Shrek 2 / YMMV - TV Tropes

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Accidental Aesop: Given everything that goes wrong for the Fairy Godmother after Shrek, Donkey, and Puss sneak into her factory pretending to be union representatives, one can come away from the film with the lesson "treat and compensate your workers fairly or it will come back to bite you."
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Does King Harold hate Shrek just because he's an ogre and is responsible for not getting his daughter's curse lifted, or because he hates what he is inside - a green, slimy, ugly swamp creature like Shrek - and thus despises Shrek for reminding him of the fact that he, too, won't ever be what people want or expect him to be? A mixture of both is a popular idea in the fandom. Some other interpretations include that King Harold wasn't only mad his daughter married an ogre, but because Fairy Godmother would find out he broke his end of the bargain which required Fiona to marry Prince Charming, not wanting to turn back into a frog; or he was simply worried for Fiona in general by wanting her to marry someone he saw fit.
- Fairy Godmother has a few as well; does she just hate Shrek because he stands in the way of Prince Charming becoming king of Far Far Away, or is it more because he breaks the cookie-cutter mold of what the perfect man should be in a happily ever after? The scene in which she persuades Shrek into leaving Fiona implies both theories.
- Knowing that King Harold is actually a frog gives one for Fiona — was she really cursed, or were the ogre transformations part of her weird genetics? Or it could be that she was indeed cursed, but the weird genetics were the reason for "ogre" being her true form rather than "human" (provided that her form didn't settle on ogre because her true love was Shrek). Alternately, Fiona was cursed, but by the Fairy Godmother instead of a witch.
Alternative Joke Interpretation: At the beginning, Donkey says that his wife Dragon has been "moody", but at the end of the film, she's back to normal and they have babies. Is the joke that Dragon was pregnant and hormonal? Or is it referencing the idea that mythical monsters such as dragons are often violently protective of their eggs?
Anti-Climax Boss: Puss In Boots is introduced as an assassin, said to be the only one known to deal with ogres. And indeed, he deals quite a number on Shrek when he attacks him... Then Puss proceeds to hack up a hairball and is simply picked up by the back from Shrek, not even putting up a further fight and begs for mercy, which's funny considering his catchphrase he just said barely a minute ago.
Crosses the Line Twice:
- Shrek accidentally kisses an Ariel-lookalike mermaid when an ocean tide sweeps Fiona away from him. Fiona angrily one-arm-throwing the mermaid back into the ocean is already hilarious, but then we see sharks descending upon her.
- The whole KNIGHTS sequence, which involves Donkey, who is voiced by Eddie Murphy, screaming about Police Brutality and one of the knights seemingly planting catnip on Puss.
Crossover Ship: Prince Charming/Prince Hans, since they are both handsome young men and turn out to be not the men the female lead ends up with, for being scheming, controlling princes without any real charm. They even have the Portmanteau Couple Name of "Harming".
Demographically Inappropriate Humour: When Shrek is turned into a muscular human man from a potion, some women act excited when Donkey suggests getting rid of his old clothes, indicating that they want to see him nude.
Draco in Leather Pants:
- There are some people who think Prince Charming was meant to be with Fiona and believe he had every right to be angry with Shrek for being an interloper who basically "stole" his bride-to-be away from him. Some even use Fiona's diary as evidence that Fiona wanted to be with Charming until Shrek muscled his way into her life, ruining Charming's chances of happiness. What these people forget is that Charming only wanted to marry Fiona to be king and their marriage would have been an arranged one, whereas Shrek and Fiona fell in love naturally.
- Following this, some people see Fairy Godmother as a Well-Intentioned Extremist who felt that the love potion was the only way to correct what she saw as a horrible mistake and who genuinely wanted to help Fiona, believing she would be happier living the life of a human princess with Charming then as an ogre in a swamp.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Puss in Boots became an iconic and beloved character from the moment he was introduced thanks to Antonio Banderas' lovable charisma, his awesome bravado as a swordsman, great dialogue, his cuteness and for playing off Shrek and Donkey very well. He even ended up getting not one but two spin offs as a result of his beloved appearance here.
Even Better Sequel: Not only is it 89% on Rotten Tomatoes ^note, it's generally considered to be better-paced, funnier, and much more exciting than the original. The movie is also loved for introducing Puss in Boots, possibly the most beloved character in the series next to Shrek himself.
Evil Is Cool: The Fairy Godmother is easily the most popular villain in the series, rivaled only by Death in The Last Wish being a Faux Affably Evil Manipulative Bitch who manages to trick the characters (and even some of the audience members) into thinking that she's a good guy. Her singing a cover of "Holding Out For A Hero" in the climax certainly helps.
Fanfic Fuel: Pick a character from the film, any character, give them the Happily Ever After potion and try to imagine what would happen to them. Heck! Why stop at Shrek characters? Try to imagine any character from any work taking the potion.
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish does this to this movie and the rest of the franchise; some have taken to writing stories about how characters like the Fairy Godmother interact with Death.
Fanon: Though not outright confirmed, many fans believe the Fairy Godmother and the Witch who cursed Fiona to be one and the same, adding to the depths of the Godmother's complex machinations.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- It stands to reason that Shrek would be understandably pissed about King Harold suggesting ogres eat their own young, as it's revealed in Shrek the Third that Shrek's father actually did attempt to eat him many times as he grew up.
- When Shrek is Drowning His Sorrows at the Poison Apple, Shrek says he never should have rescued Fiona from the tower. Shrek Forever After shows how bad a world where Shrek didn't rescue Fiona would be.
- Before Shrek and Donkey drink the Happily Ever After potion, Puss offers to taste it first in case it is poisonous, stating that he is willing to lay down his life for his new friends. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish would later reveal that Puss has literal lives to spare^note and his major conflict in that film revolves around him taking his lives for granted, to the point where Death itself tries to take his last life out of spite. So while his offer is still noble and selfless, sacrificing one of his own lives is actually not that big a deal for Puss at this point.
- When watching Fiona and Shrek affirm their love for each other through a kiss, Puss outwardly exclaims that he is Trying Not to Cry. While it's funny within the context of this movie, The Last Wish reveals that Puss almost got married himself, only to leave his would-be wife at the altar out of fear of the commitment.
- During the K.N.I.G.H.T.S. scene, Shrek, Puss, and Donkey are apprehended by the Far Away knights. Donkey, played by black actor Eddie Murphy, complains about police brutality as he is manhandled by several of them, before one knight yanks him down and kneels on his neck. Fast forward to 2020 and the death of George Floyd after Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck until he passed out and died from asphyxiation, sparking a wave of national protests against police brutality against minorities. This is in addition Puss in Boots having fake drugs planted on him (catnip) and being similarly manhandled, while Shrek gets off more lightly, merely being detained and unnecessarily pepper-sprayed. Thus, the scene becomes a lot more uncomfortable, matching what happened to the series the sequence is parodying.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Given that the Shrek franchise originated as a spoof of Disney's animated features, the climax of this film became much more amusing after its basic plot beats were used for the latter company's Cinderella III: A Twist in Time. In both works, the protagonist must make their way through a heavily guarded castle in order to prevent their loved ones from marrying an impostor. Following their success, they are confronted by the Big Bad, who dramatically prepares to kill them with an energy blast from Fairy Godmother's wand. Finally, the assassination attempt is thwarted when a royal intercepts the spell and deflects it back at the villainess, defeating her for good.
- In the DVD menu, Shrek responds to Donkey's suggestions for subtitles for the movie by sarcastically suggesting it be called Shrek 2: Dude, Where's My Donkey?! (and more) but it doesn't go anywhere. Then along came the third Nativity! movie, which unironically used that as its subtitle.
- Shrek is disgusted by a poster of "Sir Justin" (who looks like Justin Timberlake) on Fiona's ceiling. Come The Third, where a teenage King Arthur is played by... Justin Timberlake. For bonus hilarity points, they bond.
- One scene in the movie has an Ariel-esque mermaid show up, only to be eaten by sharks. 19 years later, another DreamWorks Animation movie, Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, would feature another Ariel-esque mermaid named Chelsea as a major character and the main villain.
- One of the most infamous jokes of the movie for the adults in the audience is the KNIGHTS parody featuring a reference to the O. J. Simpson Ford Bronco chase. The film's rerelease in theaters for the 20th anniversary in 2024 ironically fell two days after Simpson died.
Jerkass Woobie: King Harold's treatment of Shrek is far from okay, going beyond Obnoxious In-Laws into full on villainous territory when he hires an assassin to get rid of the ogre. However, he only goes that far because he's under immense pressure from Fairy Godmother who terrifies him with threats of retaliation if he doesn't set Fiona up with Prince Charming. Harold is even more sympathetic for having to put up with this treatment when you realize that he fulfilled his part of the deal, and it was Charming who failed when he didn't rescue Fiona before Shrek. Not to mention, it's hard to blame Harold for being upset that Fiona is now permanently an ogre, considering he sent her away for years to cure her of a spell that changed her that way only at night. So Harold's attempt to solve this problem was not only All for Nothing, but it made the issue even worse than before. And that's not getting into all the years he had to spend without seeing his daughter. Or how he's forced to watch see Fiona deeply unhappy about the man she loved seemingly turning into someone completely different, something that Harold is partially responsible for, and riddled with guilt over. And while it doesn't excuse his bigotry towards ogres, there's also the implication that Harold hates his true self and Shrek is a walking reminder of this.
Memetic Mutation: See this film's section on the franchise's meme page.
Misaimed Fandom: Several fans have wished Shrek and Fiona could have stayed as humans because they're more attractive that way, completely ignoring that the main moral of the movie was that true love could only be found within, and that judging people solely based on their appearances was morally wrong and incredibly hurtful to the person in question.
Moral Event Horizon: The Fairy Godmother could be seen as a Jerkass Knight Templar at first... up until she decides to use a potion to make Fiona fall in love with Prince Charming. She's even stated that this is not unusual for her. This is what ultimately cracks Harold and makes him go back on his promise to the Fairy Godmother.
Nightmare Fuel: Shrek, unable to sleep, walks around Fiona's childhood room while she's asleep and stumbles upon her childhood diary which he mentally reads in her voice, starting with her childhood fantasy of being rescued by Prince Charming and eventually becoming page after page of "Mrs. Fiona Charming". This adds to Shrek's guilt over whether he's making Fiona happy.
Parody Displacement: Many young viewers will not realize that Puss in Boots is an Affectionate Parody of the titular character from The Mask of Zorro, even being played by the same actor. This applies both to when this movie was released, as it came out six years after Zorro (ironically, The Legend of Zorro hit theaters the year after this film), and to the present day, where the Shrek fandom is still very active and Puss in Boots has evolved into its own spin-off franchise, while the Zorro franchise hasn't been in the limelight for some time (thanks to Legend Of Zorro being a Box Office Bomb). Because of this trope, it can be humorous when fans of the film grow up and realize that Puss, who has become an iconic character in his own right, is so heavily inspired by another classic character.
Signature Scene: The climax. Shrek storms Far Far Away's royal castle riding on a ten-story-tall gingerbread man, set to Jennifer Saunders' cover of "Holding Out For a Hero". It's widely considered to be the entire franchise's most epic moment.
Squick: At the end, Dragon shows up with several of her and Donkey's newborn children. You don't want to think too hard about how that happened.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The fact we never see Dragon's beautiful form. Word of God is that they considered turning her into a massive pegasus, but felt that it would end up being a Story-Breaker Power.
Tough Act to Follow: Shrek 2 is not only DreamWorks’ biggest critical and financial success, but is generally considered to be one of the most beloved sequels and a major high point for the Shrek franchise. As such, the franchise would naturally fall victim to this trope when Shrek the Third is widely considered to pale in comparison (though Shrek Forever After has since been Vindicated by History, and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish received rave reviews on par with the first two Shrek films). Plus, the studio's next film, Shark Tale, was considered among their worst films to date. In addition, none of DreamWorks' subsequent films have ever managed to surpass Shrek 2's $928 million worldwide gross, let alone reach the billion-dollar mark.
Unintentional Uncanny Valley:
- While the animation as a whole is much less subject to this than the first movie, some people feel that Donkey's stallion form (with human eyes and lips on the face of a horse) is unsettling. Rather ironic, considering that in the first movie it was the human characters who looked uncanny and the animals who were much more bearable.
- The workers in Fairy Godmother's factory. Due to their height and the fairytale nature of the story, it's implied they may be elves or dwarves of some kind. But the only thing we really see of them are eerily generic human faces within hazmat suits, with a creepy green glowing light casted from inside the suits.
Values Dissonance: The Fairy Godmother describes the wolf as "gender-confused". While her being a Politically Incorrect Villain is a given, this was meant to be comedic during the time of this film's release. Even newer airings fixed this by taking out the word "gender" from the sentence so she says "confused wolf" instead.

Game

Breather Level: The Far Far Away and Jack and Jill's Farm levels are these, mostly thanks to them placing particular emphasis on completing minigames and Hero Time segments. Their laid back atmospheres also help.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Lil Red is considered a big fan-favorite by those who played the game, due to her being a sassy, softball-pitching Little Miss Badass, voiced by marquee voice actress Tara Strong. She's so beloved that some fans want her to be canonized in the movie universe.
Game-Breaker: If you can find and purchase the secret upgrades hidden throughout the game, be prepared for most of the difficulty to go down by a lot. Enemies that used to take several hits to go down now only require one or two to defeat with enough strength upgrades, the team's survivability goes up significantly with the health upgrades, and it's really easy to gather up enough treasure to buy them all since the treasure doubling upgrade is found very early on in the game^noteSpooky Forest and can be used in the bonus games to gain treasure in the thousands easily.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- As pointed out by the Super Gaming Bros. Let's Play, certain segments, intentionally or not, have some similarities to the original Crash Bandicoot games, mostly the first one. A few years later, the game's publisher, Activision, would get the rights to the Crash series, and almost a decade after that, Vicarious Visions (who handled the Game Boy Advance Shrek 2 games) went on to remake the original three games in the Crash series, making the series of coincidences look like unintentional Foreshadowing.
- One of the criminals depicted in the wanted posters of the game is Goldilocks. Years later, she was introduced as the leader of a renowned criminal family alongside the three bears in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, making it look like unintentional Foreshadowing.
No Problem with Licensed Games: The console game is generally regarded as a good adaptation of the movie and a fun Beat 'em Up Platformer in its own right.
One-Scene Wonder: Fairy shows up for a single level, never appearing before or after. Not only that, but she's a Canon Foreigner, meaning that one level is the only official appearance of this character. The latter point is Subverted if you believe she's supposed to be Tinkerbell, but there's nothing official to say so.
That One Boss:
- Puss makes up for his poor showing in the movie by being a tough rhythm-based boss where you must push buttons to dodge his attacks and hit him. He also takes a lot of damage before he finally goes down.
- The gold stone warrior fought near the end of The Mines can be this for some players. Its attacks are capable of causing instant death if you don't have powerups and takes a lot of hits to defeat.
Underused Game Mechanic: Fairy has the exclusive ability of using her magic to make teammates and enemies alike float into the air for a short time, with the allotted time being based on the targeted character's weight. However, Fairy is only playable in one level (where said ability isn't used for any puzzles) and a bonus minigame (where said ability doesn't function on any of her teammates or any enemy that isn't also present in her one level), ensuring you'll likely forget the ability exists before long.

YMMV / Shrek 2

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