Chris Farley as Shrek

When the guys over at WHM mentioned that there was footage of Farley doing Shrek, I quickly went looking for it.

I am not sure how this footage was leaked considering that studio didn't want to link their film with Farley's death. I remember the studio not really mentioning that Farley was the original VO all that much in promotions. I remember some of the reviews mentioning that fact instead.  For years, no one outside of Dreamworks heard the Farley stuff despite it being nearly completed.  

They went through nearly all of the movie with Farley and the original concept looks more closely to Farley too.

From the Shrek Wiki, ((Unfortunately, with about 95% of the film's dialogue finished (his role included), Farley died from a drug overdose on December 18, 1997 at the age of 33, still working on the film just a week before his death. There were talks of having a vocal impersonator brought in to record the remaining lines, but ultimately, fellow SNLcast member Mike Myers was hired and the script was re-written, becoming the Academy Award*-winning film we know and love. ))

The kicker is that Shrek was going to be a different character during the Farley VO work. He was going to be nicer and younger than Myers' version. Shrek seems softer in the Farley version. I would have liked to have seen and heard this version of the movie. I wonder if the Farley version was less biting toward Disney?

MM plays him much older than Farley.  The final Shrek is more seasoned and grumpy.  The mom and dad subplot was dropped from his character.  

If Farley didn't die before completion and Shrek was a hit under his voice, would this have saved him from his destructive ways? I am not sure.