Shrek is going to get a te reo Māori makeover

Shrek, one of Dreamworks' most famous franchise films, is set to return to the big screen in te reo Māori next year.

Māoriland Charitable Trust has announced a collaboration with DreamWorks Animation to dub the film. It is the first time a DreamWorks animation film is being adapted into the language.

Special screenings will be held across New Zealand after a world premiere at the Māoriland Film Festival in March, 2025.

"We are hugely excited to re-imagine this phenomenal and captivating story, which has captured the hearts of families worldwide in te reo Māori," said Māoriland producer Libby Hakaraia.

Lead translator of Shrek Te Kiwa Goddard said he understood the popularity of mainstream films for everyone.

"I'm a father of six, and I see this film as not only being gratefully received by my tamariki, their friends and whānau but by non-Māori speaking people as well as it's that sort of film where you are carried away by the story and the music.

"There's a hunger for stories in te reo that bring the world to our tamariki. The biggest challenge is to find the 'sweet spot' when it comes to matching the humour - which is funny when expressed in English - and then find its equivalent in Māori."

DreamWorks Animation localisation vice president Scott McCarthy said the project celebrated cultural diversity.

"Just as Shrek brings unlikely friends together, this project highlights that same unifying power."

The project has funding support from Te Māngai Pāho and Te Tumu Whakaata Tāonga.

Shrek, the first in the franchise which was originally released in 2001, has been dubbed into more than 40 languages.

Meanwhile, a te reo Māori version of Disney's animation Encanto was released last week, just in time with te wiki o te teo Māori.

Tāmaki Makaurau-based Mātewā Media developed the new version of the film adding to the list of Disney animations translated into te reo Māori including Moana, Lion King, Frozen and Coco.

Mātewā producer Chelsea Winstanley told Midday Report there was "absolute delight" at the premiere.

"We went out into the theatres on Thursday, that was our opening, and we were number two at the box office," she says, adding it raked in about $20,000 on the night.

"Since then, we've made lots more but we're hoping this week will really show the commitment that people have to te reo Māori, because we've got so many schools going through this week, it's kind of become almost like part of school curriculum in a way, people are like waiting for us for the next one to be put out."

For her, this proved the demand for te reo Māori in the cinema.

"This is also not just for Māori, this is for nationwide, we have Pākehā kids going and enjoying it and loving it. and Disney now can actually see they have an audience here, and that's not just for Disney that's for every studio, if you like, every company that wants to make a film here, or release a film here, they should know now that we are a bilingual nation and that we deserve to have both languages."

Disney had seen the talent with stars coming back for the second Moana film, Winstanley said.

"They are blown away by the talent we have. And, you know, now you can see the progression in talent. Moana 2, we've got one of our incredible singers and talent Awhimai Fraser [who] has gone all the way through, now she's in Moana 2, the English version.

"Of course, you've got our OGs from that, Rachel House, Temuera Morrison, they're all coming back for Moana 2. So it's a no-brainer for them."

She could not hint at what the next dubbed film could be, but said she wanted to keep the momentum going to normalise te reo.

"I can't say but let me just tell you, the train isn't stopping."

Māoriland director Tainui Stephens said the success of Mātewā and Disney Reo Māori has shown there is a real interest among families of te reo speakers for entertainment.

When they held an informal poll among some of the young people of Ōtaki as to what movie they would like to see the choice was unanimous for Shrek, he said.

"One of the things about the Māori language is that for it to survive we want to be able to use it in all situations of life and the language of entertainment, the language of humour and comedy is very, very important.

"It just so happens too that for so many of these movies that are beloved family movies it's not just the layer of entertainment on top but the messages underneath."

It would be a huge challenge to translate the language of Shrek and find the right cast to pull that dialogue off, he said.

"[Dreamworks] expects us to make a film that satisfies our audience... for example there's a line towards the end of the film when Donkey comes in with the Dragon and the Eddie Murphy line is 'I'm a donkey on the edge!' So finding the Māori equivalent of that is part of the challenge and it's a delicious one."

Shrek has already been translated into forty languages but this is the first time it will be translated into an indigenous language, Stephens said.

If Māoriland could pull it off with Shrek then perhaps there would be other films ahead, he said.