Shrek Characters in Reading Ads
(April 30 - by digitalmediafx.com) When Disney's critically acclaimed Beauty and the Beast animated feature hit theaters in 1991, Belle started popping up in Public Service Ads encouraging kids to read. Now, a decade later, Shrek characters are set to begin popping up in ads - newspaper ads to be specific - also encouraging kids to read.

Shrek, the Ogre from DreamWorks upcoming Shrek animated movie, and his best friend, Donkey, are the latest characters to be featured in ads from the Newspaper Association of America encouraging young people to read. The ads are timed to run in conjunction with the movie's release on May 18.

"It's great fun to tie in the ad campaign with such a unique film," noted NAA Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer John E. Kimball. "Young people love these movie characters, and showing them with a newspaper is a great way to communicate a positive message about reading. We've gotten great feedback from members about the terrific response they get from running the ads in their markets."

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Media - Shrek to Score Big
(April 28, 2001 - by digitalmediafx.com) Shrek, the new animated film by DreamWorks and PDI, is receiving a lot of positive advance buzz from major news media throughout the U.S. Most predict that Shrek will be one of the biggest box office movies of the summer.

"It could become the must-see family film of the summer, and not just because of its celebrity voice cast," says USA Today. "The quest of an ogre with a Scottish accent arrives with terrific advance word of mouth, eye-poppingly believable computer animation and loads of sight gags that take aim at fairy-tale characters."

USA Today sees Shrek as one of the five most unique films of the summer. MSNBC, meanwhile, calls Shrek one of the biggest films of the summer.

In addition, Shrek has received a ton of publicity for being only one of five American films to be accepted into the prestigious Cannes competition, which only shows films that "contribute to the progress of the motion picture arts and to encourage the development of the film industry throughout the world"

The New York Times says that "Shrek has been made with computer technology that is being hailed within the industry as the most advanced yet."

The mass of publicity surrounding Shrek will only help bring more people out to see it on May 18 when it is released, with virtually no competition, in theaters nationwide.

DreamWorks Bypasses Release of Shrek Background Score
(April 27, 2001 - by digitalmediafx.com) DreamWorks, which has in the past paid delicate attention to its animated film soundtracks, is giving the listener "less" with Shrek. DreamWorks announced that its soundtrack for Shrek will contain several songs from groups like The Baha Men and Smash Mouth, but it will only contain one "medley of score excerpts" for fans of background scores. DreamWorks has given no public indications that it plans to release a full background score for Shrek.

The official title of the soundtrack is "Shrek - Music From The Original Motion Picture." It was overseen by DreamWorks Records executives Michael Ostin, Robbie Robertson and Lenny Waronker and DreamWorks Pictures music supervisor Marylata E. Jacob, all of whom served as executive album producers.

The Shrek soundtrack, minus the background scores, will come out on May 15.

Shrek Video Game to Launch with X-Box
(April 24, 2001 - by digitalmediafx.com) When the Microsoft X-Box is released this fall, one of the first titles to be released with it will be based on DreamWorks/PDI animated Shrek. The game is part of a five year licensing deal reached between DreamWorks and video game developer TDK Mediactive. DreamWorks will assist in creating a storyline for the game in allowing TDK Mediactive to use models that were used to create the movie. The goal will be to recreate the quality of the movie characters for the video game characters.

"TDK Mediactive is excited to be part of the first wave of the Xbox experience, especially with such a high-profile license. Shrek is a great video game character," said Vincent Bitetti, CEO of TDK Mediactive. "This is our first future-generation console title announcement, and we couldn't be more pleased with the support we have received from DreamWorks and Microsoft in this endeavor."

Shrek Wins Showing at Cannes!
(April 20, 2001 - by digitalmediafx.com) In what is considered a major boost for DreamWorks, its newest animated film, Shrek has been accepted to be shown at the prestigious International Cannes event. Digital Media FX reported earlier this week that Shrek was being seriously considered by Cannes as a film that contributes "to the progress of the motion picture arts and to encourage the development of the film industry throughout the world" - a requirement to be shown at Cannes.

What makes the showing more impressive is that Shrek is the first animated film since Walt Disney’s 1953 Peter Pan to receive a prestigious showing at Cannes.

According to the New York Times, "Shrek has been made with computer technology that is being hailed within the industry as the most advanced yet. Thousands of characters have been created with heightened realism. The film has taken more than 275 artists, computer animators, software developers and engineers almost three years to make."

While DreamWorks is credited for Shrek, it was actually DreamWorks subsidiary, PDI, which did the animating for the movie.

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