5. Shrek Is One Long Jibe At Disney
It's probably one of the more obvious points on my list, but hell, I had to mention it for sheer gumption alone. As you might know, the Shrek films began an inexorable slide into mediocrity straight after the second film, ending in a kid-friendly 3D extravaganza featuring a conga-line of effects-friendly witches because, hey, why the hell not. But there was once a time when the Shrek films had real bite, and though I could've put the second film's good-natured ribbing of Hollywood culture in here, the original's sharp take-down of Disney takes the prize. Simply put, Duloc was a glorious pastiche of Disney World, all lovingly put together by their biggest animation rivals, Dreamworks. Granted, Dreamworks have probably never reached Pixar's utterly transcendent level, but still credit where credit's due. The whole place is fantastic the overly santised environment, the fakeness of it all, the queuing, it all rings true with anyone whose traipsed around one of Disney parks, right down to the bobble-headed mascots (in this case, Lord Farquaad). But obviously, the best part is the It's A Small World-aping Duloc singing sideshow, poking fun at the overly saccharine, fun-all-the-time ethos with which the Mouse House is associated. It later comes back with the applause cue-cards, but it's here that the satire's at it's finest. There's even a ride-style picture at the end, for god's sake. When you combine this with Donkey's pitch-perfect audience piss-take ("Let's do that again!"), you've got to appreciate that Disney totally got served.