As a child, I grew up spending countless hours watching fairy tales and dreaming that one-day I would become a princess. Today's modern day fairy tales have changed compared to the classic day fairy tales. That is why one can argue as to whether Shrek falls under the category of a fairy tale or is it just a parody of the popular classic fairy tale. It is my opinion that Shrek is a fairy tale that can be enjoyed by both children and adults. Most fairy tales follow a formula for their storyline, which is a sweet and poor, usually orphaned, young girl who meets a handsome young man who at some point turns out to be a prince. In Shrek, the storyline varies in that Shrek is an ogre, who sets off to rescue Princess Fiona as part of a bargaining trade with Lord Farquaad to get rid of the fairy tale creatures that have taken over his swamp. This is where "Shrek" (the movie) makes fun of most of the popular fairy tale characters. Shrek does have a heart of gold, but he does not have the typical sweet personality of most fairy tale characters. At the end of the story the princess does fall in love with him, but unlike "Beauty and the Beast," where the beast turns into a prince, Fiona actually turns into an ogre. Although Shrek isn't the typical fairy tale, "as it deconstructs and reconstructs the genre, brings about a complexity new re-interpretation of this kind of films, it does fit into the genre of a fairy tale" (Perez). For a story to be classified as a fairy tale it needs to have some of the following characteristics: "contain some characters who are either all good or all bad, often include a task that, if completed, brings a reward, often include a magic object ¦often begin with "Once upon a time  and end with "Happily ever after" (Bosma). Shrek does follow many of the fairy tale guidelines. Shrek is one of the good characters along with his talking donkey friend. As for some of the bad characters would be Lord Farquaad and the fairy godmother. Another element of a fairy tale takes place when Fiona had a spell that was cast upo