Fairy Godmother Shrek: Who She Is and Who Voices Her

The Fairy Godmother is the main villain of Shrek 2, the 2004 sequel directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury and Conrad Vernon. She lives in the kingdom of Far Far Away, where she has her own plans for Princess Fiona and her own business to protect: a factory that makes a potion called Happily Ever After.

She is credited as Fairy Godmother (voice), and the actress is Jennifer Saunders. She is only ever called the Fairy Godmother in the credits, and she has no other credited name. If you are asking which Shrek movie has the Fairy Godmother, Shrek 2 is the film where she is credited as Fairy Godmother (voice). The cast around her includes Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Julie Andrews, Antonio Banderas, John Cleese and Rupert Everett.

Her son is Prince Charming (voiced by Rupert Everett), and most of what she does in the story is for his benefit. She wants Charming to marry Fiona, which is a problem, because Fiona has just come home from her honeymoon with Shrek.

Shrek 2 is rated PG in the US. The Fairy Godmother is a villain with a plan rather than a monster, and her story is built around schemes, disguises and a ballroom showdown.

The Fairy Godmother drives Shrek 2 by running a campaign to swap Shrek out for her son at Fiona's side. It starts when the newlyweds answer the royal invitation to Far Far Away and King Harold and Queen Lillian are dismayed to find their daughter still an ogre, married to another ogre. That family discomfort is the opening she uses.

Her first tool is a hired blade. She pays Puss in Boots, the swordsman cat, to remove Shrek, but Puss fails and joins Shrek and Donkey instead. The three then break into her factory and take a bottle of Happily Ever After. Shrek and Donkey drink it, and Fiona drinks it later. By morning Shrek and Fiona are human and Donkey is a white stallion, with a deadline attached: the change holds only if they share a true love's kiss before midnight.

Her second tool is impersonation. She sends Charming to pose as Shrek, and Shrek, doubting that Fiona is better off with him, steps away. Shrek, Donkey and Puss land in custody until their fairy tale friends spring them, and they arrive at the ball in time to see Charming kiss Fiona. She answers with a punch.

In my analysis, the plan collapses because each stage, the potion and then the disguise, needs Shrek to abandon his marriage voluntarily. The ball is where that bet loses.

The Fairy Godmother's closest relationship is with her son, Prince Charming (voiced by Rupert Everett), and he is the reason for her interference: she wants him to marry Fiona. Charming is not a passive son. In Shrek the Third he returns and gathers the fairy tale villains because he wants revenge, so his story continues after hers ends.

Her link to the royal family runs through King Harold (John Cleese) and Queen Lillian (Julie Andrews). The royal couple are the audience for her plan, and the ball at their home is where it plays out. Harold also holds a secret about the potion that comes out at the climax.

Her link to the heroes runs through Shrek, Princess Fiona, Donkey and Puss in Boots. Puss is the interesting case, because she hires him as a hitman and he switches sides to Shrek's team after failing the job. Their dealings are brief, but they set up the trio who break into her factory.

She has no allies in the fairy tale community in the way the heroes do. When Shrek, Donkey and Puss are arrested, it is their friends who rescue them and bring them to the ball.

The Fairy Godmother is destroyed at the climax of Shrek 2 by a spell that bounces back at her. At the royal ball, King Harold steps in front of a spell aimed at Shrek, the spell rebounds and destroys her, and Harold turns back into a frog.

The ending then reveals that Harold is the Frog Prince who used the same potion years earlier to win Lillian. At midnight Fiona turns down the chance to stay human and chooses Shrek as he really is. Both return to ogre form, and Donkey turns back as well, to his disappointment.

Her story ends there, since Shrek 2 is the film where she is credited as Fairy Godmother (voice). Her son Charming is the family member who carries the grudge forward in Shrek the Third.

For younger viewers, the scene is a spell flash and a frog transformation rather than anything graphic, and the film is rated PG in the US.

The best Fairy Godmother moments in Shrek 2 are the factory break-in for Happily Ever After, her hiring of Puss in Boots, and the ball where Fiona punches Prince Charming.

My favorite thing about the Fairy Godmother is how ordinary her villainy is. In my opinion, she works because she runs a factory and a plan, not a curse. The sequence where Shrek, Donkey and Puss break into the factory to steal Happily Ever After is the film's best set piece, and her potion is what drives the second half.

The moment she hires Puss in Boots to get rid of Shrek is the best introduction to how she operates. It could be argued that this is the cleverest choice in the script, since Puss is the character who turns the heroes into a trio. Her scheme creates her own opposition.

The ball is the other highlight. Charming kisses Fiona and she punches him, which answers the question of whether the Fairy Godmother's plan can work. The sight of her own son being knocked out is, perhaps, the point where the plan stops being convincing.

As a comparison, Lord Farquaad in the first film is a petty ruler, while the Fairy Godmother is the first villain in the series to run a business. If your child likes her, Prince Charming in Shrek the Third is the natural next stop.