Rumpelstiltskin Shrek Forever After

It's hard to believe that nearly a decade has passed since Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy and Cameron Diaz first brought to life the characters of Shrek, Donkey and Princess Fiona. Joined by Antonio Banderas as Puss In Boots in "Shrek 2," the foursome have delighted audiences for nearly a decade with their unique vocal talents and their take on these characters' alter egos.

"I love the message of these movies," says Mike Myers. "The lessons that Shrek has to learn and has learned are ones that we all can relate to. To be able to inhabit a character and convey that process is an amazing journey for me as an actor."

Over the course of the films, Shrek and Fiona have gone through enormous changes and faced numerous obstacles as they navigate the world of Far Far Away. "When I first met Fiona, she just was this young princess trapped in a tower and I've watched how she's grown over the last four films," says Cameron Diaz. "We've seen what a wonderful mother and partner she's become and how she's grown as this person and as an ogre and accepted herself for who she is and embraced that and brought the people that she loves into her life. It has not only been a pleasure but an honor to be able to portray her." Diaz also responds to the added role that Fiona has as the leader of the ogres. "It is very empowering, a little 'I am ogress, hear me roar!"

The filmmakers were equally amazed with the way the cast responded to the direction of the story for the final chapter and what was in store for their characters. "They all embraced the concept as soon as we pitched it," says producer Teresa Cheng.

"When they came up with this story of an alternative reality and all the characters not really knowing each other, it was almost like it started from the beginning, almost like a new movie," says Antonio Banderas. "I thought it was just a fantastic concept, and the re-imagination of Puss as this spoiled, pampered pet is inspired."

"We would come into a session with just script pages and give the actors the set-up and they just trusted us," says director Mike Mitchell. "It's a great collaboration."

Cameron Diaz agrees; "To Mike, Gina and Teresa, these characters are so important. Shrek, Fiona, all of them have become their story and when I arrive for a recording session, I just have full confidence in the story that they're telling."

With the new direction and role of Fiona, Cameron Diaz had quite a range of emotions to convey since her character was completely re-imagined for the film. "Cameron gave us an incredibly stellar and connective performance," praises producer Gina Shay. "The depth of emotion that she brought to Fiona combined with her strength was just very organic."

The performances resonated with all the cast members as well. Now that Shrek and Fiona are no longer together, and with Shrek racing against the clock to find True Love's Kiss, the emotional stakes were raised. "The thing that stuck out with me more than anything is that I'm still having an emotional reaction to Shrek and Fiona and wanting them to get together," says Eddie Murphy. "You get so caught up in the story, that you kind of have to remind yourself that you're watching animation!"

RUMPELSTILTSKIN IS HIS NAME...

With such established villains as Lord Farquaad, Prince Charming and Fairy Godmother, all of whom proved extremely memorable foils to Shrek and Fiona, the production team had its work cut out in creating yet another antagonist intent on ruining Shrek and Fiona's happiness. "The villains from all the Shrek films are so great," says Walt Dohrn, head of story. "We asked, 'What do we do to get to that level of villain? How do we create a fresh new villain suitable for the final face-off with Shrek?'"

Storytelling is a timeless tradition passed on from generation to generation. In 1812 under the Tales of Children and the Home, the brothers Grimm published their first book of fairy tales. Among the most memorable of the tales was the story Rumpelstiltskin, a fairy tale that tells of a magical character that visits a miller's daughter, locked away in a tower and forced to spin straw into gold or face execution by the king. The end result of the fairy tale tells a cautionary tale of bragging and the consequences of promises and deals. The story of Rumpelstiltskin has endured nearly two hundred years.

In the great storytelling tradition of the past, DreamWorks Animation created a modern fractured fairy tale in Shrek. It seemed almost serendipitous that the green ogre be paired up with one of literature's most memorable villains in "Shrek Forever After."

"We pretty much knew from the onset that Rumpelstiltskin would be our villain," says executive producer Aron Warner. "We just didn't know what kind of villain he'd turn out to be." As the development process progressed, the personality of Rumpel began to take shape, resulting in one of the strongest new characters in any of the Shrek films.

Having worked on previous Shrek films in the story department, director Mike Mitchell led the task of working with the story crew and animators in fleshing out the creative direction that Rumpel's character, look and tone should take. "Mike is an excellent director and the artists and animators really respond to him," praises producer Teresa Cheng. "As an artist himself, he is very consistent and clear in his vision and thinking."

In developing the look and style of Rumpel, the filmmakers wanted to get as far away as possible from the previous villains. "Farquaad, Fairy Godmother and Charming are very eloquent characters," says Dohrn. "We went to the opposite end of that spectrum and went for a character that was ratty and scummy, but charming at the same time"

Mitchell summarizes his thinking regarding the overall tone and character motivation by simply stating: "You know the guy that wins the $200 million mega lottery jackpot and doesn't REALLY know how to spend the money? That's Rumpel."

That was more than enough direction for character designer Patrick Mate as he set out to visually create a heightened version of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale creature as realized in the universe of Shrek.

"In the beginning he was modeled a little bit after one of those salesmen who'd sell you a watch on the street," says Mate. "Then our designs morphed a bit and we went towards more of a creature face, and even a rat tail."

Eventually, the character design team settled on a design more grounded in humans. Soon after the creature face and rat-tail directions were abandoned, Mate was shown a caricature of art director Max Boas. "We're always doing caricatures of each other," explains Mate. "[art director] Mike Hernandez did a caricature of Max and we all ended up laughing and loving it and we said 'Okay, uh, let's do it.' We picked the look of Rumpel because the caricature was just perfect for the design we were looking for."

Allegedly, Rumpel's hair is also partly based on art director Max Boas' hair. "Rumpel's kind of got that Max hair a little bit, a little he like he just woke up all the time," jokes Dohrn.

As the look of Rumpel was being fleshed out, so too was the story, just as the filmmakers began their initial recording sessions with the actors.

SCRATCH THAT, YOU'RE HIRED!...

While the look and design of Rumpel progressed, the filmmakers knew that an equally dynamic actor would be needed to breath life into the voice of the character. As head of story for "Shrek Forever After," it fell to Walt Dohrn to read the part of Rumpel (and other characters) opposite other actors during their sessions. Dohrn, with Mitchell directing, started to play around with vocal inflections and a style for Rumpel's voice and as the process developed, Dohrn's performance began to influence the character development in the story reel as well.

"Walt's performance really sealed the deal on this character," says Jason Reisig, head of character animation. "When we heard him just doing the temporary test voice [of Rumpel] in our story reels, we just fell in love with the character and a lot of it was just because of that voice and what Walt brought to it."

"Walt brought the character to life with his performance," recalls Mitchell. "And that was really important as Rumpel is so pivotal to the plot and wrapping up Shrek's story," adds executive producer Aron Warner.

Over time, Dohrn started playing with various inflections for Rumpel's voice, even outside of the recording studio. For inspiration, he looked to many striking performances, among them, Sean Penn's portrayal of Daulton Lee in "The Falcon and the Snowman."

"We liked his energy and the feeling that he was just about ready to blow up at any second, while at the same time being funny, rhythmical and fast in his delivery," notes Dohrn. On the opposite end of the influences spectrum he cites Bette Davis' classic performance in "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" Deadpans Dohrn, "Drama. Rumpel takes himself very seriously."

Recalls producer Gina Shay: "We would edit the story reels, then put them in front of the crew and executives. Every time we saw it we just laughed our heads off. We were just struck by his take on the character. He became absolutely irreplaceable."

Dohrn's favorite "Rumpel lines" from the film are not really lines at all, but rather simple sounds and noises made during the course of the recording sessions, what filmmakers refer to as "efforts." "What I like the most is when he sounds like either a monkey or a goat and when he gets so excited just tiny little voices, little sounds come out of his mouth as he goes about his business."

When it comes to making wardrobe choices, to say that Rumpelstiltskin has his own unique personal style would be an understatement. Prior to taking over the Kingdom of Far Far Away, it was decided that Rumpel's clothes and color palette should be fitting of his environment-somewhat dull in tone, and a bit drab. But once Far Far Away receives a makeover, so does he; gone are the drab suits and in are the white suits highlighted with garish gold and splashes of blood red. "He has all of the riches, but none of the taste," states director Mike Mitchell.

Part Pinball Wizard meets Marie Antoinette, Rumpelstiltskin dresses for every meeting, party and occasion. Included in his wardrobe are interchangeable wigs designed to suit not only the situation, but his mood and temperament as well. "There's a business wig, victory wig and his signature angry wig," says producer Gina Shay. "We used to have business shoes and party shoes too," she adds, "but we pulled back and ended up striking the perfect villain wardrobe balance."

The end result - the look, design and voice - of Rumpel won praises from the entire cast as well. "I had the great pleasure of working with Walt," recalls Diaz. "He does all the voices when I'm recording and he's just fantastic. He's such a great actor and he's given so much in performance back to me in the readings for our recordings."

"Rumpel is a wonderful villain," notes visual effects supervisor Doug Cooper. "He's tricky and charming at the same time; he is ridiculously outrageous, all things you wouldn't expect out of a master villain and that's what makes him so much fun to watch." Adds producer Gina Shay, "He is so devious and so smart that he can just put on this innocent air of trust and trick people.


Shrek Forever After - Princess Fiona & The Visual Effects
www.girl.com.au/shrekforever-princess-fiona-effects.htm

Shrek Forever After
www.girl.com.au/shrek-forever-after.htm

Rumpelstiltskin Shrek Forever After
www.girl.com.au/rumpelstiltskin-shrek-forever-after.htm

Shrek Forever After Really Far Far Away
www.girl.com.au/shrek-forever-after-far-far-away.htm