According to the voters in the American Film Institute polls, the greatest hero in all of cinema is Atticus Finch, the justice-minded Southern attorney and single father of two in the film adaptation of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” If you believe in the box office, on the other hand, the greatest heroes of the movies tend to be super-sized.
There is Spider-Man, whose first two screen appearances rank at No. 7 and No. 10, respectively, among all-time earners. Then there’s the Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker of “Star Wars” (No. 2). And, of course, the Fellowship’s brave warriors in “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (No. 9).
But who’s the highest solo hero of them all? That would be the grumpy green ogre who lends his name to the third most popular movie of all time, “Shrek 2,” and who returns Friday in “Shrek the Third.”
And if the human who gives him voice has his say, Shrek for years to come will be making the land of Far Far Away safe and funny for kids, their parents and just about anyone who loves movies.
“I don’t make many movies,” says Mike Myers, seriously understating the case. In the past 10 years, Myers has appeared in exactly nine released films. In three, he’s starred as shagadelic super-spy Austin Powers, and in four of the others, he’s taken only small roles and cameos. “But you know, I’ll make Shrek movies for as long as people want to see them if they can keep this team together.
“Working with these people, it’s like playing on a Stanley Cup-winning team. Nobody settles for anything less than excellence, you know?
“And everybody, everybody, is working their butt off for the goal. For the team and for the fans. Is that one too many hockey metaphors? Sorry. I love doing this almost as much as I love the game.”
For once, the team analogy is not a cliche. Unlike most films, where the driving force can be a producer, a director, a writer or the stars, the Shrek films are true collaborations.
“Somebody may have a seed of an original idea, but in the three years we spend making a ‘Shrek,’ it can grow into something completely different or just get scattered in the wind,” says Chris Miller.
Miller has the screen credit for directing “Shrek the Third” but describes his role as “one of a hundred storytellers.”
“It’s just a way of getting started, and then everyone gets their hands in it, including Jeffrey” – Katzenberg, the DreamWorks co-founder – “the story team, the animators and the cast members, everybody.”
For “Shrek the Third,” the seed was in Shrek dealing with the responsibility of becoming a father, a natural outgrowth, Miller says, of his marriage to Princess Fiona (the voice of Cameron Diaz) in “Shrek 2.”
Creativity to the end
But first, before any little ogres come along, Shrek, in an attempt to avoid succeeding Fiona’s father (John Cleese) as king without ceding the kingdom to Prince Charming (Rupert Everett), finds himself a reluctant father figure to distant relative Artie (Justin Timberlake), a petulant teenager Shrek would rather see installed in the throne.
“Most movies, you start with a script, it gets rewritten a couple of times, you get a green light to start production, then you shoot, you wrap, you edit and you release the picture,” says Miller. “With these films, the creative part of the process is literally going on until we take the film to the lab.”
“Then the story team gets back together,” says Miller, picking up the thread, “and someone decides it really would be funnier, or better for the story, to take what the actor did further, off in another direction.
“So we go back to storyboards and come up with something that changes the direction of the journey, in a way that strengthens the plot or gives more depth to the characters, or just makes for a good gag.”
“It’s the perfect working situation for an actor, especially one who grew up on improv, like all the ‘Saturday Night Live’ people in the cast,” says Amy Poehler, who joins the crew as Snow White. Fellow “SNL”-ers Cheri Oteri and Maya Rudolph are aboard as Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel, respectively.
“The writers and directors are totally open to whatever you bring to it,” says Poehler. “I knew that Snow White was supposed to be the bossy one of the princess’ gang, the one who has it all together. So I knew it would be funnier if she was the first one to fall apart in a crisis, you know?”
It’s a wrap
But at some point, doesn’t someone have to call a halt to all this so the movie can be in theaters on the day the posters and trailers promise? “Yeah,” says Miller. “We hate that.”
“It’s like this ongoing world by now and we just step into it,” says Myers.
“It’s like we’re always practicing, rehearsing in our heads, and then we step on the stage and see what works and what doesn’t. You know, I always workshop my characters, try them out on audiences. I got to try out Wayne” – the rock-loving teen he played in “Wayne’s World” and “Wayne’s World 2” – “on ‘Saturday Night Live’ for a couple of seasons before we made the movie. And I developed the Austin Powers character in clubs … before we made the movie. I’ve been making a few sneak attacks like that lately, trying out stuff for another movie, too.”
