Even as somebody who spends way too much time online, I've never understood the internet's fascination with Shrek, the garishly ugly Mike Myers kid's film that spawned a billion dollar franchise and, more recently, has captured the imagination of meme-makers inspired by how a movie so glaringly bad could make such a mammoth cultural imprint. Still, this is inspiring: The Milwaukee comedy group 3GI recruited more than 200 collaborators to create an absurdist full-length remake of the movie, Shrek Retold, presented through a mix of live action, animation and puppetry. In less than a week the remake has logged more than 1.2 million views on YouTube, and unlike a lot of viral content, the sheer amount of work involved ensures the video will probably have a pretty long shelf life.
As part of that project, 3GI members Kevin Gonring and Grant Duffrin recruited Milwaukee singer Peter Vartanian—of the soul-pop project Fauxny, which released a gem of an album this year—to record a version of Shrek's signature song, "All Star." If the combination of Shrek + Smash Mouth sounds like a match made in ironic hell, the actual execution is anything but. The cover is a surprisingly tender, sincere tribute to a song that most of us probably never realized we had any affection for.
You can stream the song below (it's also available on Spotify and Apple Music), along with the full Shrek Retold movie.
