Thriller Night

Thriller Night
; Official film poster;
General information
Title	Thriller Night
Length	6 minutes
Release Date	September 13, 2011
Release on DVD	September 13, 2011 (Scared Shrekless); August 28, 2012 (Shrek's Spooky Tales)
Genre	Holiday / Halloween special
Production information
Directed by	Gary Trousdale
Produced by
Starring	Dean Edwards; Michael Gough; André Sogliuzzo; Holly Fields
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Thriller Night is a 6-minute Halloween-themed short film. It's a parody of Michael Jackson's music video Thriller, and was directed by Gary Trousdale-- released on September 13, 2011 in the Scared Shrekless DVD.

Dean Edwards and Sean Bishop reprised their roles as Donkey, Prince Charming, and King Harold. However, Mike Myers, Antonio Banderas, and Cameron Diaz did not return as Shrek, Puss in Boots, and Fiona as they were replaced by Michael Gough, Holly Fields, and André Sogliuzzo.

Synopsis[]

The special starts with Shrek (Michael Gough) bursting out of a movie theatre called The Mirror while screaming, followed by everyone else, including Princess Fiona (Holly Fields), Puss in Boots (André Sogliuzzo), and Donkey (Dean Edwards), who are all fine. Fiona checks if Shrek is all right and he replies that he actually wanted to see something scary like Mummies or a Man-Eating Plant because it is Halloween.

As Shrek leaves, Donkey and Puss try to cheer up Shrek by singing Thriller. They start walking down the street (with Shrek annoyed with Donkey's singing), and they all start singing. Puss (who plays the role of Vincent Price) tags behind and points to a cemetery where many figures rise from the dead: This includes Prince Charming (Sean Bishop), Rumpelstiltskin (Walt Dohrn) and Fifi (Frank Welker {uncredited}), Fairy Godmother (Pinky Turzo {whose wand was bent}), Lord Farquaad (Sean Bishop), The Headless Horseman, Captain Hook (Matt Mahaffey), Mongo (Conrad Vernon), King Harold (Sean Bishop {in frog form}) and Pied Piper (Jeremy Steig). Everyone surrounds Shrek, Donkey and Fiona (who is getting ready for a Zombie karate fight). Pied Piper starts playing the flute. Upset, Shrek tells Fiona it's time to leave, but when she turns around she has now become a zombie, much to his horror. He is also terrified to see that the Donkey and Puss have also become zombies. Everyone starts to dance and so does Shrek (against his will). Singing finally follows, led by Donkey.

At the end of the song, Shrek manages to break Pied Piper's flute, complaining that it will be a pain in the morning. As he turns around, he sees everyone (zombified) approaching him to kill him. Donkey then yodels as he and the others close on Shrek, preparing to eat his brains.

Shrek wakes up screaming and it is shown that he is really back in the movie theater, and it revealed that he was dreaming the whole time. He asks if it is over; unfortunately, Fiona tells him that he only slept through the previews and Donkey says he has 3 more hours of children, puppets, and nuns. This made Shrek horrified.

Right before the short film ends, Puss appears from the black background laughing evilly (also similar to Vincent Price) and then hisses afterwards.

Voice cast[]

Michael Gough as Shrek
Dean Edwards as Donkey
André Sogliuzzo as Puss in Boots
Holly Fields as Fiona
Cody Cameron as Pinocchio / The Three Little Pigs
Conrad Vernon as Gingerbread Man / Mongo
Walt Dohrn as Rumpelstiltskin
Bobby Kimball as the Headless Horseman
Sean Bishop as Lord Farquaad / Prince Charming / Harold
Brentley Gore as Thelonius
Pinky Turzo as the Fairy Godmother
Jerome Clarke and Mark McCracken as Zombie Chorus
Matt Mahaffey as Captain Hook
Jeremy Steig as the Pied Piper
Frank Welker as Animals' vocal effects (uncredited)

Production[]

The short film was created after the production of the 2010 projects wrapped. It reused several assets from Shrek Forever After while making new renders of characters from the PDI films (i.e. Lord Farquaad, Fairy Godmother, Captain Hook, etc.).

Release[]

The short film was released on September 13, 2011.

Home media[]

Thriller Night was released alongside Scared Shrekless on September 13, 2011.

Reception[]

The short film received favorable reviews upon release.

Trivia[]

A 3D version of the short was added in October 2011 to the Nintendo Video service for Nintendo 3DS owners.
There is evidence that Shrek was just dreaming: the characters who actually did die in any of the previous installments were zombies, which does not make any sense.
- Lord Farquaad was eaten by Dragon in the first film and digested, so it would have been impossible to bury him. He was also once seen as a ghost in Shrek 4-D (also known as The Ghost of Lord Farquaad)
  - Farquaad appearing as a zombie may have been an indirect reference to that same 4-D show, where he was shown to have a tomb, complete with a statue depicting him in a heroic final battle against the Dragon.
- The Fairy Godmother exploded in the second film, so it would have been impossible to bury her as well.
- Mongo would have crumpled up into crumbs and died.
- Other villains portrayed as zombies who never died were Rumpelstiltskin, Captain Hook, Cyclops, the Headless Horseman (although it can be assumed he was already dead), the Pied Piper, and others.
Though Prince Charming was seemingly crushed in the third film (and even seen as a zombie), he is seen alive and well at the end of the short, indicating that he survived the hit of the tower.
- He sat between Thelonius and Cyclops.
Various fake posters used for Shrek the Third featuring Prince Charming can be seen at the theater.
The movie the characters were watching before and after the short was The Music Doth Sound, a parody of the classic musical, The Sound of Music.
- Besides parodying "The Lonely Goatherd" sequence in The Sound of Music, The yodeling song that plays in The Music Doth Sound is to the tune of "Bavarian Polka" by Fritz Schroeder, on the album "Yodeling Songs Of The Alps" by Legacy International.
Puss in Boots' line "Oh, my!" as a response to Donkey's "children, and puppets, and nuns", is a reference to the quote "Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my!" from The Wizard of Oz.
This is the last official Shrek production with all of the characters together in the standard high quality animation.
- This might've been an intentional send-off/epilogue for the mainline franchise, given the appearance of almost all of the major characters.

Gallery[]

References[]

Michael Jackson's Thriller