A Jerusalem miniature donkey in Palo Alto named Perry served as the movement model for Eddie Murphy’s Shrek character Donkey in the animated franchise, but Perry succumbed to a hoof disease last week.
The Shrek movie franchise has now cracked out four iterations of Shrek films (a fifth is coming in 2026), as well as a couple of Antonio Banderas spin-offs. And Hollywood star Eddie Murphy has made an estimated $35 million over his run voicing the part of Shrek’s comical sidekick character Donkey. What is not well-known about this character was that two real donkeys served as the animation movement models for Murphy’s Donkey, and one of them was a donkey that lived in Palo Alto at a pasture called Barron Park Donkeys.
“Perry is famous because he was the animation model for Donkey in the Shrek movies,” the pasture explains. “In 1999, animators from Pacific Data Images, a local company contracted by Dreamworks for the 3D animation, visited the pasture and observed Perry, especially his movements and gait, to learn how donkeys move.”
But Perry is off to the great pasture in the sky, as KTVU reports that the Palo Alto donkey who inspired the Shrek Donkey died last Thursday, according to an announcement from Barron Park Donkeys. Perry was suffering from an incurable hoof disease, and was euthanized. He was 30.
“We are heartbroken with [Perry’s] passing, but recently he had been in increasing pain, suffering from a condition known as laminitis which is not curable,” the pasture said in an online statement. “This was the right time (for him) to say goodbye although still too soon for us. In Perry’s last weeks, handlers spent many hours at the pasture with him, petting him, cradling him, singing to him, and telling him that he was and always will be loved.”
Perry’s handler Jenny Kiratli told People magazine, "I can attest that many of Donkey’s classic head tilts, eye rolls and bouncy trots were straight from Perry."
Barron Park Donkeys adds that “We will announce plans for a memorial service for Perry soon.”
So the Donkey in Shrek has Bay Area roots, but the Shrek franchise is not really otherwise much of a Bay Area thing. Shrek is not produced by the Emeryville-based Disney subsidiary Pixar, even though the movies have the general appearance of Pixar animation. The Shrek movies are produced by DreamWorks Animation, which is based out of Glendale, CA, and owned by the corporate conglomerate of Universal Pictures, NBC Universal, and Comcast.
Images: (Left) bpdonkeys via Instagram, (Right) Dreamworks Animation
