Later, we see that Lord Farquaad had found the Magic Mirror, a character from the Disney movie Snow White, only in Shrek we find the mirror making a game show out of the choosing of a princess. He shows Snow White and Cinderella, and the whole ordeal makes fun of both characters. Even later, when Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) is out singing in the forest, Shrek manages to, once again, mock another Disney movie, only this time it is Sleeping Beauty that is the brunt of the joke. When Fiona sings her high note, the bird that has joined in with her explodes. These instances seem to imply that the female characters in Disney movies are portrayed as too perfect and proper, especially when compared to Princess Fiona.
Besides happy endings and teaching lessons, Disney movies are also famous for many musical interludes throughout their movies. An interesting fact about Shrek is that there is only one musical interlude in the entire movie. That interlude was the song and dance by Robin Hood and his Merry Men. Here again you can feel the anti-Disney sentiment, because all of these tights-wearing men get the crap beaten out of them by a girl, perhaps implying to the viewers that men that wear tights and sing songs are sissies. .
Shrek is not your typical fairy tale. While you can sense a similar story line, there are many major differences between Shrek and your average fairy tale or Disney movie. As a matter of fact, Shrek himself just is not fairy tale-like. The whole movie celebrates vulgarity. The opening credits are your first clue that the movie will be strewn with it. Shrek uses the pages of the fairy tale book to wipe himself in the bathroom. He takes a mud bath, during which he swallows and spits the mud. He uses bug excretions as toothpaste. His farting in a pond kills fish, and so sets the standard of cleanliness for the rest of the movie. The reason this is odd is because you simply don't see it much in other movies, or at least not to the extent to which it is taken in Shrek.
