The Backlash of Shrek 5

By Gabby Montilus

The Shrek movies have become a part of childhood memories, memes, and memorabilia. The first Shrek movie was released to the public back in 2001 and continued to grow until 2010, when the fourth sequel, “Shrek Forever After,” was released. With the now over a decade-long gap between the fourth Shrek movie and the now upcoming fifth Shrek movie, fans of the franchise were extremely excited to see what DreamWorks would come up with.

Recently, the teaser for the new movie Shrek 5, expected to be released in theaters on Christmas 2026 and produced by DreamWorks and distributed through Universal, was released. It was expected that there would be some differences in animation, considering that differences can be seen up until the fourth movie and that the technologies used for animation have improved majorly since 2010. What fans were not expecting was how drastically animators would change the classic and nostalgic Shrek characters.

The new animating technology that DreamWorks adopted for their teaser of Shrek is called MoonRay. This type of animation can be seen in the 2019 movie How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. MoonRay allows for a style of animation involving physically realistic lighting, smoother textures, and more detailed features on characters. Although it isn’t expected for a company like DreamWorks to stay the same forever and not evolve with modern technology, fans feel that the trailer lacks the nostalgia and original feel of the movie franchise. While initially feeling betrayed, fans have turned their anger and shock towards the franchise into online memes on social media. Nonetheless, fans creating these memes and the younger generation, whom DreamWork is genuinely trying to advertise to, will most likely still be in theaters watching the movie, whether for entertainment purposes or to fuel more memes to take over social media.