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| “ | Our happily ever after is nearly complete, Mummy. And I assure you... the people of this kingdom will pay dearly for every second we've had to wait. | „ |
| ~ Prince Charming in Shrek the Third. |
Prince Charming is the secondary antagonist of DreamWorks' 8th full-length animated feature film Shrek 2, the main antagonist of its 2007 sequel Shrek the Third and a cameo character in the 2010 sequel Shrek Forever After, the 2010 TV special Scared Shrekless and the 2011 short film Thriller Night.
He is an English-accented prince-to-be with "softy and bouncy" blond hair. He was originally supposed to rescue and kiss Princess Fiona, stop her "dreaded curse", and live happily ever after with her. However, she was rescued by an ogre named Shrek and fell in love with him instead. He is the son of the Fairy Godmother.
He was voiced by Rupert Everett, who also played Lord Rutledge in Dunston Checks In, Doctor Claw in the 1999 Inspector Gadget film, Sloan Blackburn in The Wild Thornberrys Movie, Carnaby Fritton in St. Trinians and John Lamont in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. In the video game adaptations, he is voiced by James Arnold Taylor, who is known for doubling celebrities when they aren't available to voice their movie characters in video game adaptations of the recently released films, and has also voiced Osi Sobeck and Rako Hardeen in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Biography
Shrek
| “ | Shrek: Oh, you were expecting Prince Charming? Fiona: Uh, yes. |
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| ~ Prince Charming's mention in Shrek. |
Although Charming does not appear physically in the first Shrek movie, he was briefly mentioned by Shrek, in which Fiona reveals that she thought that she would be rescued by a Prince "Charming", probably told to her by her parents in advance.
Shrek 2
| “ | Prince Charming: Mother. Fairy Godmother: Charming sweetheart. This isn't a good time, pumpkin. Mama's working. Prince Charming: Whoa, what happened here? Fairy Godmother: The ogre, that's what. Prince Charming: What? Where is he mum? I shall rend his head from his shoulders. I will smite him where he stands. He will rue the very day he stole my kingdom from me. |
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| ~ Prince Charming showing up at his mother's trashed factory and swearing revenge against Shrek. |
Prince Charming later makes his first appearance in Shrek 2, where he served as the secondary antagonist, being more of a comic relief, his mother the Fairy Godmother being the main antagonist.
He first appears traveling to the castle, where Princess Fiona had been imprisoned, only to discover that Shrek has already found her and married her, and that Big Bad Wolf (without any explanation how he got there in the first place) has taken to sleeping in her tower. When Charming asks Wolf where Fiona is, he tells him she's on her honeymoon. Charming, surprised, then asks whom.
Later Charming is seen with Fiona's father, King Harold, the king of a kingdom called Far Far Away and Fionas Fairy Godmother. It is revealed there that Charming is in fact the son of the Fairy Godmother, and with his mother's thorough support, he wants to marry Fiona so that he can become king and he is not happy that he, as his mother puts it, "Endured blistering winds and scorching deserts and climbed to the highest bloody room of the tallest bloody tower only to find a gender confused wolf telling him that his princess was already married." Fairy Godmother demands that Harold get rid of Shrek, so Fiona can be with Charming. It can be reasoned that after having Fiona locked away it was always her plan to have Charming rescue her, with Shrek being an unforeseen problem.
Later in the movie, after Shrek, Donkey and their new friend Puss-In-Boots steal Fairy Godmother's Happily Ever After potion and trash her factory, Charming enters, notices the mess and asks what happened, and she tells him Shrek was there. Charming then demands to know where Shrek is so he can kill him with a sword. However Fairy Godmother talks him out of it, stating he'll still be king. After learning Shrek took the Happily Ever After potion, they use it to their advantage, and Charming arrives at the Far Far Away castle and tricks Fiona (who was now human again) into believing that he's Shrek. Charming greets Fiona and both her parents and convinces them he's Shrek. Harold recognizes Charming for who he really is but doesn't say so.
While Charming does this, his mother makes sure the real Shrek, who had been turned into a human by the Happily Ever After potion, doesn't reach Fiona. Later Shrek, Donkey (who drank the potion and became a horse) and Puss spy on Harold, Charming and Fairy Godmother at The Poison Apple. Harold tells them that Fiona is not warming up to Charming, to which he says it's not his fault, and that he can't woo Fiona, while pretending to be a "dreadful ogre." Fairy Godmother then demands that Harold give Fiona a love potion that will make her fall in love with Charming if she kisses him. Harold refuses, but Fairy Godmother warns Harold she could take away his happy ending. After Charming calls Fairy Godmother 'Mother'. Donkey shouts "Mother?", causing them to see Donkey with Shrek and Puss and realize they have been listening the whole time and having them arrested and imprisoned.
At the royal ball, Charming tried to woo Fiona, even though she was disgusted with him. Fairy Godmother sings "Holding Out for A Hero" to which Charming and Fiona dance to. Right when Charming is about to kiss Fiona, the real Shrek arrives with Donkey, Puss and their fairytale friends (who had rescued the trio). They then take away Fairy Godmother's wand. The Fairy Godmother orders Charming to kiss Fiona and he does so, and she appears to have fallen in love with him, but then she suddenly puts her two hands on his cheeks and does a Karate shout and head-butts him, knocking him out, as Harold didn't give Fiona the philtre. Prince Charming then recovers, grabs his mother's wand from Puss, and tosses it to her. Fairy Godmother catches her wand and aims it at Shrek but Harold blocks it. The ray reflects off his armor and hits the Fairy Godmother, turning her into a burst of bubbles, much to Charmings horor.
Afterwards, Charming is forced into dancing with Doris, who forcefully kisses him, much to Charming's chagrin.
Far Far Away Idol
Charming later appears in Far Far Away Idol, the short film on the original Shrek 2 DVD. He sings I'm Too Sexy, but Shrek and Fiona push a remote to activate a trapdoor beneath Charming's feet due to his bad singing.
Shrek the Third
| “ | Once upon a time, someone decided that we were the losers! There are two sides to every story, and our side has not been told! So, who will join me?! Who wants to come out on top for once?! Who wants their happily ever after?! | „ |
| ~ Prince Charming's speech to the fairytale villains. |
Charming later returns in Shrek the Third, this time as the main antagonist, having a fairly major role. He is first seen in a theater, playing himself due to his name. However, despite being the hero in his own play (which appears to be a spoof on the classic fairytale, Rapunzel), the audience cheers when the "Shrek" mascot comes onstage, along with Shrek's friends, who are there watching the show. Finally (in a version of a Buster Keaton gag), a prop tower falls on Charming, but he escapes injury as the window passes around him. Charming leaves the theater upset and goes to his "dressing room" (in reality, the back alley behind the bar) and starts sobbing at his misfortune. There, Charming vows to his mother (whom he has a picture of) that he will become the king of Far Far Away and kill Shrek to avenge her death.
Later, after seeing King Harold's funeral, Prince Charming goes to The Poison Apple and organizes an army of villains who don't trust him at first due to him being presented as a hero - Captain Hook, Stromboli, Headless Horseman, Evil Queen Evil Trees and Witches - all upset that they haven't gotten their "Happily Ever After" and encourages them to help him in his plans of revenge.
While Shrek, Donkey, and Puss are in search of the heir to the kingdom, Fiona's cousin Artie, Charming and his new friends attack the castle. When Charming sees Wolf, Gingy, Pinocchio, and The Three Little Pigs, he demands to know where Shrek is. They deny knowing anything, then Charming orders them to cooperate with him, because he will be the new king of Far Far Away. Gingy states the only thing he'll be king of is King of 'Stupid'. Then Captain Hook demands Gingy tell him where Shrek has gone, and Gingy goes into a dream. Charming then asks Pinocchio about Shrek's whereabouts, knowing he can't lie. So Pinocchio told Charming a twisted up version of the truth while trying not to tell the truth but trying not to lie at the same time, something that confused everyone. One pig couldn't take it any longer and told Charming that Shrek was out bringing back the new heir. Charming then orders Hook to kill the new heir and bring Shrek back alive so he can kill him himself.
Later Charming is seen again with his new girlfriend Rapunzel who brings Fiona and her princess friends to Charming who has them imprisoned.
After Shrek, Donkey and Puss return to Far Far Away with Artie (thanks to Merlin), Charming is seen getting ready for a show where he plans to kill Shrek in front of the whole kingdom, when Shrek confronts him in the dressing room and demands to know where Fiona is. He tells shrek they are safe then Charming then summons his soldiers to come capture Shrek, Donkey, Puss and Artie. Charming prepares to kill Arthur when Shrek tells him to spare Artie, stating that he is the one Harold wanted to be king first and Artie is just a pawn. Charming spares Artie but has Shrek restrained with chains and Donkey and Puss (who had switched bodies) imprisoned with Fiona.
Charming then begins the plan and soon places Shrek in the play, now being performed in an auditorium before the entire kingdom. After being brought on stage, Shrek begins to ruin it for Charming by insulting him, making everyone laugh. Charming attempts to make his play a success by extemporizing his lines. His attempt was clearly futile as Shrek simply mortifies him for his clothes and singing, making the audience laugh again, turning the whole show into a whammy for Charming. Enraged by this, Charming silences everyone and enunciates to Shrek his pain of being ostracized. Invigorated to deliver the kill, Charming raises his sword to slash Shrek onstage, but Fiona and the others burst in, getting ready to fight the villains. However, the villains overpower the heroes when suddenly Artie arrives and convinces the villains to give up their evil ways, and they do so.
However, Charming refuses to listen, and prepares to kill Artie, when suddenly Shrek breaks free of his chains and Charming stabs him instead, but (as Shrek reveals to the others) Shrek is completely unharmed; Charming (with his bad aim) merely stuck the sword between Shrek's arm and side. Shrek then picks up Charming and Charming says "This was supposed to be MY happily ever after!" and Shrek says "I guess you need to keep looking, because I'm not giving up mine!" and then tosses him before Dragon, who tips over the stone tower with her tail, which falls on Charming right after he says "Mommy?", destroying him. The crown then goes rolling and Artie puts his foot on it.
Shrek Forever After
In Shrek Forever After, he makes a cameo during the credits. He was originally meant to properly appear in the film, but was cut.
Scared Shrekless
He appears in the TV special Scared Shrekless in Puss and Donkey's scary story.
Thriller Night
He is also a zombie in Thriller Night.
Personality
As seen when he narrates his story at the beginning of Shrek 2, he is portrayed as a selfish and arrogant mother's boy who tries to look good. He is also somewhat effeminate, which Shrek pokes fun of, calling him a pretty boy. He is sometimes not very intelligent, as seen where he pretends to be Shrek, he doesn't know that he needed to act like Shrek to order to deceive Fiona (to be fair he hadn't met shrek yet so he was unaware of his personality other than being "dreadful"). He also was very offensive towards Shrek, as when he called him "dreadful". He also believed, as shown in his last moments, that the "Happily Ever After" of being with Fiona belonged to him, but that Shrek stole it from him. However, in Shrek The Third, he was eager to avenge his mother after her death in Shrek 2, caused by Harold. He, along with his mother, was remorseless, unlike Harold, who formerly conspired with them, as he had no qualms about how what they were doing would affect Shrek. He was also the only Shrek villain to never get along with Shrek, though his mother only pretended to, and the only one that Shrek never trusted. He presumably felt bad for the fairy tale villains in the 3rd film.
Quotes
Shrek 2
| “ | Oh, about five minutes ago, actually. After I ENDURED blistering winds and scorching deserts, I climbed to the highest--! | „ |
| ~ Prince Charming yelling at King Harold about how he survived every hardship that nature threw at him, only to find that Fiona is already married, to Shrek, before being interrupted by his mother. |
Trivia
- Like the previous villain, Lord Farquaad, he wanted to marry Fiona for power and tried to kill Shrek.
- In Shrek 2, he was subservient to his mother; the personality change he underwent in the third film could be because his mother died, so he had to grow up and become his own person.
- There is a hero of the same name who appears in Disney's 1950 film Cinderella. He is the love interest of Cinderella, the titular character.
- However, they have some differences: Prince Charming from Cinderella is a hero, the son of the king, and the love interest (and later husband) of Cinderella, while Prince Charming from the Shrek series is a villain, the son of Fairy Godmother (who, unlike in Cinderella and in the original fairytale of the same name, is a villain), and he was in love with Fiona.
- Charming is so far the most recurring villain in the Shrek series.
- Since Charming was the main antagonist of Shrek The Third, he is the first main antagonist of the third film in a computer animated film series.
- Over the years, most Shrek fans have speculated what became of Prince Charming in the alternate timeline which Rumpelstiltskin created in Shrek Forever After. However, as Prince Charming was supposed to rescue Fiona but Fiona mentions that no one was able to rescue her so she decided to escape herself, it is possible that Prince Charming was killed by the dragon or given that Rumpel killed the kings and became King of Far Far Away, thus stripping Fiona from her royal status, the Fairy Godmother abandoned her plan to take over the kingdom and didn't send Charming to rescue Fiona, aside that as Rumpel took over the magic wishes business with his contracts as well, Charming and his mother possibly left Far Far Away so the Fairy Godmother could settle her business in another kingdom and possibly find another spouse for Charming.
- When Prince Charming and the villains begin invading Far Far Away, this is somewhat influenced by real-life events such as the Blitzkrieg during WW2 and the invasion of Crimea.
- He shares similarities with Lord Farquaad and Rumpelstiltskin, for the former, that they both wanted to marry Fiona to become king, for the latter, that their lives were inadvertently ruined by Shrek's rescuing of Fiona.
- He is arguably the least evil main villain in the franchise as how he loved his mother, cares about Rapunzel and treats his friends well.
See Also
- Prince Charming - WikiShrek
- Prince Charming - DreamWorks Wiki
Template:DreamWorks Villains
 Villains
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Kingdom of Duloc Fairy Godmother's Cottage The Poison Apple The Crone's Nest Others See Also | ||