‘Shrek Forever After’ Will Be the Fourth and Last

Published by Jeff Leins on: November 26th, 2009

DreamWorks Animation is ending the Shrek franchise at four films.  The final fairy tale — now titled Shrek Forever After and scheduled for May 21, 2010 — promises to be full of pop culture references and celebrity voice overs.

USA Today has the first official photo from Shrek 4 (see below), plus this quote from Bill Damaschke, head of creative production at DreamWorks, “All that was loved about Shrek in the first film is brought to the final film.” Mmm parfaits…

This is a different tune than DreamWorks Animation was singing two years ago when it was factoring in a fifth film already for its animation slate through 2013.  I suppose the success of Kung Fu Panda and its upcoming sequel means DWA can rest easy knowing there’s another franchise out there to milk dry.  The article neglects to mention Shrek spin-off Puss in Boots with the voices of Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, and Zach Galifianakis.

Shrek Forever After will be presented in 3-D, like all DreamWorks Animation films in the future, and a trailer is planned with prints of Fox’s 3-D epic Avatar.  The story centers on Shrek feeling “over-domesticated” after fathering triplets in the previous movie.  Director Mike Mitchell (Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo) said he’s “lost his roar.”  In an attempt to regain his “mojo,” (I’m getting flashbacks to Mike Myers’ Austin Powers) Shrek makes a deal with the nefarious Rumpelstiltskin and must confront what happens to Far Far Away without him.

Kathy Griffin and Kristin Schaal will play witches and Jon Hamm will voice the “best looking ogre you’ve ever seen.”

Here’s the first official image of Shrek (voiced by Myers) and Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohm).