New fairy tales opened the door to new characters, but “Shrek 2” could only have come about with the return of the central characters Shrek, Donkey and Princess Fiona, and, more importantly, original cast members Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz to voice them.
Executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg asserts, “It would have been unthinkable to have Shrek without Mike Myers, Donkey without Eddie Murphy, or Princess Fiona without Cameron Diaz. They were a huge part of the first film’s success and making the sequel without them was simply not an option.” “Our three main characters and the actors who play them are loved by our audience now,” says Adamson. “They are vital to the story. No one else could have stepped into those parts; it had to be Mike, Eddie and Cameron.”
Mike Myers once again brings a distinctive brogue to everyone’s favorite ogre, Shrek. Adamson states, “Mike is Shrek. I can’t separate the two. Mike steps into the character and it just comes out of him. Beyond his being an extraordinary actor, he is a wonderful filmmaker and storyteller, so he thinks and acts on that level, too. He knows his character as well as or better than any of us, so he was able to offer ideas that more often than not made the scene even better. It was a wonderful collaboration.”
“I’ve had a great experience being the voice of Shrek,” Myers says. “It’s funny and well-written, which is great for me as an actor. But it’s also very gratifying to me personally. Families come up to me and tell me how grateful they are that Shrek exists in the world because of the message of self-acceptance. The message of ‘Shrek 2’ is that you can make your own happily ever after.”
Returning from his honeymoon, Shrek has his own version of happily ever after that Myers says consists of “living in a swamp with his ogre wife, eating swamp rats and having occasional run-ins with angry townsfolk with torches and pitchforks.”
Blissfully in love, Princess Fiona shares his vision for their future, but first there is the little matter of introducing her new husband to her parents. Cameron Diaz, the voice of Princess Fiona, comments, “Of course Fiona is worried about how her parents are going to accept her as an ogre, but I think that marrying Shrek gave her a great sense of herself. She spent her whole life thinking that she was going to be a princess with a fairy-tale Prince Charming, but then she made the decision to be with Shrek, who is the antithesis of that. She loves her man for who he is and that gives her great self-confidence, because if you love someone for the right reasons and you accept yourself for who you are, you can live in a swamp and you’ll be happy.”
Vernon says, “Cameron gives Fiona that sense of who she is. You can hear in her voice that she is in love with Shrek, whether she is talking to him or about him.”
“We are very, very lucky to have Cameron as Princess Fiona,” Warner adds. “Cameron is a combination of strength, humor and sophistication, and that’s Fiona, too. They are both great women in every way.” There is one member of the wedding party who is not about to be left out of a royal ball: Donkey, voiced by the inimitable Eddie Murphy. Never one to take a hint, Donkey invites himself along on the long, long trip to Far Far Away and is soon driving Shrek and Fiona to distraction with his incessant asking of that age-old question, “Are we there yet?”.
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