Fairy Godmother (Shrek)

Creation Although loosely based on William Steig's children's book Shrek! (1990), the Shrek franchise differs greatly from its source material, particularly pertaining to its main characters. In Steig's story, a witch foretells that Shrek will marry a princess she describes as uglier in appearance than Shrek himself, prompting the ogre to pursue her. The witch also predicts that Shrek will meet a donkey, who will play a prominent role throughout his journey. The character was written for a sequence entitled "Fiona’s Prologue", which was intended to depict Princess Fiona's backstory and disclose how she came to be imprisoned in the first place. In addition to teaching the princess about her past, the witch is responsible for giving Fiona a potion that alters her curse, initially offering her a choice between two potions, one of which promises to turn Fiona beautiful once consumed, while the other guarantees Fiona's happy ever after. Thus, the idea of Dama Fortuna was resurrected, and Fiona's fairy godmother was conceived as a magical entity whose use of magic and potions do not always benefit Shrek and Fiona. When developing Shrek Forever After (2010), the filmmakers wanted the film's villain, Rumpelstiltskin, to be as different as possible from previous Shrek villains. Compared to Fairy Godmother, Rumpelstiltskin was envisioned as a "ratty, childish, scummy man" to contrast with Fairy Godmother's eloquence as a businesswoman. Voice and characterization Fairy Godmother is voiced by English comedian and actress Jennifer Saunders. Saunders was chosen for the role because Steven Spielberg somehow got hold in 2002 of her unsuccessful audition tape for Ursula in The Little Mermaid (1989), leading Spielberg to insist directors Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon to cast Saunders in the scheming role. The character was designed with Saunders in mind. Saunders recorded her entire role in only four days over the course of one year. The actress found working on an animated film to be liberating and found the experience to have several advantages as an actor, describing voice acting as a "perfect" career "because you get all these perks ... but you don't have to do any of that other, you know, filming ... no one's going to say, 'That movie didn't work because Jennifer Saunders' voice wasn't good'". Saunders recorded her dialogue solely opposite Adamson, who temporarily fulfilled all other characters' roles during Saunders' sessions., who recorded her role in four days. recording two songs for the film. Saunders sang the "Fairy Godmother Song", a scene that parodies Disney's animated film Beauty and the Beast (1991) by featuring dancing furniture. Saunders also recorded a cover of Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out for a Hero" (1984) for the film's soundtrack, which her character performs towards the end of film. During the sequence, Fairy Godmother sings while lying atop a grand piano, referencing Michelle Pfeiffer's sultry rendition of "Makin' Whoopee" in the film The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989). As Saunders had recorded most of her part in isolation, it was not until the film's premiere at Cannes Film Festival that she met her castmates, including Antonio Banderas and Julie Andrews, who voiced Puss in Boots and Queen Lillian, respectively. The Dallas Observer journalist Robert Wilonsky found it interesting that Saunders, as opposed to Andrews, received two songs in the film. In terms of animation, Shrek 2 featured more human characters and complex costumes than its predecessor, among them the Fairy Godmother, who wears a floor-length one-piece gown. The final design was assembled using a combination of "an upper portion deformed by the character technical drawing and a lower section simulated by the clothing department". Saunders described her character as "an attractive blonde with blue eyes, a tan and a nice smile". Michael O'Sullivan, writing for The Washington Post, described Fairy Godmother as "as far from the benign, Disney-fied wand-waver as possible". Comparing the character to Sleeping Beauty (1959)'s Maleficent, Beliefnet described Fairy Godmother as villainous despite her "sweet and motherly" outward appearance. The author concluded that the character can be used as "an example of the negative effects of forcing our own goals onto someone who trusts us. If we manipulate them for our own ends, we violate that sacred trust, and rob them of their ability to follow their own best path". The character's bubble motif references Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz (1939). James Kendrick of Qnetwork.com deemed the character "a perfectly distilled satirical jab at corporate ruthlessness". == Appearances ==