'House of the Dragon' Fans Just Noticed Some 'Shrek' Similarities

By Michael Hein

A viral video making the rounds on social media draws some striking similarities between House of the Dragon and the Shrek franchise. It draws scenes from several different Shrek movies, showing how some are eerily similar in composition to shots from HBO's new Game of Thrones spinoff. Commenters are now joking about how House of the Dragon might turn into an unconventional fairy tale in its own way.

The video taking over TikTok and Twitter was originally posted by TikTok user sensacinemx, but it appears to borrow shots from older posts in some cases. It starts strong by comparing the dress that Alicent (Emily Carey) wore to Rhaenyra's (Milly Alcock) betrothal announcement to the one that Fiona (Cameron Diaz) wore for most of the first Shrek movie. It gets more outlandish from there, however. It compares the shot of Rhaenys (Eve Best) on top of her dragon Meleys to shots of Donkey (Eddie Murphy) astride the dragon from Shrek, then compares Viserys (Paddy Considine) in his death bed with Shrek 2's King Harold (John Cleese), who has been magically turned into a frog.

The shot that seems to have the most commenters laughing is the one that shows a closeup of Fiona's bare feet when she has permanently transformed into an ogre. It was placed side by side with the unsettling scene where Alicent displayed her feet for Larys Strong (Matthew Needham). Meanwhile, other comparisons were drawn later on. Many fans argued that Donkey and the dragon should be compared instead to the scene where Aemond (Leo Ashton) tamed Vhagar.

Of course, some similarities between different medieval fantasy stories are inevitable, and since Shrek is essentially a parody of medieval fairy tales, it is perfect fodder for these kinds of jokes. In fact, the Shrek franchise is currently building up for a comeback, and just in time as the fantasy genre is seeing a surge in popularity on TV.

The Shrek resurgence will begin at the end of this year when Puss in Boots: The Last Wish premieres in theaters on Dec. 21, 2022. That movie will see Antonia Banderas return as the titular character along with an A-list voice cast. Meanwhile, the latest reports say that Shrek 5 will come from a similar team, and will be in the works before long. However, updates on that project have been a bit more scarce recently. House of the Dragon Season 2 is expected to premiere sometime in 2024 on HBO.

0comments
Start the Conversation

of