Shrek might live in Far Far Away, but he looks like he just came back from somewhere even Farther Away: Turkey. In a newly released trailer for the highly anticipated Shrek 5, Shrek, Fiona, and their daughter (voiced by Zendaya), and Donkey all gather to scroll through ogre-thirst-trap memes with mister Mirror Mirror on the Wall. There’s no time to discuss how on the nose this is, because Shrek and Fiona have visibly undergone radical, off-putting facial reconstruction. I don’t care that these ogres are a mere amalgamation of zeros and ones inside some DreamWorks animator’s computer. This is serious.
Donkey somehow looks the same level of goofy as before, but Shrek’s and Fiona’s new faces are … jarring. Their noses are shaped differently, their philtrums are less pronounced and longer, their lips and smiles curve in odd ways, and both of them have seemingly larger eyes. It’s like they both got processed through Alix Earle’s favorite TikTok smoothing filter, or as one user on X wrote: “rhinoplasty, lip filler, cheek implants, jaw shave, chin reduction, face lift, blepharoplasty, buccal fat removal, botox, eye lift, cheek filler.”
rhinoplasty, lip filler, cheek implants, jaw shave, chin reduction, face lift, blepharoplasty, buccal fat removal, botox, eye lift, cheek filler pic.twitter.com/JhZSIrYl8D
— yasmin (@ycsm1n) February 27, 2025
Animation aficionados are telling us this was inevitable — that Shrek’s look is “outdated.” But I think the studio could have given us more pixels per inch without making the whole family look like they need third-revision rhinoplasties.
I'm going to gently hold everyone by the hand while I say that the original Shrek films, while amazing for their time, kind of look like ass in a modern context and some kind of redesign was going to happen no matter what https://t.co/r1iZ7TIfvF
— charlie g – boxtown ✨(link in bio) (@charliepgavin) February 27, 2025
Maybe it’s the era we’re living in. Changing your face is the norm and everyone, including animated characters, are gunning for tweakments or “facial harmonizing.” A little filler here, a little Botox there, maybe a stitch or two if need be. The movie isn’t set to release until 2026, so there is still time to bully the studio into a redesign à la Sonic the Hedgehog. Everyone contact your local fairy godmother.
Just saw the new animation for shrek 5 just cancel the whole thing at this point pic.twitter.com/Jkv6MzyJb7
— َ (@sammyfabelmen) February 27, 2025
this is beyond losing the sauce. this is straight up disrespectful to the original art style 🍅🍅🍅 https://t.co/Ga4OQ2bPtx pic.twitter.com/3gzBIwD3o4
— Frankie Fey ✮ (@frankiefeyy) February 27, 2025
I will enjoy Shrek 5 if she is still hot as fuck and has me questioning things about myself pic.twitter.com/NDQYkhUtpO
— Saltydkdan (@saltydkdan) February 27, 2025
that is NOT shrek https://t.co/YQDRu0XP1U pic.twitter.com/HYzugBxCTM
— lilo (@heavenslt) February 27, 2025