After 20+ Years, Test Footage From The Original "Shrek" Movie Has Resurfaced Online, And It's Nightmare Fuel

I brought this up in a blog a few weeks ago, but it really is incredible the cultural impact that "Shrek" has had on society. Even to this day, it feels like it has popular culture by the balls. There's just something really weird and magnetic about that movie that spawned a million memes and a million sequels. Even I, the resident contrarian, have to admit that "Shrek" is fucking awesome. Because it was one of DreamWorks's first big projects, it also took forever to get off the ground. Test footage was done as early as 1995, and it's making the rounds on the Internet once again.

This is one of those weird things that happen on the Internet occasionally, where something finds its way online but doesn't become noticeable until a while later. This footage was actually uploaded a year ago, but for some reason, it's picked up steam over the last few days. Maybe people are just bored over the holidays, or maybe people are fucking terrified by this footage. Holy shit, this is not my Shrek, one of the things that made "Shrek" fun was that it was cute and colorful. This is grim and scary, and playing that James Brown song in the background as some sort of eerie juxtaposition gives me the shivers. 

You probably noticed that Shrek‘s voice sounds a heck of a lot different than it did when the film came out. The great Chris Farley was originally tapped to voice the role but passed away before the film could be completed, at which point his friend and former SNL castmate Mike Meyers stepped in and did a tremendous job. There is also footage online of Farley voicing the character, but the animation is in the early stages of development. It is still an interesting listen, though. 

There’s a reason why movies that are rushed out (which, at this point, are most of them) often tend to stink. Sometimes, it takes years and years to perfect a product. It sounds corny, but the first "Shrek" was a movie made with a lot of love. I think the first decade or so of Pixar was another example of this. Pixar used to be the studio with so many great original ideas and projects that took years to develop; now it seems like they just do sequels and spin-offs of the franchises that made them popular. We haven’t had an original "Shrek" film since 2010, and it does look like they’re working on a "Shrek 5." With so much time between projects, I hope it can come out as good as the original film. No matter what, it can’t look scarier than this old test footage. 

You know what's not scary? The entire Barstool Store being 20% off through Cyber Monday. Pick up your merch now instead of paying full price on Tuesday.