John Cale on screen

Shrek

Directors: Andrew Adamson & Vicky Jenson (2001)

This animation movie contains one John Cale song: his rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, albeit without a verse with sexual content.

The soundtrack of this movie features Rufus Wainwright singing this song. Mr. Wainwright nicked Cale's arrangements.

The one verse that was cut from the song was supposedly "for synchronizing purposes" with the actual scenes in the movie. It is also discussed in the DVD extras. Cale in Mojo (February 2007):

"I don't consider it my music, I consider it Leonard's. I'd always regarded that song as quintessential Leonard. That version was initially recorded for an Les Inrockuptibles compilation [1991's I'm Your Fan]. There were originally 15 verses to the song, some of them intensely religious, and I felt uncomfortable singing those, so I changed them around. If you watch the DVD extras on Shrek, there's one of a long conversation between the directors, an American lady and an Australian guy, I think, discussing how certain scenes came about. When they come to that scene, the guy is obviously a fan and the lady less so. He says, you know, expansively, like, 'Oh, John Cale's voice, whenever I hear his voice I wanna cry.' And the lady responds, drily, ''Well, there were a number of times during the making of this movie when I felt like crying too!' It was very funny."

Cale's version can be found on the I'm Your Fan album (1991), a tribute to Leonard Cohen.