A while back, I was on holiday in Alabama. I was at this gas station store just getting some more food, drinks and supplies for the drive to the hotel. I noticed there was a box with videos in it. The guy at the cashier explained to me that those videos were found outside the store and that I could take the entire box for free. Seeing as they were all labelled, and that the man was being friendly, I picked up the cardboard box and paid for my snacks.

When I arrived at the hotel, I noticed they had a VHS player. I looked through the videos, and I was astonished what I found. They were tapes of various Dreamworks films.

The eerie fact is that about five of the tapes had a stamp that said "DECLINED PLEASE DESTROY - AA". I then realized AA stood for Andrew Adamson, and that I was in possession of discarded property of Dreamworks.

I put on the first tape, which was a collection of old Dreamworks shorts. I haven't seen all of the shorts, so I couldn't tell if they were legit.

The odd fact about the first tape is that whenever one short transitioned into another short, it was just static. After about five shorts, I could start to see something in the static. Before I could clearly see what was in the static, the tape ended. Go figure.

I put on the second tape, which had a more familiar name. It was labelled "Shrek animation test 01". I was excited at watching the evolution of what at the time was my favorite Dreamworks movie. All was about to change with one button on the remote called PLAY. It appeared that it was actually a full movie rather than a few tests.

The movie began with a white title card that read "SHREK © 1996 Dreamworks Animation". It then cut to what looked like the beginning scene of the movie where Shrek is in the bathroom reading his book about Princess Fiona's true love. It zoomed out to reveal an ogre (I assumed it was Shrek himself) coming out of the bathroom. The bathroom looked entirely different and so did the orge. He had wrinkles, and green hair, and didn't look or sound at all like Shrek. Besides that, I assumed that this must be an early version of Shrek, and that the character had not yet been developed yet.

"Come on Donkey, let's go rescue Princess Fiona!", said Shrek as he and Donkey went to the chapel. Donkey kept talking to Shrek, and at this point, Shrek got annoyed with Donkey. Suddenly, a shadow fell upon him. It was at this point, when I discovered about ten sheets of paper in the box.

I was shocked to realize that this was the script of this early version of Shrek. The script read that in this scene, Shrek is tormented and attacked by the dragon. I found this interesting as Dragon and Shrek had never met in the finished movie.

Much to my surprise, Dragon was gigantic and alot more terrifying than in the original. She looked nothing like the 2001 version of herself, and she had huge red eyes and cracks on her face. She began to burn Shrek alive with the flames coming out of her mouth as Shrek began to scream in pain when he was being burned alive. The sky turned darker, and there were sounds of people screaming and saying "NO!". It was like a nightmare, it just kept going on. You could also hear Donkey crying for his friend Shrek. Eventually, you could hear an ambulance arrive. But in the background you could see fire, and you could see gigantic horses chasing people.

The doctors were carrying Shrek's burnt body onto a stretcher. The nightmare moved onto a gravesite where it was a cloudy day and there was a church bell ringing and there were gravestones. Remember that this was all computer animated. A faint organ could be heard.

The scary part is that there were pages missing from the script that were lying on my bed seconds ago. It cut to static and then it resumed to an early version of the scene where Donkey was sweet talking to Dragon. It was all in German, and the sky was dark outside.

None of this movie made any sense, and nothing fit together. It cut back to static where it showed Donkey getting molested by Shrek in a toolshed. I vomited when I saw this and I kept seeing Shrek's creepy face fade in and out.

Finally, Shrek stopped and bellowed "You're too annoying to be my sidekick!" I looked back at the script to find some information on the early version of Shrek.

The cast sheet was missing most of the characters, and had characters that either were deleted from the film or appeared in the sequels.

For example, the Fairy Godmother and Prince Charming were in the castlist (no sign of Gingy though). It mentioned other characters like Fiona's Mother, Fiona's Father, Lord Farquaad, and a character called Cat In Shoes (which I presume was an early version of Puss In Boots).

Near the top of the list was the scariest name of all, it read "Death". I looked back at the TV and it was now browsing through a dark swamp. The swamp itself was all destroyed like if an earthquake happened, and the camera was moving back and forth at all the aisles. Some of the characters didn't even exist yet, such as Pinocchio. There was a line of other characters called "Satan & Friends", and a sale for Shrek 3 on Blu-Ray.

I froze in shock at the latter, because Blu-Ray wasn't even invented yet, nor was Shrek 3 in development (or so I thought).

It then cut to the swamp that appeared in the final film, except Shrek was still eating the remains of Donkey. It zoomed to Donkey who was complaining about him. It then for some reason cut back to the scary scene where Shrek is ripping Donkey's stomach open by using his knife.

Shrek then stops, and looks towards the camera. He begins to walk over until his face is covering the entire screen. He gives this creepy smile.

Suddenly, the TV caught fire. The entire hotel was on fire, and everyone had to get out fast. I forgot the tapes, so they were burnt.

I tried to reach Dreamworks, but all the calls are computer automated and they ask you bullshit questions.

Even though I still have nightmares about the early Shrek pilot, I only wish I could've watched the rest of the tapes.

Shrek, or any computer animated movie at that, has never been the same for me.