Listen up, Netflix subscribers who love 2000s animation: all of the Shrek movies are finally available to stream in the US and UK. In case you’ve forgotten, that includes, Shrek, Shrek 2, Shrek the Third, and Shrek Forever After. Spinoffs like Shrek the Halls and Scared Shrekless aren’t included here, and sadly, nor are the (epic) Puss in Boots movies.
As well as wanting to take a drink every time I say the word ‘Shrek’, I’m genuinely beside myself to binge some of my favorite childhood movie moments from beginning to end. We’ve still got a while to wait until Shrek 5 hits the big screen, and frankly, I’m skeptical of just how good it’ll be anyway. Why not relive the 90% Rotten Tomatoes critic rated glory instead?
Even two decades later, the quotable lines still rolls off our tongues. Whether that’s the constant banter between Shrek and Donkey, the eclectic quips from Far Far Away’s colorful sidekicks, or the wondrous ‘I Need A Hero’ performance in Shrek 2 (love you, Jennifer Saunders), children of the noughties know them all.
However, the reason why you need to be streaming Shrek on Netflix is from a joke so brief and delicious, you’ve probably forgotten it – and that needs correcting.
Original Shrek’s ‘Welcome to Duloc’ theme is the best joke in the franchise, prove me wrong
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I’m quite giddy writing this, doing the dance routine performed by Duloc’s wooden puppet choir as I realize that yes, I’m still as word perfect at 30 as I was aged six. The first Shrek movie is a classic Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, only Princess Fiona has an ogre and talking donkey as her rescue party. When the pair arrives at the kingdom’s gates, they’re met with an unexpected surprise.
A little pop-up display in the theme of It’s A Small World starts to sing, and without referring to Google or the video above, I’m doing to break down the childish genius of its lyrics.
We start innocuously enough, as the wooden boys and girls sing: “Welcome to Duloc, such a perfect town. Here we have some rules, let us lay them down – don’t make waves, stay in line, and we’ll get along fine Duloc is the perfect place!”
So far, so sweet. If anything, I’d be more inclined to visit towns I’ve never been to before if I was greeted with its rules through the form of puppeteering song. But then comes the pièce de résistance: “Please keep off of the grass, shine your shoes, wipe your… face.”
Paired with the dance routine of showing their tiny butts while hitting us with the ‘face’ punchline, it’s the perfect gag. It’s so silly that you can’t help but giggle, and then giggle more at the absurdity of why you’re giggling in the first place. It’s harmless but well-executed humor, and I’m surprised it’s still as funny as an adult as it was as a kid.
True Shreksters will know there’s an alternate (and nowhere near as good) version of the Duloc song in Scared Shrekless for Halloween, but the original is my favorite moment from the entire franchise. Hitting us completely out of the blue, the laughs are unexpected and hard-hitting, and Shrek and Donkey’s baffled reactions only up the ante.
If you don’t have the dance routine down and uploaded to TikTok after your Shrek Netflix rewatch, you’re doing streaming culture wrong.
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