LEGO® Shrek Designer Interview: How We Brought Shrek’s Swamp to Life

Once upon a time, in a swamp far, far away, lived a grumpy, green ogre named Shrek. All he wanted was to be left alone… Yeah, like that’s ever gonna happen.

Since bursting onto the scene 25 years ago, Shrek remains the Greatest Fairy Tale Never Told and continues to flip the script on heroes, villains, and every nursery rhyme in the book.

To celebrate the quarter-century milestone, we’re unveiling the first-ever LEGO set inspired by DreamWorks Animation's Shrek. Shrek, Donkey & Puss in Boots join forces in a standout display featuring beloved characters from the iconic franchise.

To find out the story behind the set, we spoke to Esa Nousiainen, a Creative Lead (in Collectible Minifigures Project) at the LEGO® Group, who helped bring the set to life.

What are you doing in my swamp!?

“I’ve always enjoyed watching animated movies, and I did see the first movie and most of the sequels,” Esa says, when we ask him about his history with the movies.

“I’ve always appreciated the humour in the movies and how it works for both kids and adults. Also, I’ve always loved the comedic talent of Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy, so that was obviously a huge bonus for me in the movies!”

Next, we asked Esa how he approached the design process.

“Whenever I build something like this, characters and creatures, I always start with the head,” he says. “If that is not right, then nothing works in the end. So, in this case, I started with Shrek’s head and really scrutinized the reference material to get the shaping just right. Then, I proceeded to design the rest of Shrek’s body and followed the same process with Donkey.”

As the figures began to take shape, Esa began to think more about how to display them in the swampy setting.

“Once the models were looking good, I started working on the posing to achieve this optimistic, forward-looking and adventurous composition. The rest was fine-tuning and figuring out the build process and making it as interesting and rewarding as possible.”

Ogres are like onions

Onions have layers. Well, so do LEGO sets. In fact, there is often a whole world of detail hidden below the surface of the design.
We asked Esa if there are any hidden details in this set.

“There are a lot, actually!” he says. “The most obvious ones are the onion and the blue flower with red thorns placed behind the characters. They’re little nods to iconic moments from the first movie, like Shrek’s ‘ogres are like onions’ speech, and Donkey frantically trying to find that flower to make a cure after Shrek gets an arrow in his butt.”

Fans are going to love them!

But Esa isn’t finished.

“There might be also something hidden inside the build, but let’s leave a little something for fans to discover.”

A fairytale set for fans

Esa and the team are thrilled with how the set has turned out, and we asked him what he hoped people would like about it.

“It will definitely bring back memories and warm feelings in the fans,” he says.

“I think it all starts with the building experience. Going through it and finding the details referring to the movie events here and there. I believe people can definitely appreciate the look of the finished build and can proudly display it in their homes.”

We assume he also means in their swamps and castles, too.

Despite being an unlikely hero, Shrek and his friends have brought joy and laughter to audiences for decades. Now, we're excited to bring this grumpy yet loveable ogre to life in LEGO form for fans everywhere to enjoy.

We finished by asking Esa what he believes it is about this character that has resonated.

“The humour of the movies is timeless, that surely plays a big role,” says Esa. “But what I believe makes Shrek a hero is his honesty and proudness of being his true self.”

Well, this is starting to get a little deep.

“We are not always perfect and we might fail, but we keep on trying and pushing forward.”

We’re not crying! You’re crying.

Must be the onions.