Medieval Magic.(Technology Information)

PDI USES 3D GRAPHICS TO CREATE FAIRY-TALE HAVOC IN SHREX, A FEATURE-LENGTH ANIMATION

Once upon a time, in a land not so far away, 275 people were given a daunting task: They had to transform zeros and ones into a rich landscape filled with delightful and sometimes rude creatures who would tell a tale so fascinating and funny that millions of citizens, perhaps even teenagers, would leave their homes to go see it. The 275 people huffed and they puffed. Slowly an enchanting world began to take shape. And then, as if by magic, three years later the zeros and ones were completely transformed--into a hilarious movie called Shrek.

Scheduled to open May 18 in US theaters, Shrek, based on the children's book by William Steig, is the second animated feature from PDI/DreamWorks, which previously created Antz, and the fifth feature-length film created entirely with 3D computer graphics. Directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, the animated comedy adventure stars, as voice talent, Mike Myers in the title role of Shrek, an ornery ogre; Eddie Murphy as Donkey, Shrek's wisecracking, fast-talking, sidekick; Cameron Diaz as Fiona, a beautiful princess with a deep, dark secret; and John Lithgow as Lord Farquaad, an anal-retentive, power-hungry villain. What more does a shattered fairy tale need? Well, certainly a fire-breathing dragon, knights in shining armor, gnomes, and fairy godmothers, and this movie has all that and more.

With each new 3D animated feature, Toy Story, Antz, A Bug's Life, and Toy Story 2, the backgrounds and characters have become more varied, complex and detailed; the make-believe worlds have, in effect, become more three-dimensional in every way. Shrek, like all these films before it, has raised the bar again.

PDI tackled nearly everything that's difficult to do with computer graphics. Characters of all sizes and shapes ranging in style from cartoony to photoreal appear together in settings ranging from stark medieval castles to goopy organic swamps. The movie has hair, fur, cloth, fire, and fluid simulations. And there are crowds. In an early sequence, 1000 fantasy characters invade a swamp. Later, a cast of 1000 Duloc citizens cheer from the stadium stands during a mud-wrestling tournament. And toward the end, 1500 characters attend a wedding. The team also created 36 unique environments, 28,186 trees with 3 billion leaves, and 68 character models, including the four primary characters, several secondary characters such as the dragon and the knights, and 31 fairy-tale creatures. In this movie, the Big Bad Wolf, Pinocchio, and the Three Little Pigs work alongside such characters as the Pied Piper and the Gingerbread Man.

The theme of Shrek is about not taking stereotypes and fantasies for granted, and the movie cleverly uses fairy-tale conventions and characters to make the point. "Whenever possible, we try to take a fairy-tale stereotype, set it up as a fairy-tale stereotype, and twist it in a comic way," says Adamson. "I've always thought that fairy tales don't have great messages: If you don't go to bed, the ogre is going to get you. If you meet your knight in shining armor, who is always a perfect, handsome prince, everything will be all right. So it's been fun to use pretty much every fairy tale ever told as huge comic fodder."

The story begins with Shrek happily living alone in a swamp to avoid being the monster others expect of him. One day, hundreds of insolent fairy-tale creatures are dumped there--the evil Lord Farquaad has banished the annoying characters from Duloc. Donkey has gotten mixed in with this crowd, and when Shrek inadvertently saves his life, he becomes Shrek's sidekick. Shrek's determination to get his peaceful swamp back takes the pair to Duloc, where Shrek finds himself fighting Farquaad's knights. He wins, and Lord Farquaad offers a deal: Shrek can have his swamp back sans fairy-tale creatures if he rescues a beautiful princess, who is locked in a castle guarded by a dragon, and delivers her to Farquaad. And thus, Shrek's journey begins.