A sharp rise in the number of people admitted to university makes it impossible to compare degrees awarded by different institutions in different subjects, according to a report by the HEPI.
The report said that it was “unrealistic” to compare the standard of firsts, 2:1s and 2:2s between institutions, since courses at universities such as Oxford and Cambridge require “greater intensity of study”.
It concluded that the university sector “should press on” with finding alternatives.
However Janet Beer, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, said, “We know our 2:1 is of a national standard.”
The Press Office at Oxford University refused to comment on the difference between degrees at Oxford University and other institutions.
Blog Page 1946
"Unrealistic" to compare degrees
Student dies in avalanche
An American visiting student at Exeter College has been killed following an avalanche in Switzerland.
Henry Lo, from Williams College in Massachusetts, was on a hiking trip with eight other students, including five Williams students and two Oxford students, when the fatality happened on Sunday.
The police have said Lo, from New York, was swept away by snow and fell down a 100 metre cliff. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Another student, Amy Nolan, was injured and subsequently taken to a Swiss hospital. Nolan has since been joined by her family.
The other Williams-Exeter students have written a tribute to Henry, a major in Maths and Religion, saying: “You made the most of your time here at Oxford: football, kickboxing, working out, wine-tasting, truly loving your academic work, not to mention all your socialising.
“This list only scratches the surface. To borrow some of your own words, you were not a gamer, you were a competitor. You made such a huge impression on all of us in less than a year – we all wish we could spend more time with you, get to know you even better. We can’t believe you’ve been taken from us.”
None of the other students were injured and Swiss authorities organised a response team to take the students to Bern. The students have since returned to the UK.
International media has speculated that a skier above the group of hikers caused the avalanche. A police investigation is ongoing and the University has yet to confirm these reports.
The Rector of Exeter College, Frances Cairncross, said: “Henry was a popular student who played on the Exeter College football team. He had many friends both on the Williams Programme and among Exeter College students. We will miss him greatly. Our thoughts are with his parents and with Amy and her family.”
President of Williams College, Adam Falk has written a letter to the College community saying: “At this profoundly sad moment our hearts are first with Henry’s family for their sudden and devastating loss. As a parent, I can’t imagine the effect of such an occurrence.”
Chancellor to co-ordinate Pope visit
Oxford University Chancellor Chris Patten is set to co-ordinate the Pope’s visit to Britain in September.
The government is due to confirm his appointment this week. Lord Patten will organise the three day papal trip, which is expected to cost around £14 million.
The appointment of Lord Patten should prove a popular choice, as he is both a well-known practising Catholic and an experienced diplomat.
The papal trip was originally planned to cost in the region of £7 million but costs are believed to have doubled since then.
It has suffered a series of setbacks after an offensive Foreign Office memo was leaked and costs spiralled.
Civil servants formerly involved in the trip had to be replaced after 23 year-old Oxford graduate Steven Mulvian wrote a memo suggesting the Pope take a trip to an abortion clinic, bless a homosexual marriage and bring out his own range of condoms.
Diplomat Anjoum Noorani approved the memo and has been suspended and banned from overseas postings for five years due to the severity of the case.
The University has made it clear that Lord Patten is working in a personal capacity in relation to the visit.
A spokesperson for the University said: “He will only be coordinating the Government side of things, not the religious side. He is very pleased to be able to help, particularly because of the Oxford connection with Cardinal Newman.”
Third year St. Hilda’s student Ellen Hughes said: “In light of everything going on at the moment politically and economically it might be best that someone who is perceived to be an independent is indeed involved.
“Ultimately, I think it’s great that the Chancellor is involved.”
Charles blames Galileo for scientific greed
HRH Prince Charles spoke at the Sheldonian Theatre on Wednesday, on ‘Islam and the Environment.’
His lecture focussed on what he described as the “division between humanity and nature”, which is caused by “global industrialisation.”
The lecture was organised by the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, of which the Prince is patron, to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
Prince Charles said that “the Islamic world is a custodian…a priceless gift to the rest of world.” He made a plea to Islamic scholars, artists, teachers and engineers to fuse the spiritual and practical worlds, on the model of The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts.
The Prince, whose income last year was just over £19 million, said “we are clearly living beyond our means.”
He argued that the current economic and environmental crisis is the result of a deeper crisis of the soul.
“We need a recovery of the soul to the mainstream of our thinking. Only the sacred traditions have the capacity to do this”, he said.
The Prince of Wales blamed a lack of belief in the soul for environmental problems, and said that the planet will not be able to sustain a population likely to rise to 9 billion in 40 years.
He said that it was “baffling” that so many scientists claimed to have faith in God, and yet science was till used in a “damaging” way to exploit the natural world.
Prince Charles even criticised the work of Galileo. Condemning the drive for profit behind scientific research, he said, “This imbalance, where mechanistic thinking is so predominant, goes back at least to Galileo’s assertion that there is nothing in nature but quantity and motion.”
No rhyme or reason: poetry contest mired in scandal again
The election for the Oxford Professor of Poetry has again become mired in controversy after the only woman in the race pulled out in protest at sexism and “serious flaws” in the election process.
Paula Claire, an Oxford-based poet, informed the University on Tuesday that she was withdrawing from the contest because she thought the election was biased against her. There is less than a week until voting closes on Wednesday.
She said she was dismissively described as a “performer and artist” in Oxford’s official announcement, which omitted to mention that she is also a poet.
The “last straw” for Claire was a flysheet in last week’s Oxford Gazette, the official University journal, which backed Geoffrey Hill’s election campaign.
Hill, 77, is the favourite to win the election. He is seen as the establishment candidate, with more than fifty Oxford academics supporting him.
Described by Claire as “repugnant,” the flysheet said that Hill was “quite simply a giant…the finest living poet in English today.” Claire said that the University was backing Hill, “and the rest of us are ignored as not worthy to be in the set-up”.
Claire said, “I haven’t withdrawn in a pique – I’ve withdrawn for women.
“The post was founded in 1708. They haven’t had a woman since then and I think they’re still determined to put a man in.”
Some have suggested that Claire did not understand the nature of the flysheets. Any candidates with support from ten members of Oxford’s Congregation (academics and senior administrators) can place a flysheet in the Gazette. Hill is the only one to have done so as yet, but others are expected to follow suit.
Her resignation letter demanded that a committee independent of the Faculty of English be set up to run the election “in a genuinely reformed and modern way: efficiently, transparently and democratically, backed up by advice from internet experts and given an independent complaints procedure”.
A University spokesperson said that Oxford did “not accept her allegations that the election process has been unfair. No special arrangements have been made for this election that are inconsistent with normal University operations in this respect.”
The disgraced former Oxford Professor of Poetry, Ruth Padel, has also been criticised for publicly endorsing two friends, including Hill, from the ten remaining candidates for this year’s election to the Professorship.
As she is the most recent holder of the post, many feel Padel ought to remain independent.
She resigned after only nine days in the illustrious position last year, after Cherwell revealed that she had been involved in a smear campaign against her opponent, Derek Walcott.
She had sent emails to journalists detailing accusations of sexual assault made against Walcott in the 1980s and 1990s.
But Padel, 63, told the Camden New Journal last week that she would endorse Geoffrey Hill and Michael Horovitz.
“Geoffrey is a great poet – he is full of such wonder. Michael Horowitz is very good at enthusing people. Both of them are friends of mine and both would be good,” she said.
The duties of the Professor are to give one public lecture each term, for all five years that the Professorship is held. Professors must also “encourage the art of poetry in the University”, according to the University’s regulations.
“Geoffrey is world class and gives some truly extraordinary lectures,” Padel said.
“But three lectures a year for five years is actually rather taxing for someone of a certain age because they are not just any lecture – they have to be really, really good ones.”
The University had hoped that this year’s contest would be controversy-free after the scandal surrounding Walcott and Padel last May. However a confrontation has also erupted between Michael Horovitz and a rival candidate, Roger Lewis.
Lewis, a literary critic and biographer, attacked the two favourites, Hill and Horovitz. “I’m sure they are nice old codgers, but I’m afraid I find their work serious-minded to the point of pain and obscure of purpose,” he said.
“No more solemnity and pompousness, please.”
Horovitz responded, “Lewis has conflated a superficial impression of Hill with a blurred and misleading one of me.
“Such blanket misrepresentation, bearing out Alexander Pope’s warning ‘A little learning is a dangerous thing’, qualifies Lewis for a Services to Dumbing Down award rather than for the poetry professorship he craves.”
Brasenose-educated Horovitz believes his beatnik background and involvement in performance poetry will give him more credibility than his rivals.
“I’ve devoted most of my life over the half-century since I graduated from Oxford to extending the then generally approved and educationally transmitted boundary lines controlling arts media and poetic communications in Britain and elsewhere,” he said.
But his claim to be the best performance poet of the election is challenged by the well-known Oxford slam poet Steve Larkin, who has also been nominated for the role.
Larkin is a familiar face on the Oxford stage, from the Cellar to the backroom at the Bullingdon Arms, and lectures on Performance Poetry at Oxford Brookes.
He hosted the first Oxford University Poetry Slam Podcast competition last year. It was won by Chris Turner, St Hugh’s, a member of the Oxford Imps.
“I intend to reload the literary canon and fire it through the walls of any stifling ivory tower that blocks the emergence of an exciting and inclusive live literature scene,” Larkin said.
This year’s election for the professorship is attracting particular interest because it is the first year that eligible voters have been able to vote online. In order to vote, you have to be a graduate of Oxford, and have registered your intention to vote. Voting closes on Wednesday of 8th Week and the results will be announced on Friday.
Stephen Moss, former literary editor of the Guardian, is another of the ten running for the post. He told Cherwell that he was the “democratising candidate”, which is no bad thing given the “Oxford-insidery fancy franchise” nature of previous elections.
The potential to reach about 200,000 electors has brought the contest to Facebook. On this front, Larkin is ahead with 406 members of the “Steve Larkin for Professor of Poetry” group. Geoffrey Hill’s group has 316 members.
Wah-Hugh!
Finalists celebrating the end of their exams at Wahoo on Friday were treated to an unexpected sight: an appearance by world-famous actor Hugh Grant.
Grant had been attending a dinner at New College, and was persuaded by students there to accompany them to the newly-reopened Friday night clubbing venue. He purchased 10 tickets from college Entz Reps.
The actor spent a brief time in the club, as well as stopping off for a drink at the Kings Arms pub on Holywell Street.
Grant, who was an English undergraduate at New College between 1979 and 1981, ate dinner on the High Table there earlier in the evening.
He has donated generously to the College in the past, although his name does not appear on any of the public donor lists. He is thought to have been invited to dinner in recognition of this contribution.
Following the dinner, Grant went with students to the college bar. He was quickly surrounded by large numbers of undergraduates, and remained in the bar for over an hour.
Despite previous incidents of conflict with photographers, he appeared amenable to the attention he received in the bar. He bought drinks for a number of students and posed for photographs with many of them.
Andrew Symes, New College Bar Rep, said that after about half an hour Grant handed him his bank card and said, “From now on, all drinks are on me”. However Symes was forced to refuse the offer, because the bar can only accept cash or Bod cards.
At one point Grant was ‘pennied’ by second year Modern Languages student Hursh Mehta.
Mehta said, “I asked ‘Are you familiar with the concept of pennying?’ He wasn’t.
“After a brief explanation, he responded ‘That sounds like good fun.’ ‘Oh, really?’ I said and dropped a penny into his pint of bitter.”
Grant then obligingly downed his pint of White Horse to a rousing chorus of “We like to drink with Hugh”.
Some students expressed embarrassment at the behaviour of those crowding around Grant. One second year at New College said, “I just found it slightly pathetic how all these girls who want to be treated with respect turned into fawning sycophants who would definitely have let him have sex with them there and then if he’d offered.
“One of them was heard saying something along the lines of ‘Let me make you happy, Hugh’. It was disgusting.”
Matthew Kain, JCR Entz Rep-elect, and Oliver Greening, Bar Manager, approached Grant and offered him tickets to Wahoo, which they had been selling in the bar before Grant’s arrival.
Greening said, “We asked him if he was coming to Risa [Wahoo’s former name] and he replied ‘Yeah, why the f*** not!’.
“He asked how much the tickets were, and we told him they were £5. He whipped out a fresh £50 note and said, ‘I’ll take 10!'”
Grant’s visit to New College bar came on the same evening that the College welfare team were holding ‘Pee for a Pint’, an event designed to encourage students to take a chlamydia test in return for a free drink.
Grant was apparently offered a test kit, but declined to take it.
However his presence in the bar meant that the event was far more successful than previously anticipated. Over 130 students received vouchers for their free drink.
One of the students organising the event said, “It was a lucky coincidence definitely.
“We used up all the tests that the screening programme gave us because so many people were in the bar, although at the moment he walked in the people who were about to do the test ran off screaming to see him!”
Photo Blog Week 7 – The Penultimate Pictures
Fancy yourself as a photographer?
Want your photographs from around and about Oxford seen by the thousands of people who visit the Cherwell website every day?
If so, why not send a few of your snaps into photo@cherwell.org
Saturday – Worcester College Gardens – Sophie Balfour-Lynn
Friday – Marta, former Cherwell Editor and socialite, goes to LA Fitness – Ollie Ford
Thursday – Port Meadow – Daniel Evans
Wednesday – Palestine Protest – Sonali Campion
Tuesday – St Peter’s medics dinner, Canal House – Rachel Chew
Monday – A Streetcar Named Desire cast shoot MT 2010 OP – Ollie Ford
Sunday – Fragile Summer – Michelle Tan
The Terrific Ten
This year has seen many highs and lows, great victories and narrow losses, magnificent individual and team performances, moments of controversy, sheer genius, madness and inspiration – what more could you want? From the hundreds of games which have taken place throughout the year, we’ve narrowed it down to just ten splendid sporting moments which have stood out in this year’s Oxford Sporting Calendar!
2009 Varsity Ski Race
Whilst the Men’s Blues couldn’t quite match their Light Blue rivals, the Women’s Blues team cementing a 34 second win over the Cambridge – one of the best results in the history of the Women’s Varsity Ski Racing. If there was a nomination for team of the year, then the Women’s Varsity Ski team would certainly be contenders.
2009 U21s Nomura Varsity Rugby Match
Whilst this year’s Blues Team narrowly missed out on retaining their Varsity Trophy despite putting in a heroic effort led from the front by Captain Dan Rosen, it was the U21s who shone in the sunshine at the home of English Rugby, Twickenham, as they romped to a convincing win over Cambridge by 53-17. Amongst the star performers was St Peter’s very own Daniel Levene who replicated Tim Caitling’s feat in the 2008 Varsity Match by scoring a sensational hat-trick of tries. Hats off to him and the U21 Rugby Blues!
2010 Town vs. Gown Boxing Tournament
Picture the setting: Oxford Union, the Boxing Ring, the Blue corner, the Red Corner, the bells, the jabs, the blows, right hook, left hook, upper cut and you have yourself a singular Boxing experience that only Oxford could conjure! With 500 people crammed into the world renowned debating hall, amateur boxing came to the fore where an extraordinary evening of entertainment and sporting prowess helped to fuel what was an electric atmosphere. It really was blood, sweat and tears but with such an enthusiast response to the event, there’s no doubt that boxing at Oxford has a bright future ahead of it!
2010 Fencing Varsity Match
En garde, Swords at the ready! With Cambridge having retained the trophy since 2008, this year there was an even greater desire to win back the trophy from Cambridge’s tight grasp on the title. Further spice was added to the occasion with sibling rivalry in the form of the Crutchett brothers, the appearance of Oxford’s very own ‘Ginger Ninja’ and Oxford awe-inspiring Luxembourgian fencer – who turned out to be Oxford’s match winner. In the end the tabs were butchered at the very end going down by the narrowest margins of 45-43 thus Oxford really did ‘foil’ Cambridge’s attempt at winning a third consecutive Varsity crown.
2010 Netball Varsity Match
Having been narrowly defeated in last year’s Varsity match, the Blues duly got their revenge with a 44-35 victory. Unlike the girls on show, the match wasn’t particularly attractive but the Blues matched Cambridge for pace, skill and agility, pouncing on any rebounds and interceptions, really taking the game to their opponents with Nathalie Hoon, in particular, in fine goal shooting form. Maybe next year the Cambridge girls will take their pre-match preparations more seriously instead of posing, as they did this year, for an exclusive Varsity Netball shoot!
The 2010 Exchanging Boat Race
When people think of Oxford the first thing, apart from the academic side of things, which springs to mind is the world famous Boat Race. With thousands of people, amongst those students past and present, lining the stretch of the River Thames from Putney to Mortlake, media crews abound and Pimms on the go it really is the quintessential Oxford Sporting experience. Making its 156th appearance on the big stage, all the odds favoured another Oxford win particularly having won the all important toss and starting off from Surrey Station where 39 of the last 64 races had been won. Despite starting off well, Oxford well away and Cambridge eventually ran out as clear winners.
The 2010 Varsity Goat Race
With more than double the number of people at the inaugural goat race in 2009, this year’s goat race had an extra edge to it as this year the competitors were brother and sister. Nothing better than a bit of sibling rivalry! It was boisterous brother Bentley (Oxford) up against shy sister Bramble (Cambridge). Unfortunately Bentley underperformed on the day and finished runner up to his sister as she won in an blistering 1min 14 seconds. So whilst Cambridge’s Bramble reflects upon another victory, Bentley will have time to reflect upon his performance and assess all the possibilities that lie ahead of him.
U Rally
Whilst much of the focus has been upon team performances it is also important to highlight the great work done by so many individuals throughout the University in the sporting circles. One of those is John Rendel, a New College Post Graduate, who runs the growing charity Promoting Equality in African Schools (PEAS). To raise money for his charity his solution is U Rally – a two or four week road trip in August to wherever you want to go! Participants compete for points scored by completing up to 51 ‘Pub Story’ Challenges.
2010 Varsity Football Match
Winning a Varsity match is always sweet, but winning it in dramatic fashion in your opponent’s back yard may just make it even sweeter. Well that’s exactly what Oxford’s Men’s Blues Football team did this year. After a pulsating ninety minutes which saw the teams finish level at the end of it, Oxford held their nerve scoring a perfect five goals from five attempts and with the help of their wily goalkeeper Dwayne Whylly, it ensured a famous victory for the Dark Blues.
2010 Dancesport Varsity Match
Strictly come Dancesport, Murder on the Dancefloor, come up with whatever pun you may like but whichever tune you dance to, there’s no denying that Oxford dancing is at an all time high. Having won this year’s Varsity Match as well as the Challenge Match, Oxford were also crowned champions at the British University Dancesport Championships. So all I can say to all dancers at Oxford in true Bruce Forsyth fashion – Keeeeep dancing!
Film Wars: Too Much Cash Will Kill You
Pro Arthouse: Benjamin Kirby
Too much money can kill your film. For every dollar the studio gives a filmmaker, there’s one less risk they allow him to take – their mind is on box office returns, not artistic merit. Take Avatar, for instance. It’s true that criticising Avatar is like violently kicking a poor, confused, defenceless blue kitten (in 3D), but as the most expensive film ever made, it’s the best example of how money throttles originality. Within ten minutes, a two year old could have drawn out the rest of the plot in crayon on the back of a napkin. Still, it’s the highest grossing film of all time, so clearly James Cameron and his moneymen were proved financially wise to avoid any original thought.
Arthouse films don’t have this problem. Without access to the funds that sunk the Pirates of the Caribbean films, the Star Wars prequels, the Transformers trilogy (brace yourselves – part 3 is coming) and countless others, arthouse filmmakers must instead concentrate on things that don’t cost money: plot, characters, ideas. While modern audiences are increasingly desensitised to the best CGI money can buy, arthouse films still have the capacity to surprise. The most exciting filmmakers working today – Paul Thomas Anderson, Charlie Kaufman and Werner Herzog, to name a few – operate without big budgets.
But it’s not just about money. It is the arthouse sensibility that is key – a desire to produce something interesting, challenging and new. In short, a respect for the audience. Encouragingly, some directors have beaten the blockbuster system and brought this sensibility into mainstream films. Stanley Kubrick and Ridley Scott did this with 2001 and Blade Runner respectively, while Christopher Nolan has gone from making the brilliant, low-budget Memento to the biggest budget arthouse film ever made: The Dark Knight. James Cameron could learn a thing or two.
Pro Blockbuster: Louisa Claire-Dunnigan
Blockbusters take their name from an aerial bomb, capable of destroying whole blocks of buildings. The resonances still remain in the complaints of blockbusters squashing smaller films out of the market, crashing into our cinemas. The media portrayal of the 2010 Oscars as a David and Goliath battle between Avatar and The Hurt Locker played into the old aggressive image of the blockbuster movie.
Yet no one is holding a gun to your head as you go to see the latest Twilight film, or 3D animation. One of a blockbuster’s defining features is that people do go to see it, lots of people. It’s not elitist or obscure. Out of the millions who watched Alice in Wonderland or Avatar then, there must have been some who enjoyed them.
A film’s value should be judged by two simple tests; is it interesting and is it fun? One of the benefits of a market that is geared towards pleasing its target audience, to getting bums on seats, is that these films are often extremely enjoyable. There is a buzz and an energy in a cinema of people waiting to watch the eagerly anticipated blockbuster that is just not there in the reserved and contemplative arthouse audience.
You may not get lingering shots of shadows on a glass, but you will get sweeping shots over rolling sand dunes, chases and gunfights in vibrant markets, jungles, skyscrapers and CGI dream sequences. The money that backs blockbusters allows directors to shoot on location, spend days waiting for the right shot, to use effects and the latest technology to make film watching an experience.
With films like Avatar, which had no big names yet became the highest grossing film of all time, the landscape of blockbuster films is changing. Critics are predicting blockbusters that don’t need stars to sell. As blockbusters get smarter, it’s no longer cool to be snobbish about ‘crowd pleasers’ – critics are now part of the crowds.
Film Wars: PC Power
Pro CGI Animation: Matt Isard
There is no question of the fact that hand drawn animation has made classic films. Childhood movies (think Bambi, or Snow White) will forever been crucial to cinema. Now, however, the new way of telling stories is CGI.
You can’t talk about CGI without mentioning the big studios, Pixar, and Dreamworks, who have made a fortune out of the new technology. Pixar’s Up opened with a staggering $64 million, $44 million more than Disney’s recent hand-drawn release The Princess and the Frog. Admittedly high box office figures don’t make a good film, otherwise every Harry Potter would have won an Oscar and The Hurt Locker would be at the bottom of the bargain bin. CGI, however, unarguably has the power to drag you into the film itself. The worlds that CGI achieves have more depth, texture and richness than anything drawn with pencil and paper. The beautiful coral of Finding Nemo and Puss’ fur in Shrek make CGI films feel more real to the audience. CGI animation also gives each character more expression and life than their drawn counterparts. The character that most epitomizes this is Pixar’s Wall.E; the mute metallic robot is one of the most expressive, adorable characters in animation – all done through a computer. It is true CGI films can be nothing more than cash cows, as films like A Shark’s Tale make explicitly obvious. However, what movie genre doesn’t have a few embarrassments that were better off on the drawing board?
CGI will also evolve as films continue to evolve. The animation will improve, the techniques will improve and, if Pixar are anything to go by, the stories will improve. Its existing stunning properties coupled with a limitless potential to be better is why I will always champion CGI over and above hand drawn animation.
Pro Handrawn Animation: Sophie Adelman
Hand drawn over CGI? Are we kidding around here? When Mickey Mouse first burst on the scene in Steamboat Willie in 1928, did anyone tell him that his explosions weren’t big enough? That there weren’t enough Avatars roaming around? No, it was just a mouse whistling in a boat. Sure, he might have been censored later for questionable animal abuse (look it up), but hand drawn animation has a type of charm and wonder about it that makes CGI look cold, sterile, and uninspired.
Nowadays, any Joe Schmoe can crack open his laptop and get to fiddling with some computer animation. One clever piece of programming later, and you’ve got a jerky, bloated figure lurching across a screen like a modern-day Frankenstein. Where’s the artistry in that? Maybe it’s the nostalgic side of me, but I long for the animation of yesteryear, the golden years of Disney, of fat singing mice and enchanted princesses with doe-eyes and extreme amounts of luscious long locks. I find it no coincidence that as computer-generated animation has increased, it has become harder to find quality animated productions. Animation has become an industry hell bent on out-doing itself, and in doing so, has become its own worst enemy, bested by epic battle scenes and gut-wrenching aliens. With the exception of a few notable productions, such as Up, which received a Best Picture nod this year at the Oscars, CGI has abandoned substance in favor of style.
In short, CGI is just an easy way out, becoming a mockery of a true animation-an art form that is visceral, enchanting, and timeless. As for me, I’m busting out the videocassettes and settling down to some entertainment that is worthy of the label of artistry. So you can keep the fifth Shrek in its plastic-wrapped package.