Shrek doesn't look.... As bad as people say

I mean I have my concerns. I have to question they even decided to make another one in the first place besides money, but I don't think the criticisms given to the teaser so far are super justified.

Let's start with the two big eyed elephant in the room: The redesign, most notably on Shrek. I have to admit, I found the difference at first very jarring and it took some time to get accustomed to after watch the trailer multiple times. I think it looks fine. Some people have just said they "cutified" him and I don't really see it. With the way his head was reshaped, he looks more like an overweight bald man to me than he use to. It's only his eyes that seem like the issue, but even then it's because the one frame they like to use was them in shock, but sure yeah there's a difference and I don't think people were expecting it. Like I said, I needed to get accustomed to it to because it looks like a familiar friend, but they just look.... A little different and you can't figure out why. Then you realize they just got their haircut and it's like "oh yeah".

Most other things I've heard were "Why did they get Zendaya?" "Why are they referencing the memes?" "Why did they mention TikTok?"

And to all of those things, I have to genuinely ask, have you actually seen a Shrek movie up to this point? The movies that were known to make fun and take the piss on pop culture? I mean, for God's sake, it was created as a way to make fun of Disney lol. Are you telling me the movies that made fun of American Idol, Disney, eligible bachelor shows, Spider-Man, etc etc are going to have a sequel that has gasp a parody of TikTok? You're telling me the movie that popularized pop music in animated movies is trying to chase trends? Say it ain't so. The movies that specifically cast big names like Mike Myers at his peak, Cameron Diaz at her peak, Eddie Murphy, Justin Timberlake, etc got another big name popular actor in this movie? Oh the humanity. I know we're trained to think "Oh shit they mentioned apps and memes. Sound the alarm!" Whenever out of touch executives mention hip new things, but it's Shrek lol. I think they can play all of this into their benefit like they did all those years ago, by actually making fun of the commercialized, Internet culture phenomenon that Shrek became post Shrek 4. This could actually be very funny if they played their cards right. Like imagine a joke where someone is playing All Star and Shrek just shakes his head saying "Man, I hate that song".

I feel Shrek is just a product of a different time. It was a massive game changer when it came out for animation as a whole, let alone CGI animation, but the game has been changed multiple times since then, even by its spin off, puss in boots. I love the original movies still, but if they came out today they would have been seen as overly commercialized garbage by the very tropes they spawned and this is proof of it. Let's just hope they know how to adapt well.