12 Movie Characters Who KNEW They Were In Movies
4. Shrek
Shrek as a film is arguably responsible for some of the cynicism we now see in children's animation. With reference humour, such as a two-years-old Matrix pastiche, with Princess Fiona as Trinity, the film was full of double tier jokes, aimed at kids, but also enough adult humour to allow the suffering parents a brief reprieve.
The film upends tradition, and challenges the status quo of fairytale stories, by having an ogre save the princess. In fact, the film literally, and I cannot stress enough here, literally, begins with Shrek wiping his ass with a page of a fairytale book, to the strains of the timely sounds of Smashmouth.
Several grown-up jokes after the movie begins (such as Shrek commenting on the size of Lord Farquaad's penis, and Donkey expounding on the virtues of parfait), we reach the tandem-ogre finale. The transition from Shrek and Fiona kissing at the altar of her botched wedding to Farquaad, to them kissing at their own wedding, involves a notable fourth wall break from the cynical hero.
As the two lean in for a kiss, Shrek turns to look at the camera, and places his hand over the lens, perhaps maintaining our purity and innocence by stopping us from watching. An innocence destroyed by having to consider the logistics of donkey/dragon interspecial relations only one movie later.