“He’s not an ogre until he’s an ogre,” or so marketing executives say about the Shrek film franchise that has just released the fourth installment, “Shrek Forever After.” A favorite of children and their parents alike, the movies have starred the adorable animated fairy tale characters voiced by some of the most popular actors of the moment. With the success of the fourth Shrek movie, it’s almost a given that Shrek costumes will be popular again this Halloween and for children’s birthday parties.

The Ogre Shrek is the most popular Halloween costume from the movie series and features the big guy’s tough but adorable outfit in paid pants, an ivory tunic and a brown vest. Of course, Shrek wouldn’t be Shrek without the green latex mask with horn-like ears. If you’d rather not wear a mask, there’s always the option of applying green face paint and a horned headband on it.

Princess Fiona, as we find out in the first few movies, has been placed under a curse that causes her to turn into an ogress after dark. After falling in love with Shrek, she realizes that her life as an ogre is not so bad and she lives a happy life in her fairy tale land with lots of little green baby ogres. The beautiful Fiona is often shown wearing a lavender, green or blue dress and has a long brown braid and tiara horn headdress.

Other Shrek costumes include Puss in Boots, the suave Spanish cat shown wearing tall leather boots, a knight’s hat, a cape, and a sword. Shrek’s sidekick the donkey is dumb as nails but makes a fun costume idea for a fairy tale ball. The donkey costume is everything you’d hope a furry outfit, tall donkey ears and buck teeth would be, ha ha! One last costume idea for Shrek fans is the Gingerbread Man, a yummy monkey garnished with lifelike looking candies like gumdrops, icing, and no parels.