Corrected entry: When Shrek kicks the guards away from the crank that reels the drawbridge up and down it should spin freely as soon as the guards hands are removed. But instead it takes a few seconds to move. And it doesn't have a locking mechanism, because Shrek doesn't even touch the crank to release it. (01:14:15)
Corrected entry: When Puss and Donkey are singing "Livin va vida Loca" Puss pulls on a chain and gets water all over himself. The next shot shows him completely dry. (01:18:00)
Corrected entry: When Shrek is reading Fiona's diary, it says that she had to wait for a prince to come and rescue her from her tower. However, that means Fiona must have still have had her diary when she was in the tower. It is clear that Fiona has not returned home since she was locked in the tower, so how could her diary have been at home?
Correction: An earlier entry in the diary reads that Fiona's going away for a while, possibly to a finishing school. Since there are later entries, it's entirely possible her parents told her where she was going and why. Including the tower and Dragon parts. After all, she's not gonna need rescuing from a finishing school or her room at the palace. The 'Mrs. Fiona Charming' doodles indicate that she knows where she's going, who's going to rescue her, and that there was plenty of time between being told all this and leaving her home and diary behind to draw a few hundred crayon doodles based on this information.
Corrected entry: The three maids in the mill are exactly like the three ladies in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera, "The Magic Flute" (1791) who all fall in love with Prince Tamino for his good looks and all want to take care of him when he wakes up after having passed out for fear.
Correction: One of the maids claims that Shrek must come from Europe because of his nice looks. There's nothing about that in the "Magic Flute". And Mozart lets the maids struggle for Tamino's love while he's still asleep. The scene is possibly a reference to "Sirens" (1994), where the Englishman Anthony Campion and his wife visit the Australian painter Norman Lindsay. He lives at a rural estate with his family and three lascivious models, who confuse the rather puritan sexuality of the English (European.) couple.
Corrected entry: At dinner with Fiona's parents, Shrek coughs up his spoon. It is not there in the next shot. (00:16:15)
Correction: Throughout the whole scene bowls, plates, and cutlery appear and disappear without reason, probably as a kind of joke. Also, the only time we see the correct portion of the table after Shrek coughs up the spoon is after the waiters have served the food, and they could easily and taken it away.
Corrected entry: Right at the end, when the clock starts to strike midnight, during the tolls they decide not to kiss. This is all very well except midnight always comes on the first toll, not on the last, so even if they had decided to kiss they would have been too late. However, it certainly allows more dramatic tension which is why it is done this way, although it's still wrong. (01:15:25)
Correction: Based on the story of Cinderella, the magic ends at the last stroke of midnight. It's a common fairy tale "fact" for the magic to end at that point.
Corrected entry: When donkey is transformed to a Stallion, he begins to "test" his abilities. When he runs around in a circle, notice that there is sand coming up from every step he takes, but no print, which there should be. (00:51:45)
Corrected entry: When Shrek visits the Fairy Godmother, she refers to the "happy endings" of several story books, including The Little Mermaid and Sleeping Beauty. Since these story characters really do exist in Far Far Away, presumably she's talking about events that have already happened to them. Yet, when we see Sleeping Beauty at the ball she's still asleep and has no husband with her; and The Little Mermaid steals a cuddle with the (supposedly repulsive) Shrek at the very start of the film - not the action of a happily married mermaid.
Correction: The story of Sleeping Beauty in the book is necessarily incomplete (having been published before her death) and may not include recent events like a divorce and/or relapse. The mermaid who cuddles Shrek is merely a mermaid, not necessarily the Little Mermaid, and the above argument would also still apply.
Corrected entry: After they wake up in the morning and are changed, they read the potion bottle, which is clear and empty, then put it back down. But in the next scene, it is kind of on its side and you can see blue potion full in the bottle.
Correction: The bottle has a bluish tint that may look like the potion, but it stays empty the entire time.
Corrected entry: When Shrek is reading Fiona's diary, at first it appears minuscule in Shrek's hand but in the following shot the diary's size has changed dramatically.
Correction: The diary remains the same size throughout the shots. The shot tightens making it appear to be bigger.
Corrected entry: At the dinner scene, Donkey refers to Lillian before the two are even introduced. (00:16:50)
Correction: Donkey is a close associate of Fiona, their daughter, who, given that they're going to visit her parents would almost certainly have mentioned their names at some point. Even if she didn't, it's hardly going to be difficult to find out the names of the King and Queen of a major country - they do tend to be quite widely known.
Corrected entry: Fiona's parents both have English accents, so how did Fiona acquire an American accent when she has been locked in a tower by herself for years?
Correction: Fiona, growing up alone, has had no outside influences on her voice whatsoever. In real life she would have developed no real language skills at all, but in the fairytale reality she does. Her voice (accent, if you like) is just the way she chose to talk while growing up - happens, in her case, to sound American.
Corrected entry: After Shrek, Donkey and Puss find out from the magic card that they can make a personal appointment in Fairy Godmother's office, Donkey starts walking in the direction of the office. But how did he know where to go, if he's never been there before, and the card didn't say where it is?
Correction: Donkey probably didn't know what direction he was heading, but was just eager to go off on another adventure.
Corrected entry: When Shrek and Fiona have just arrived to the palace and are talking to the King and Queen in front of everyone, in the short shots, Shrek's size is just a few inches taller than the Queen's. But in a wide shot, you can see that he is huge in comparison with the King and Queen.
Corrected entry: Fairy Godmother shows Shrek that ogres don't live happily ever after by reading the endings of fairy tales. Why is she reading in middle of each book, instead of the last page?
Correction: She knows all the fairy tales already, she doesn't need to read them. She's just opening them for dramatic effect.
Corrected entry: For Shrek, Fiona and Donkey it's a very long trip from the swamp to "Far Far Away", yet the mice etc. manage to get there quite fast after Shrek, Donkey and Puss were arrested.
Correction: The dragon flew them there. It also explains how they got to the top of the tower where Shrek and co. are being held.
Corrected entry: At the end of the first movie, we see the 3 Blind Mice turned into horses and a driver, but when they leave for Far Far Away, we see the mice and the horses at the same time.
Correction: My guess is, the mice changed back at some point, and that there's a different set horses and driver later, as the mice are helping with the house-sitting and are important to the movie later on.
Corrected entry: When Puss In Boots flicks the Gingerbread Man to Pinocchio he is on the back of Donkey. But when Shrek jumps on the back of Donkey he is not there, then Puss In Boots suddenly jumps down to fight the guards.
Corrected entry: When Shrek enters the castle via the drawbridge, he enters on the right side (if viewed from outside the castle)and grabs the chain for the drawbridge. When he slides down the chain inside the gatehouse, he is on the opposite side of the entryway.
Correction: The momentum from his swinging down seems more than enough to launch him to the other side of the door, and it actually seems to be more practical to do that then swing back around on the chain, around the wall, and back on the chain where it leads out of the hole and down to the ground.
Corrected entry: When Shrek is in bed with Fiona, he looks up and sees a picture of Sir Justin (Timberlake). This was possibly added because Cameron Diaz was (at the time of filming) dating pop singer Justin Timberlake.
Correction: Cameron Diaz said in a TV interview that the poster was entirely coincidence and that she and Justin had not started dating yet when that scene was being worked on.
Correction: Sure, you don't see him touch the crank to release it, but you don't see him move to the exact centre of the pathway either, both could've been done while the camera wasn't looking. There's also a crank on the side without guards, and since that side wasn't already leaning outward we'll assume there is a mechanism that has to be released.