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okay this isn't yuri but this is MY blog and i can do what i want. (i do have a post about shrek being yuri as well lol, read it here!)

the shrek 5 trailer just came out and as a huge shrek enthusiast i feel qualified to talk about it! my thoughts are gonna be messily written but i don't wanna spend too long on it anyway so whatever.

i see that people are really hating on the trailer but i don't think it's THAT bad. i also think people are WAY too quick to jump to conclusions about it just because it's not exactly how they remember it. nostalgia is okay but it also makes people annoying as HELL!!!!!!!!! and it's very frustrating as a genuine lover of the shrek franchise, because it's clear that people just want to be reminded of their childhood and will grab their torches and pitchforks (heh) if the film isn't just a rehash of shrek 1 and 2. but i guess it's only me and the other few people out there who genuinely care about the artistic integrity of the shrek franchise so whatever. (shoutout to the people who have shrek as a special interest. we're in this together)

that being said, i'm not exactly jumping for joy either. regardless of the fact i never had high expectations for shrek 5 in the first place because i thought shrek forever after was a perfect conclusion and i know for sure that shrek 5 is made for nostalgia-bait money, i ALSO think the the character movement is WAY too cartoony for shrek, i don't expect the plot or jokes to be particularly amazing, but that's literally what i've been expecting for the 10 years since i knew a shrek 5 was in the works. besides, it literally could have been SO much worse (shrek the third), and the older films had their own issues as well. that gingy joke from the trailer? horrific. painful. i hope it gets cut. but are we forgetting that a tagline for one of the promotional posters for shrek forever after, which despite being very tonally different compared to the other films ended up being a very good and faithful ending to the franchise, was "where my witches at"?? like i don't think we can judge the entire film from the trailer.

my main worry for the film is that it will be hollow marvel-style nostalgia bait: as i mentioned before, that's obviously the intention behind the creation of the film. they have 16 years worth of painfully unfunny shrek memes and nostalgia-bait content to reference so it has the potential to be awfully unfunny. however!!! the film is being directed by walt dohrn (voice of rumplestilskin and head of story in shrek forever after, director of the trolls sequels) and conrad vernon (voice of gingy and one of the directors of shrek 2) i do have some hope that they won't reduce it only to that, and maybe the nostalgia-bait is only for the trailers!! all things considered i could tolerate some nostalgia-bait BUT i will not be happy if all star is referenced cause like?? all star being "the shrek song" was only a thing in the past ten years!! i'm a believer was always the shrek song. i thought we all knew this. it's 10000x more fitting, the smash mouth cover had a music video with shrek in it, was the only song from the movie soundtrack to be in shrek the musical (god i fucking hate that musical i'm sorry i respect the fans of it i just think it should never have existed) and weezer (YES FUCKING WEEZER) covered the song to end shrek forever after with!!! (god i fucking love that film i'm not sorry i don't respect the haters of it i just think that the fact it exists is beautiful)

sorry i went on a tangent it will happen again

in conclusion TLDR whatever: despite the fact i don't have high expectations for shrek 5 because i knew it was never gonna be amazing in the first place, i think people are judging the trailer WAY too harshly and it's pissing me off. in one year when it comes out, i will go see the film with an open mind, and THEN i will judge whether it's good or not ^_^

bonus: here are some other things i want to mention but aren't part of my main point:

• mike myers's shrek voice is a little bit off, but it's been 16 years so that's understandable, but oh my god is it distracting as hell… eddie murphy's donkey voice has not changed a bit though lmao. eddie murphy has been kinda hilarious the entire leadup to shrek 5. he CANNOT keep his mouth shut he keeps leaking shit but i think it's kinda fun, and he's clearly very excited about it which i appreciate lmao
• i don't mind that they made shrek look older even if it will take some getting used to, but if you're going to make shrek look older you can't just keep fiona looking the same! give her some wrinkles!!! the character designers are cowards for not making her look older!!!!!!!
• speaking of fiona, it seems that she won't have much of a role in the film apart from being a support for shrek and felicia's arcs… (the film's plot WILL be the same as hotel transylvania and the croods of like overprotective dad learning to let his young adult daughter leave the nest which is kinda overdone but like i don't really care all that much. i'll forgive it if felicia falls in love with the witch she was riding with on the broom LOL which will not happen but a girl can dream) which sucks because i love her SO much and she is so interesting to me. but i guess like the film will be overcrowded enough with the triplets… sigh. i got what i wanted from fiona with forever after, so i can't REALLY complain i guess…
• in november 2023 i wrote a list of things i wanted from shrek 5, which i don't particularly align with now so i don't feel the need to share it, but one of my bullet points was "if they mention onions i will start writing a suicide note" which is kinda real as hell. my reasoning is just that it's haha shrek funny meme thing and was never like an actual motif beyond the onion carriage before the memes started. to be fair, i thought the onion on the cover of the storybook in the trailer was alright. i just don't want it to be a thing that they make 10 jokes about or something yk.
• ah yes SPEAKING OF the storybook. i'm very happy about the storybook's inclusion, very big fan of the illustrations looking like william steig's illustrations from the original book!! :) i just hope the film starts with it, which i have hope it will since it's also a good way to recap !! since felicia seems to be the rebellious teen of sorts i think it'd be funny if SHE wiped her ass with a page of the book this time! i'd be okay with that as a reference. just as a treat