Reboots of franchise movies is nothing new. But recently, movie studios seem to be on a creative dry spell resulting in movie franchises being rebooted, sometimes unnecessarily. Sometimes it works out really well like A Star is Born, other times, and a lot of the time, it burns down in flames, I’m looking at you The Mummy. So in the ever growing list of movies getting the reboot treatment, I now give you Shrek and Puss in Boots.

When Shrek first made his cinema debut back in 2001, yes its been 17 years since the original, the movie blew people away and cemented itself in the history of animated classics, most impressively one that didn’t come from Disney in a heavy Disney market. The story followed Shrek (Mike Myers) and his pal Donkey (Eddie Murphy) as they go on a quest to save the not so helpless Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz). The movie was such a box office success that it produced three sequels as well as short films, a TV series, and even TV specials. In 2011, the character of Puss in Boots (Antonio Banderas) was given a spin off which found just as much success as the Shrek movies. But with the popularity resulting in movies, tv shows, specials, theme park attractions and even musicals, Dreamworks was not going to let the property sit for long.

The reboot is centered around one man, Chris Meledandri. If the name doesn’t sound familiar to you, his movies will. He is the man who is the CEO of Illumination Entertainment which is responsible for movies such as Despicable Me, Minions, Sing, and The Secret Life of Pets. You might be thinking to yourself, wait a minute Shrek is apart of Dreamworks. How are they going to make it if its a different studio? Well Dreamworks Animation was bought by Comcast for $3.8 billion dollars, Comcast owns Universal Studios who owns Illumination Entertainment. It’s a big confusing circle, but Universal is essential tasking Chris Meledandri with revamping Shrek.

So you might be wondering to yourself, how do you reboot Shrek? I know I thought that Shrek is one of those movies that seems like you can’t really reboot it. Kind of like the way Toy Story wouldn’t be the same if Woody and Buzz were voiced by different actors. Well thankfully the studio doesn’t plan to change very much at all but just revamp the series. Variety was the one that broke the news about the reboot, but thankfully it seems that a recasting doesn’t seem to be in the plans. Chris Meledandri was quoted in saying,

“When you look back on those vocal performances they’re awesome, and while you certainly could make a case for a complete reinvention, I find myself responding to my own nostalgic feelings of wanting to go back to those characterizations,” he said. “The challenge for us has been to find something that really does feel like it’s not simply yet another film in a series of sequels.”

So but what he is saying I think that they should be cautious using the word “reboot”, because for many of us when we here that we think that the whole entire thing is going to be redone and changed from the original. In this case it seems like for Shrek and Puss in Boots, it may be redone a little bit but the core is going to stay the same, especially the voices. I have already used the word but I think it is more of a “revamp” then a “reboot”. While no word has been said about whether or not any of the actors would return to reprise their roles. We haven’t really heard or seen any of the actors in the franchise for quite a while. Either way it should be interesting seeing how the studio behind Minions, decides to go about changing such an iconic animated franchise.

So what do you guys think? Are you excited for a Shrek and Puss in Boots ” reboot/revamp? Or is the movie past it’s prime and should be left alone. Tell us what you think in the comments below!