Chris Farley Was The Original Voice Of ‘Shrek’, Lost Footage Discovered

The world has long forgotten that Shrek was originally voiced by the late Chris Farley. But thanks to the discovery of a lost footage, we can finally hear how everybody’s favorite ogre was supposed to sound.

The video—actually uploaded anonymously two years ago— just recently found itself on YouTube for the public to see. The 1997 story reel features rough sketches of the movie Shrek. It contains the character, Shrek voiced by Chris Farley along with his obnoxious sidekick Donkey voiced by Eddie Murphy.

The video sample shows the uncanny duo in their usual arguments. There was an immediate chemistry between Murphy and Farley as they exchange words.

The two comedians reportedly almost finished headlining the movie with Farley completing 99 percent of his dialogue until his uneventful death in 1997 due to a drug overdose. However, Farley’s recordings were then scrapped and the Shrek character was totally overturned to his fellow former SNL colleague, Mike Myers.

Kevin Farley, Chris’ brother, commented on his late brother’s removal from the animated movie.

“I understand why [they replaced him],” said Kevin in the currently showing documentary I Am Chris Farley. “They probably wanted to make Shrek 1, 2, 3, 4, 5…”

To which they did. The Shrek franchise gave rise to four more movies that include a hilarious spin-off Puss in Boots.

The younger Farley gave insight on his brother’s portrayal of the Shrek character, on how it greatly resembles Chris especially on his innocence and a more mild-mannered speaking.

“Originally the Shrek character was a little bit more like Chris, like a humble, bumbling innocent guy,” said Kevin.

Myer’s portrayal of Shrek was more of an extra moody ogre considering the Scottish accent of the comedian. The new tandem nonetheless worked as Eddie Murphy’s fun-loving Donkey compliments Myer’s bolder Shrek.

Despite what happened, Kevin explicitly said that he bears no ill-feelings towards Myers or the DreamWorks production company for replacing his brother.

“The studio needed to do what they needed to do. It was a bad time, bad timing… a tragedy. Mike did a great job with ‘Shrek.’ He knocked it out of the park,” Kevin said.

Kevin is the executive producer of the documentary I Am Chris Farley dedicated to the life of his brother. The feature film will be shown on Spike TV next Monday.

[Image via salon.com/hellokids.com]