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Cover to Shrek!

Shrek! is a picture book written and illustrated in 1990 by William Steig about a young ogre who finds the ogre of his dreams when he leaves home to see the world. The name "Shrek" is derived from the German and Yiddish word "Schreck"/"Shreck", literally meaning "fear, terror." The book served as the basis for the popular Shrek film series over a decade after its publication.

Differences between the book and films

The Academy Award-winning film Shrek is based on the book, with the characters of Shrek and Princess Fiona "evolving" from the book's characters. In addition, other completely new aspects were added to the film that do not exist in the original book, including, but not limited to

• Incorporating characters from other fairy tales, such as Snow White and The Gingerbread Man in a parody context, as well as new original characters such as the villain, Lord Farquaad.
• Incorporating references to American pop culture.
• An ending where Fiona, a human woman, transforms into a female ogre; the original book only featured a female ogre from the beginning.
• Shrek was completely redesigned for the movie. Most notably, in the movie he is bald, wears different clothes, and has more human-like teeth although they are a greeny-yellow color.
• The character of Donkey is present in the book, but appears only briefly, and does not accompany Shrek on his adventures.

The film later spawned two sequels, Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third, and the upcoming 2010 film, Shrek Forever After. For the release of the latter, Shrek! was released with a collection of other stories by Steig, with a "Now a Major Motion Picture" label on the cover.

Note

• The term "Shrek" was also used in the 1993 movie Indian Summer. It was spoken by Kevin Pollak, Bill Paxton, Matt Craven, and Kimberly Williams and was an insider's reference to a "camp gag or joke."

External links

• William Steig's web page describing the original 1990 storybook