The Shrek franchise is more culturally important than one might expect. It should blend into the thousands of other children's movies that dropped around the same era, many from DreamWorks. It dropped into a competitive environment, and though it formalized the celebrity-driven animated blockbuster format, it didn't invent it. The interesting thing about Shrek is its open spite towards its competitors. While the first couple of entries took every opportunity to ridicule Disney's routine, the more recent entries aren't as sharp. Shrek 5 could stand to be a bit more sardonic.