Fans dislike-bombed the Shrek 5 trailer in the wake of its recent release for one particular reason.
After more than a decade since the last film in the franchise, Dreamworks' beloved ogre is back with a fifth proper movie, starring all of the classic actors fans would expect (including the thought-to-be-retired Cameron Diaz).
While the movie's release is still over a year away, audiences got a first look at it with a cryptic sneak peek of the title that included the reveal of Zendaya as one of Shrek and Fiona's teenage ogre children.
Shrek 5 Gets Dislike-Bombed Online
The Shrek 5 trailer has been dislike-bombed online for one particularly silly reason.
While Shrek is not averse to the idea of silliness surrounding its hilarious fairy tale world, this particular controversy exists wholly outside the animated swamp in a spout of drama that will almost surely make some eyes roll.
The first Shrek 5 teaser, which came online on Thursday, February 27, debuted a short first look at the movie's characters, including Mike Myers's titular ogre, Eddie Murphy's Donkey, and Cameron Diaz's Princess Fiona.
To most, this will seem like a fairly inoffensive sneak peek of the return of Dreamworks' beloved animated franchise; to others, it has been taken as heresy.
The trailer has received over 560,000 dislikes on YouTube, which outnumber likes on the video at a ratio of just over two-to-one.
The primary reason for this abundance of dislike has to do with the look of the film, as fans take issue with the ever-so-slight changes made to the character designs in the upcoming movie.
The redesign of the Shrek characters and world has been credited to a change in animation technology since 2010's Shrek Forever After, making Shrek and co. looking slightly more stylized than the more rigid looks of the original series of films (read more about the Shrek 5 animation change).
Yes, the change may be a bit jarring to those who grew up with the Shrek franchise, but being this bothered over something so minuscule seems like a bit of an overreaction.
The fact is that fans have barely seen any of the film up to this point. The Shrek 5 teaser was a meager 27 seconds, with only about half of that showing the new character designs.
There simply has not been enough footage shown to render any sort of verdict over whether this change in style can be deemed a miss or not.
Simply put, Dreamworks has come a long way since the release of Shrek: Forever After, and the studio has started to experiment a bit with how it does animation.
Recent hits like The Bad Guys and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish deviated greatly from some of the studio's more 'house style' movies of the last decade or so (i.e., the How To Train Your Dragon franchise and Home).
This just feels like the Shrek team playing with the franchise yet again (like they did with The Last Wish), putting their stamp on the series with this new, slightly exaggerated look.
And who knows? In the context of the movie itself, these redesigns could fade into the background as fans are whisked away in another twist on a fairy-tale story that the franchise has become known for.
That is all to say that, perhaps, fans should keep their digital thumbs down to themselves and withhold any reservations until they can judge Shrek 5 on all of its merits, new animation style and all.
Shrek 5 is set to come to theaters on December 23, 2026.
