can draw attention to differences between individuals in multicultural families, pushing the individuals to have to negotiate between said differences. This can be a source of mental and emotional tension when outsiders disapprove of the family’s negotiated dynamics--mixing of traditions, languages, and so on--or when the actual members of the family fail to see eye to eye.

In Shrek 2 this failure of negotiation and subsequent psychological distress is best demonstrated in a scene where Shrek, Fiona, her parents, and Shrek’s best friend, Donkey, have dinner soon after they have all formally met. The scene starts out with Shrek struggling to learn how to navigate the etiquette he is suddenly expected to demonstrate--how to use an abundance of utensils for each course served, how to eat fancy dishes, and how to make polite small talk he has never had to make before this point. Eager to please his in-laws, he attempts to go through the meal as smoothly and kindly as possible, but each time he shows his inexperience with the situation or draws attention to the fact that he is an ogre who lives in a swamp rather than a castle, his in-laws show their dissatisfaction. Despite her reservations, Lillian puts on a smile and tries to engage in conversation with Shrek, however Harold makes increasingly aggressive insults to him at every opportunity, pushing Shrek to defend himself and Lillian and Fiona to join in as well. Harold remarks on Shrek’s conventionally unattractive appearance, where he lives, whether or not he and Fiona should have children of their own, and Shrek’s position in society. In one part of the scene, Harold sarcastically remarks that if Shrek and Fiona have children, Shrek may eat them based on the assumption that as an ogre, he is naturally unloving and brutish. He makes many more comments along those lines, constantly drawing attention to the fact that Shrek is an outsider to this kingdom and the lifestyles of its people. Each person at the dinner table experiences psychological distress at an issue caused by the social constructs that tell people like Harold that an interspecies, inter-socioeconomic marriage is wrong. The same study mentioned above also states “that socioeconomic differences partially explain the elevated distress rates of the intermarried,” which applies to the communicative failures in this family (Bratter & Eschbach, 2006, pg. 1039).

Shrek’s initial resistance to the scrutiny he faces is tested and eventually broken when, at the turning point of the movie, he takes a potion to make himself human in order to fit into society, gain the affection of his in-laws, and seek acceptance from a society which rejected him otherwise. As soon as he steps outside and encounters the citizens of Far Far Away while in his new form, he is swooned over by the women on the streets and treated with respect by everyone around him so long as he no longer displays his original identity. For this reason, it can be said that Shrek conforms to expectations of assimilation. One study reads, “Classical assimilation theory is sometimes criticized as ethnocentric in its implications [...]; that is, it suggests a natural progression in which immigrants jettison maladaptive cultural repertoires and adopt a ‘better’ way of life—the American way” (Qian & Lichter, 2007, pg. 70). Shrek is conforming to a classical view of assimilation by bending to fit into the “better” version of himself everyone expects him to be, but by doing so he erases profound parts of his background. By doing so, he is content with his outward self but is uncomfortable with who he is trying to become. No matter how he dresses, speaks, or suddenly tries to act to blend in, he is aware that that is not who he is and not who his experiences have shaped him to be. At this point, he learns to accept that he is different, he will never fit into the world Harold and Lillian come from, and that those class and species differences are completely okay. Once Shrek learns all of this, he transforms back into and ogre.

In the end, taking one's place in a society like Far Far Away does not mean having to erase one’s identity, especially not when Fiona loves Shrek regardless, and Lillian and Harold eventually come to accept him into their family after developing their relationships and overcoming their differences. Rather than argue until one side wins over the other, Shrek and Fiona’s parents resolve their issues by finding a balance between two identities that intersect upon Shrek joining their family. Writer Rebecca R. Kahlenberg describes the dos and don’ts of interracial marriages, “‘Don't think you can plan to marry someone of another culture if you're not interested in that culture,’ says Linda Reinisch. Her husband had many Jewish friends and knew Yiddish phrases when they met. For their wedding, they blended their cultures” (Kahlenberg, 2001). If multicultural families are about celebrating all members’ backgrounds and identities, it requires certain compromises in order to prevent any one identity from seeming superior to the others.

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Works Cited

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10.1016/j.ssresearch.2005.09.001

CBS News. (2017, June 12). 50 years later, interracial couples still face hostility from

strangers. Retrieved from

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/50-years-loving-case-interracial-couples-still-face-

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DreamWorks. (2004). Shrek 2.

Interracial couples: People stare and nudge each other. (2018, July 11). Retrieved from

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44780698

Kahlenberg, R. R. (2001, November 22). The I Do's and Don'ts of Intercultural Marriage.

Retrieved from

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Qian, Z., & Lichter, D. T. (2007). Social Boundaries and Marital Assimilation: Interpreting

Trends in Racial and Ethnic Intermarriage. American Sociological Review, 72(1), 68–94.

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