10 things you didn't know about... Shrek

This Summer is going to see the return of the big green guy, so to get you all in the mood, here are some things you never knew about Shrek...

1. In Shrek 2, a picture of Sir Justin was pinned above the bed of Princess Fiona. In Shrek The Third, Sir Justin himself, Justin Timberlake, voices Artie (a young King Arthur).

2. Shrek is over 7 feet tall.

3. Over 130,000 frames were created to bring Shrek the Third to the big screen.

4. There are 4,378 approved men and women in the library of generic characters that animators could chose from to create crowds.

5. In the movie a total number of nine lady cats bid farewell to Puss on the docks.

6. In Shrek the Third, there are (on average) a total of 62,173 branches per tree and 191,545 leaves per tree.

7. Shrek the Third co-director Raman Hui served as a supervising animator on Antz, as well as on Shrek, Shrek 4-D and Shrek 2.

8. A mirrored room at PDI/DreamWorks allows the animators to “act out” their scenes, while studying their movements and facial expressions for reference.

9. In the scene where Donkey pulls the covers off Shrek’s legs (just watch the trailer), the ogre’s leg hair had to be trimmed. They just looked too gross and hairy, even for an ogre.

10. Director Chris Miller was a fan of Monty Python’s John Cleese and Eric Idle growing up. Now, he gets to work with them - Cleese voices King Harold and Idle voices Merlin.