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{{italic title|noerror|string=Shrek|all=yes}}
{{italic title|noerror|string=Shrek|all=yes}}
{{Infobox character
{{Infobox character
| franchise = ''[[Shrek (franchise)|Shrek]]''
| franchise = ''[[Shrek (franchise)|Shrek]]''
| first_major = [[Shrek]]
| first_major = [[Shrek]]
| species = [[Dragon]]
| species = [[Dragon]]
| gender = Female
| gender = Female
| spouse = [[Donkey (Shrek)|Donkey]]
| spouse = [[Donkey (Shrek)|Donkey]]
| children = [[List of Shrek characters#Dronkeys|Dronkeys]]
| children = [[List of Shrek characters#Dronkeys|Dronkeys]]
| weapon = [[Fire-breathing monster|Fire breath]]
| weapon = [[Fire-breathing monster|Fire breath]]
| image = File:Shrek_Dragon_render.png
| image = File:Shrek_Dragon_render.png
⚫
| caption = Dragon as she appears in ''[[Shrek Forever After]]''
| color = #B50000
⚫
| full_name = Elizabeth (unclear)
⚫
| caption = Dragon as she appears in ''[[Shrek Forever After]]''
⚫
| full_name = Elizabeth (unclear)
}}
}}


Revision as of 20:17, 4 July 2023

Dragon
Shrek character
Dragon as she appears in Shrek Forever After
First appearanceShrek
In-universe information
Full nameElizabeth (unclear)
SpeciesDragon
GenderFemale
WeaponFire breath
SpouseDonkey
ChildrenDronkeys

Dragon is a fictional character from the Shrek franchise, who is initially believed to be a fearsome villain guarding Princess Fiona. In a twist, she is revealed to be female and in search of love. While she is abandoned during Shrek's escape, she later becomes his ally and the wife of his sidekick, Donkey, helping defeat the evil Lord Farquaad by eating him whole. She has since appeared in every series film in some regard, with a parallel universe version becoming a villain in Shrek Forever After. Also appearing in spin-offs, she is commonly seen as a puppet in stage adaptations of the series such as Shrek the Musical.

Dragon has gained significant recognition in popular culture and has been recognized as a satirical portrayal of animated Disney dragons. Critics have lauded Dragon's appearance and character, particularly highlighting her compassionate and heroic qualities, which offer a feminist reimagining of the traditional narrative where a male knight slays a dragon to save a princess. This unique twist has been well-received by audiences and has contributed to Dragon's positive reception among critics.

Characteristics

Dragon resembles most classical interpretations of European dragons. She has keeled, ruby-colored scales, leathery bat-like wings, long, crested ears, bony spikes along her jawline, a row of dorsal spines, vertical slit pupils, and a long, spade-tipped, prehensile tail. Dragon does not speak, but does employ physically expressive body language to communicate. Like her mate Donkey, she is never given a proper name in the films – in a passing line, Donkey refers to her as "Elizabeth", leading it to often be seen as her name by fans, but this may just be a gag.[1]

Dragon's personality is tender-hearted, despite having so few visitors that she incinerates any apparent knights sight-unseen. Similarly lonely as Princess Fiona, she regularly puts on lipstick in the hopes of finding a romantic partner.[2]

Development

The animators of Shrek initially had Dragon breathe realistic fire for the film's rescue scene, similar to that used in torches and candles, but realized it looked unnaturally forced. Instead, they replaced it with a stream of roiling bubbles rendered with fluid technology, which was then coated with a skin of flame.[3]

Appearances

Film series

She guarded the derelict castle which serves as Princess Fiona’s prison. She had been placed in this role by King Harold, Queen Lillian, and the Fairy Godmother, so that her son Prince Charming could rescue Fiona and marry her. They covered the place with a lot of fake knight bones and armor, to look like Dragon killed many of the knights who presumably tried to rescue Fiona.

While searching for the princess, Shrek and Donkey become separated within the castle. Donkey comes upon Dragon, who chases and attacks him and Shrek, pretending like she wants to kill or eat them. Dragon traps Donkey on a stone pinnacle, pretending that she wants to kill or eat him. Out of desperation, Donkey smooth talks Dragon with compliments, causing her to become infatuated.

Dragon hauls an unwilling Donkey to her chamber which contain her valuable hoard, and then wraps him up in her tail to prevent him from escaping. She then attempts to flirt with him, stroking him, nuzzling him and licking his tail. Her attraction initially appears quite one-sided, but this does little to dissuade her and she then puckers her lips and proceeds to attempt to give donkey a big smooch. Unfortunately, Shrek intervenes right at that moment to rescue his companion and knocks him out of her tail, leading Dragon to accidentally kiss his butt. Understandably infuriated, Dragon starts chasing Shrek, Donkey and Fiona, pretending like she wants to kill or eat them, but Shrek manages to collar her with a hanging lamp attached to a heavy chain. This gambit saves Shrek, Donkey and Fiona by preventing Dragon from pursuing them across the bridge. Dragon is left alone and devastated.

Later, Shrek and Donkey break up their friendship because Shrek mistakenly believes Donkey and Fiona had called him ugly. A brooding Donkey discovers Dragon, weeping with loneliness by a brook. While her escape from the castle is unexplained, Dragon clearly has no wish to return to her old life, or even her hoard. Feeling sorry for her, Donkey overcomes his initial hesitation and approaches the forlorn beast, whereupon the two reconcile and become a couple.

A tamed Dragon helps Shrek and Donkey prevent Fiona’s wedding to Lord Farquaad by flying them to Duloc. Upon landing, Donkey tells Dragon to have fun – which entails her chasing off some local knights. However, Shrek’s failure to rescue Fiona from Farquaad’s clutches prompt the ogre to whistle for Dragon. At this point, Dragon intervenes by smashing through a glass window, breaking through the glass and devouring Farquaad. The glass then shattered from Dragon's body weight simply crashing through the window. Donkey, riding her head, threatens the assembly by claiming "I have a dragon here and I'm not afraid to use it". This restores peace, since everyone present is glad to be rid of Farquaad, as well as being frightened of a dragon who simply smashed the glass window and completely destroyed it (Dragon vandalized the place by smashing the windows). He is later seen again in her stomach, but the events of Shrek 4-D confirm his inevitable death by digestion.

This was also the first time Dragon had ever smashed through glass, however shortly after she punches her fist through another glass window, breaking it into pieces. Dragon became notorious for breaking of glass which she promised never to do again.

During Shrek and Fiona’s wedding celebration at the swamp, Dragon cavorts with the rest of the fairy tale creatures. As the newlyweds leave in their carriage, she catches the bouquet thrown by Fiona and lovingly presents the flowers to an embarrassed Donkey.

Dragon is absent for much of Shrek 2, but becomes one of Shrek's best friends prior to its events. Donkey claims at the film's beginning that she had been "all moody and stuff" recently, explaining his unannounced arrival at Shrek's swamp. Nevertheless, Dragon makes a full appearance in a post-credits scene, in which she arrives with six young "dronkeys" - dragon-donkey hybrids that meet their clueless father for the first time.

In Shrek the Third, Dragon and her young dronkeys stay behind with Fiona and the other "princess" characters to await Shrek's return. When Prince Charming attacks Far Far Away, Dragon is captured and disarmed by a large iron chain cast net; her dronkey offspring are caught and imprisoned, as well. At the film's climax, Dragon helps dispose of Prince Charming by knocking over a stone stage prop keep on top of him. She is later seen in Shrek's swamp while Shrek and Fiona are caring for their ogre triplets.

In the series' last film, Shrek Forever After, Dragon appears briefly at the beginning of the film, but reappears later in a parallel universe where she never met Donkey, having been captured by Rumpelstiltskin. She attempts to eat Shrek and Fiona, and despite Donkey's attempts at romance, almost devours him before he is saved by Puss in Boots. The parallel Dragon ends up muzzled and bound in chains after being stopped by Shrek and Fiona, fading out of existence as the real world is restored. She is shown to be back to her normal self in the film's finale.

Shrek 4-D

Dragon helps Shrek and Donkey evade a statue of a dragon that had been brought to life. Dragon attempts to battle the creature, and succeeds, luring it into a narrow tunnel where its wings are scraped off while Dragon folds her wings against her body while traveling through it, subsequently torching Farquaad's ghost.

Stage

Dragon appeared in the stage musical adaptation of the film, which ran on Broadway from 2008 to 2010, as a puppet controlled by John Tartaglia.[4]

Reception

In a contemporaneous review of Shrek, Roger Ebert called the revelation about Dragon something "no one could have guessed".[5] Petrana Radulovic of Polygon called Dragon "sexy" and a pop-culture icon, saying that the plot twist was "revolutionary" and that she "definitely should've been featured in more movies".[1]

While initially seeming like a villainess, and therefore more similar to dragon characters like Beowulf's dragon and Smaug, Dragon was instead noted as being a satire of Disney dragons, like those featured in The Reluctant Dragon (1941), Sleeping Beauty (1959), and Pete's Dragon (1977), and one of numerous Disney figures parodied in the series. While the romance between Dragon and Donkey is "kinky", it serves the purpose to distract from the even more shocking intermarriage of human and ogre. Despite this, the interspecies romance and ensuing family is only "permitted" due to the fact that it is between non-humans.[6] The relationship was called a visual realization of the film's moral message that appearances are not important, but at the same time, seemingly impossible due to the difference in size.[7]

Dragon's femininity was noted as a "major departure" from typical fairy tale gender roles, in which most dragons are either masculine or gender-neutral. While Grendel's mother in Beowulf is one of the most prominent examples of a female monster in folklore, her gender is not relevant to the plot.[8] Dragon has been seen as reminiscent of ancient goddess figures, who commonly take the form of a dragon or serpent, such as those of Sumerian myth. As patriarchal social structures were established, the goddesses, once thought as symbols of wisdom and life, were called monsters and emblems of evil, giving rise to the trope of a knight slaying a dragon. However, in feminist thought, dragons can also be understood as the maiden's double, representing their autonomy, with the knight slaying the dragon to make the maiden his servant or wife. In Shrek, the patriarchal dragon slaying trope is "gloriously" reversed, with Dragon ultimately intervening to bring about the happy ending.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b Volk, Pete; Radulovic, Petrana; Robinson, Tasha; Polygon Staff (2022-08-20). "Our favorite dragons from movies and TV". Polygon. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  2. ^ Cole, Stephen (2004). Shrek: The Essential Guide (1st ed.). New York: DK. p. 26. ISBN 0-7566-0304-8. OCLC 54954588.
  3. ^ AP Entertainment Writer (May 17, 2001). "'Shrek' animators give reality style". Daily Local News. Archived from the original on 2018-09-29. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  4. ^ "Shrek The Musical". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  5. ^ Ebert, Roger (2002). Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2003. Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Pub. p. 548. ISBN 0-7407-2691-9. OCLC 51002531.
  6. ^ Medieval Afterlives in Popular Culture. Gail Ashton, Daniel T. Kline (1st ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2012. ISBN 978-1-137-10517-2. OCLC 828097832.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ^ Tiffin, Jessica (2009). Marvelous Geometry: Narrative and Metafiction in Modern Fairy Tale. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-0-8143-3572-7. OCLC 755631900.
  8. ^ Discourse and Contemporary Social Change. Norman Fairclough, Guiseppina Cortese, Patrizia Ardizzone. Bern: Peter Lang. 2007. p. 465. ISBN 978-3-0351-0351-9. OCLC 812174530.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. ^ Investigating Shrek: Power, Identity, and Ideology. Aurélie Lacassagne, Tim Nieguth, François Dépelteau (1st ed.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 2011. ISBN 978-0-230-12001-3. OCLC 759166312.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
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