I hate the new Shrek 5 look
For 25 years, Shrek was the anti-Disney hero. Now he suddenly looks like every other animation character in a corporate assembly line. What the hell happened?
I don’t know about you. But I can’t quite get on board with this new Shrek trailer. It’s not because of the humour or anything like that. The «do you wanna date a snowman» gag is actually brilliant. Donkey may not be the Snow Queen. But the reference is genius.
So far, so good. When the Shrek franchise launched in 2001, it was already something of the antithesis to Disney: the characters weren’t cute, the world wasn’t perfect and the jokes were irreverent. The fairy-tale characters were neurotic and the hero was a grumpy ogre who’d rather live alone in a swamp and fart in the mud than save the world. That’s exactly what made the franchise so appealing – the rough edges.
Same goes for the animation style – angular, unpolished. And that’s exactly what DreamWorks has now thrown out the window. The result?
Shreking awful!
Badum-tss.
The beauty-filter ogre
But seriously – I can’t possibly be the only one who’s noticed this, right?! I mean, yeah, sure – Shrek looks like Shrek. Donkey looks like Donkey. Fiona looks like Fiona. And yet they all give off the vibe that someone has attempted to redraw them from memory rather than working with what was already there. It’s uncanny. The likeness is there. But something’s just... off.
Source: DreamWorks Animations
Of course, animation technology has evolved. That’s not the issue. Twenty-five years have passed since the first Shrek was released in 2001. The lighting has improved, the textures are more detailed, the facial animations more complex. Just to be clear: I don’t expect a film from 2026 to look exactly like one from 2001.
My point is that with the first four movies, I always felt like it was the same characters – just being animated with ever-better tools. In Shrek 5, it feels more like the characters have been swapped out and replaced with lookalikes.
Source: DreamWorks Animations
Everything looks rounder. Softer. Smoother. Facial expressions are far more exaggerated. The eyes are bigger. At times, Donkey and Shrek pull faces that look like a cartoon on steroids. What’s that about? Where have the rough edges of the original gone? The imperfections? Why does everyone look like they’ve been treated with a generic beauty filter?
I set out in search of answers – and actually found some.
This goes way beyond Shrek 5
Since late 2023, DreamWorks – the animation studio behind Shrek – has been in the middle of a sweeping restructure. NBCUniversal, the parent company, is pushing to significantly cut production costs. First, dozens of roles in production and tech disappeared; later, virtually every part of the studio was affected. Industry media reported that whole departments were drastically being scaled back. All the while, DreamWorks simultaneously announced a new production model that outsourced large parts of the animation work.
The plan was less work in-house, more external, cheaper partners.
It’s not currently known if Shrek 5 was co-animated by said outsourced teams. But what’s clear is that the movie was made during a period when DreamWorks was fundamentally changing its way of working – and precisely at a time when the studio was actually doing rather well, off the back of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Wild Robot and Kung Fu Panda 4.
On top of that, DreamWorks has been using a new rendering engine since How to Train Your Dragon 3; Moonray replaced Moonlight in 2019. Moonray enables physically more accurate lighting and softer textures than ever before. The engine is also designed to smooth out hard shadows and eliminate rough imperfections.
In short: it removes everything that visually defined Shrek.
Shrek 5 is not a rebrand
Maybe Shrek 5 will be a great movie. I obviously can’t judge that after just one trailer. But when the primary reaction to a new iteration of one of the most beloved animated characters of all time is «What the heck happened to him?!» that should give you pause.
No, DreamWorks – Shrek is not a brand you can reinvent at will. It’s one of the few film franchises whose charm is inseparable from its aesthetic. A rough-around-the-edges, earthy, deliberately unpolished world. The new version feels like a decision to tidy everything up a bit. To make it a bit more consumer-friendly. And a bit less swampy.
As for me, I’m left with a bad taste in my mouth.
I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.
This is a subjective opinion of the editorial team. It doesn't necessarily reflect the position of the company.
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