SCARED SHREKLESS: Spooky Story Collection [2010 / 2011] [DVD] [UK Release]
Shrek’s Spooktacular Stories!
Halloween is Shrek’s favourite holiday – but instead of the usual tricks or treats, Shrek ups the ante and challenges the gang to spend the night telling scary stories. The last one to be scared Shrekless wins.
Animated short featuring the characters from the 'Shrek' series. It's Halloween in the ogre household and Shrek [Mike Myers] and his family are having fun scaring trick-or-treaters. When Donkey [Dean Edwards], Puss in Boots [Antonio Banderas], Gingy [Conrad Vernon] and the gang have a competition to see who can tell the scariest story, with an end goal of trying to scare the cool-headed Shrek, they quickly find out what their big green friend has in store for them...
FILM FACT: The special marks the first time outside of the video games that Donkey is now voiced by Dean Edwards since Eddie Murphy declined to return. Rupert Everett and Chris Miller were both replaced by Sean Bishop as Prince Charming and Mister Geppetto respectively while Miles Christopher Bakshi and Nina Zoe Bakshi reprise their roles as Fergus, Farkle, and Felicia from Shrek Forever After. This is also the first time Duloc has been seen since the original Shrek. It was produced with the working title of Shrek or Treat. The film is told in told in anthology film format, using a frame story to introduce three horror tales.
Voice Cast: Shrek [Mike Myers], Donkey [Dean Edwards], Princess Fiona [Cameron Diaz], Puss in Boots [Antonio Banderas], Pinocchio and The Three Little Pigs [Cody Cameron], Gingerbread Man and Muffin Man [Conrad Vernon], The Three Blind Mice [Christopher Knights], Big Bad Wolf [Aron Warner], Sugar [Kristen Schaal], Geppetto, Prince Charming, Jiminy Cricket, Dwarves and Waffle [Sean Bishop], Ogre Babies [Miles Christopher Bakshi and Nina Zoe Bakshi], Teenager #1 [Louis Gabriel Basso III] and Teenager #2 and Teenager #3 [Devon Werkheiser]
Directors: Gary Trousdale and Raman Hui
Producers: Chad Hammes, Gary Trousdale and Karen Foster
Screenplay: William Steig (based upon the book), Gary Trousdale and Sean Bishop, Gary Trousdale and Sean Bishop
Stories: Clairee Morrissey (“Bride of Gingy”), Robert Porter (“Boots Motel”) and Sean Bishop (“Shrek Sorcist”)
Composer: Halli Cauthery
Image Resolution: 1080i (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 (Anamorphic)
Audio: English: 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio
English: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English
Running Time: 24 minutes
Number of discs: 1
Studio: DreamWorks Animation
Andrew’s DVD Review: ‘SCARED SHREKLESS: Spooky Story Collection’ [2010] is a 26-minute Halloween television special spun off from DreamWorks Animation's Shrek film franchise. Set shortly after the events of the fourth movie, ‘Shrek Forever After,’ it premiered on NBC on Thursday, 28th October 2010.
The short marks the first time Eddie Murphy didn't reprise his role as Donkey and was replaced by Dean Edwards, while Rupert Everett was replaced by Sean Bishop as Prince Charming, and the Ogre Babies were now voiced by Miles Christopher Bakshi and Nina Zoe Bakshi. This is also the first mention of Lord Farquaad and his kingdom, Duloc, since the original ‘Shrek’ animated film.
It is Halloween night, and Shrek's family is celebrating by scaring trick-or-treaters. Inside their house, Donkey, Puss, Pinocchio, the Three Little Pigs, Big Bad Wolf, and Gingy fail to scare the ogres, and Shrek claims that nothing can scare an ogre because ogres are "the kings of Halloween". To prove him wrong, Donkey proposes a challenge to see who can tell the scariest story, but Shrek amps it up by choosing to hold their contest in Lord Farquaad's abandoned castle Duloc.
Gingy starts first with a story about his girlfriend dumping him and asking the Muffin man for a new girlfriend, made with loads of sugar, thus giving her the name Sugar as revealed in the credits. Gingy becomes happy with her but ends up becoming freaked out of all her love for him. After running away and pushing her in a big container of batter, he finally becomes free of her and decides to go home, but the batter that Sugar was dropped in ended up creating thousands of zombie-like versions of herself, surrounding Gingy and eating him. The Three Little Pigs get scared and run away with Big Bad Wolf who claims they are his ride. Shrek comments on the falsehood of Gingy's "true" story, saying that he cannot be there if he was eaten, and he runs off as well.
The Bride of Gingy: Gingy goes to see the Muffin Man and tells him that his girlfriend dumped him because he only thought of himself. So, he and the Muffin Man make a new girlfriend named Sugar. When they make her, Gingy decides to use a lot of sugar, thinking that she will love him forever, despite the Muffin Man's warnings against doing so. When she is baked, Gingy is initially happy with her, but ends up disturbed by her obsession with him. The Three Little Pigs get scared and run away and Big Bad Wolf, wearing a witch hat, heads after them on the grounds that they're his ride home. Shrek comments on the falsehood of Gingy's story, saying that he cannot be there if he was eaten, and Gingy runs off as well to hide his embarrassment.
Boots Motel: Next, Donkey and Puss in Boots tell a story about them taking shelter from a thunderstorm at Boots Motel and of course it is a parody of the Bates Motel from the horror film ‘Psycho.’ Their story starts off well, but when Donkey tells it, it always ends up with Puss in Boots getting killed, which irritates Puss in Boots to no end, so Puss in Boots decides to change it: Donkey and Puss in Boots go to the Motel, but Donkey calls Puss in Boots his sidekick. It turns out that the keeper was Prince Charming and he zaps Puss with his wand to dust, but Puss says he used his sword and leaped to safety, but Donkey says he was standing on an 'X' spot, which Prince Charming pulls a lever to trap Puss in Boots, but Puss in Boots says he would never let that happen to him, so he says that he woke up, revealing to be all a dream. Donkey comes in and tells Puss in Boots that he is actually on the ceiling. The lights go out and when they come back on, Donkey is in the shower and about to be eaten by a giant waffle. Donkey tries to run, but gets covered in butter, wearing a pink tutu, a sombrero and a coconut bra. Finally, Donkey gets Pinocchio to spray Puss in Boots with water, making him run away.
The Shrek Sorcist: At last, Shrek tells the final story about his experience babysitting a crazed and possessed Pinocchio, but after continuously getting beaten up by the living puppet, Shrek tries to catch him but Pinocchio jumps out of the window. After landing on the streets, a talking cricket pops out of Pinocchio's head, claiming to be his conscience and the voice in his head making him go crazy, only to be squashed under Pinocchio's foot. Pinocchio denies that the story is not true, but when Shrek shows him a normal cricket as his "conscience" to ask him, he screams and runs out.
Suddenly, chairs start moving, the chandelier starts rocking, and causing Donkey to think it's a prank when Shrek claims he's not behind this. A knight suddenly comes to life, scaring Donkey out of the castle saying “Dooooooooooooonkeeeeeeeeeeeyyy!!!!” It turns out that Fiona used a strange megaphone for the voice and the babies were the single knight armour. Now, Shrek and his family are the winners and they're the Kings of Halloween.
SCARED SHREKLESS MUSIC TRACK LIST
WELCOME TO DULOC (Written by Mike Himelstein and Eric Darnell) (Parody lyrics by Sean Bishop)
HAPPY TOGETHER (Written by Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon) [Performed by The Turtles]
Symphony Fantastique, Op. 14
(Written by Hector Berlioz)
“THE MURDER” FROM ‘PSYCHO (1960) (Written by Bernard Herrmann) [Performed by Rene Garza Aldape and Alejandro Valencia]
Brahms's Lullaby (Lyrics by Sean Bishop)
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DVD Image Quality – DreamWorks Animation presents us ‘SCARED SHREKLESS: Spooky Story Collection’ with a very reasonable 1080i image and is shown in the usual 1.78:1 aspect ratio. Although this is a DVD, I was still impressed with the image quality throughout ‘SCARED SHREKLESS: Spooky Story Collection.’ There was a distinct lack of the usual noise I find with most DVD’s. The green of Shrek and all the colours throughout the animated video were rich and dynamic. Black levels were solid and there’s a good amount of detail present. Please Note: Playback PAL: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
DVD Audio Quality – DreamWorks Animation brings us brings us ‘SCARED SHREKLESS: Spooky Story Collection’ with just one standard 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio experience. Dialogue was very clear and consistent and volume did not need to be adjusted. But also with the ‘SCARED SHREKLESS: Spooky Story Collection’ it had some wonderful spooky sounds throughout, and the composed music by Halli Cauthery was especially good throughout ‘SCARED SHREKLESS: Spooky Story Collection.’
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DVD Special Features and Extras:
Special Feature: Trailer: ‘Puss in Boots’ [2011] [1080i] [2.35:1] [0:59] With this featurette, we get to view the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘Puss in Boots’ in 3D.
Special Feature: Trailer: ‘Kung Fu Panda 2’ [2011] [1080i] [2.39:1] [3:04] With this featurette, we get to view the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘Kung Fu Panda 2.’
Special Feature: Trailer: ‘Shrek The Musical’ [2011] [1080i] [1.78:1] [3:04] With this featurette, we get to view the Original Trailer for the London stage production of ‘Shrek The Musical.’
Finally, ‘SCARED SHREKLESS: Spooky Story Collection’ is a brilliant Halloween special, Gorgeously animated and the backgrounds are always colourful yet wonderfully atmospheric at times too, especially with creepy music, hilarious and witty writing, inspired storytelling, all our favourite characters at the top of their game, especially Puss and Gingerbread and great voice acting, even with the replacement of Eddie Murphy for Donkey's voice. The special is made up of three parodies, the best being the parody of Bride of Frankenstein with Gingerbread, hysterically funny, full of creepy atmosphere. Shrek's Exorcist parody was also amusing and effective in its creepiness, if not quite as terrifying as the real thing (understandably). Puss in Boots and Donkey's Psycho parody was also good, it was funny with great voice work and storytelling, only let down by a couple of Donkey's comic interruptions, occasionally coming across as forced. Overall, ‘SCARED SHREKLESS: Spooky Story Collection’ is brilliant, if you love the first two films or even love horror then you will love it. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
