“ | Not my gumdrop buttons! | ” |
—Gingerbread Man |
Gingerbread Man, also known as Gingy, is a gingerbread cookie who was created by the Muffin Man. He is one of Shrek's good friends.
Appearances
Gingy is made of gingerbread and is about the size of a human hand. He is decorated with colored frosting as and two gumdrops of which he is very protective of. After losing both of his legs, he attached a new pair using white frosting as stitches.
Personality
Gingy presents himself as a cheerful and carefree individual. However, this is mostly a facade for his public appearances, as he has shown to be an extreme worrywart and is occasionally snarky. This is prevalent when he insults characters like Prince Charming (who he calls "King of the Stupids") and Pinocchio (saying to him "Guess what Pinocchio no one cares!"). He can especially be put on edge when seeing the consumption of other gingerbread people (even if they aren't alive). Alongside this, he is extremely devoted to his craft with gingerbread houses. Whenever someone wrecks his work, he will unleash his frustration onto any culprit.
Bio
Early Life
Gingy was created by the Muffin Man, along with the rest of the Gingerbread people. Some years later, he attended Cookie Academy in Home Economics. Sometime later he married an unnamed gingerbread woman, though the relationship that didn’t last long.
Shrek
Gingy is first seen being interrogated by Thelonius in the Duloc Dungeon under the orders of Lord Farquaad. Thelonious tortures Gingy in order to make him confess to the location of other fairytale creatures in Duloc. Thelonius rips off both of his legs and repeatedly dunks him head first into a glass of milk. Farquaad takes over the interrogation and taunts Gingy with his broken-off legs, throwing one of his legs at him and crumbling the other into pieces. Gingy resists and spits in Farquaad's eyes, causing him to threaten to take off one of Gingy's gumdrop buttons. This seemingly gets Gingy to give in and mention a woman married to the Muffin Man. Before he can continue, they are interrupted by Farquaad's captain who informs Farquaad that they have found the Magic Mirror. When the Magic Mirror awakens, Gingy yells at him to not give up the locations of any fairytale creatures. He is quickly thrown into a trash can by Farquaad.
At Shrek and Fiona's wedding, Gingy is seen attending with one of his legs attached back with white glaze and walking with a candy cane. He quotes "God bless us, everyone!" while waving at the audience. He then climbs onto Farquaad's wedding cake, whacking the figurine of Farquaad down and then dancing with the figurine of Fiona.
Shrek 2
While Shrek, Princess Fiona, and Donkey go to Far Far Away, Gingy and the other fairy tale creatures watch over the swamp. He has another new leg attached which also has frosting stiches. Gingy and the rest are enjoying themselves at Shrek's house for most of the film, eating buffalo wings and watching T.V. They watch Shrek, Donkey, and Puss in Boots get arrested on the show K.N.I.G.H.T.S. (which Gingy claims is a good TV show), and immediately venture to Far Far Away to help the trio. The group then arrive at the Jail Tower and help Shrek, Donkey and Puss escape. Afterwards, Shrek and Gingy go to the Muffin Man's house and make a giant gingerbread man named Mongo.
Mongo breaks into the Far Far Away Palace with Shrek and Gingy standing on top of his shoulders. Mongo holds open the drawbridge for Shrek to enter, but his arms get severed after guards pour vats of hot milk on him. Mongo slowly sinks into the moat surrounding the castle, and Gingy jumps after him. Mongo tells Gingy to "be good" and Puss saves Gingy from sinking into the water along with Mongo. Gingy along with the rest of the group helps Shrek defeat the Fairy Godmother. After the events, he is seen dancing with Tinker Bell during the dance party.
Shrek the Third
Gingy gave a present to Fiona, where he and Pinocchio give her a baby carrier. He says "You know the baby's gonna love it because I do." When Prince Charming and Captain Hook broke in, they demanded to know where Shrek was. Gingy refused to tell, and when confronted by Hook, his life flashed before his own eyes. He sings "On the Good Ship Lollipop" as he is reminiscing, causing confusion to the villains. He was later placed in a deserted bakery, and was rescued by Donkey and Puss in Boots.
Gingy was also at the big rescue seen in the end, where he slid down Rapunzel's hair, revealing that it was really a wig. He is then surrounded by the black knights, who all aim their weapons at him. Scared, he poops a piece of gumdrop, which he is embarrassed by. When the villains are moved by Artie's speech, one of the knights gives Gingy a hi-five.
Shrek the Halls
Gingy attends Christmas as Shrek's house with the fairytale creatures. He hits on a gingerbread angel saying "Did you hurt yourself when you fell out of heaven?" During the party, he vomits a chocolate chip in front of Shrek. Donkey then eats the chip. Later the gang tell various Christmas stories, and Gingy chimes in with a traumatic story of his past. He reveals that he's afraid of Santa Claus because he ate his girlfriend Suzy; though no one believes him. He claims "you weren't there!" when Donkey tries to call him out.
In the ending, when Shrek and the gang go outside and see Santa riding in his sleigh, Gingy runs back inside screaming and slams the door (presumably locking everyone out in the process).
Shrek Forever After
Gingy is first seen at the ogre triplets' birthday party at the Candy Apple. The Muffin Man gives him a special pair of frosting pants along with a cookie cowboy hat. He then exclaims "Yee-haw! Giddy up!" and introduces the Sprinkles the Ogre cake to Shrek. After Shrek roars and smashes the backup birthday cake, Gingy is saddened by the outburst along with all of the partygoers.
When Shrek enters the alternate reality, Gingy is seen fighting animal crackers as a gladiator, using a lollipop as a weapon. He is one of the many individuals who is aware of the bounty promised by Rumpelstiltskin if one were to bring in Shrek. Later, he is seen approaching Shrek, trying to fight him with his lollipop weapon. After his failed attempt, he offers information on Rumpelstiltskin. Unfortunately, a fat and lazy Puss eats him before he's able to convey any information to Shrek. However, when Shrek returns to the real world at the end, Gingy is alive and well.
In a deleted scene, Gingy fights alongside Pinocchio, The Big Bad Wolf , The Three Little Pigs and The Three Blind Mice against Shrek. He also uses his Animal Crackers to attack Shrek.
Scared Shrekless
Gingy tags along with Shrek and the gang to tell scary stories at an abandoned Duloc. He recalls his experience in a rather deadly relationship in the story, "The Bride of Gingy". Starting by telling the Muffin Man how his latest girlfriend kicked him out, leading to force the creation of a woman who would "love him forever". He gets his wish, and his new girlfriend Sugar is created. Realizing her clingy nature, causing his personal life to come to a halt, he tries to run from her. This backfires as Sugar tries to convince him to come back, only to fall in the cookie dough to her death (supposedly). Little to Gingy's knowledge, the baking machine caused zombie versions of Sugar to break in his home and eat him. Scaring the three pigs and boring the Big Bad Wolf, he is called out for still being alive despite the story's ending. He then leaves out of embarrassment, claiming to see Farquaad's ghost.
Donkey's Christmas Shrektacular
Gingy is seen trying to protect some gingerbread cookies from anyone, particularly Santa who would want to eat them. He used a toothpick to prick Pinocchio’s hand when he tries to get one to eat. The puppet tells that "they're just cookies, it's not like they're real." Gingy counteracts by asking "What do you know about being real?" He then tells everyone to "wrap it up," transitioning into the "Fairytale Rock" finale. In the last shot, Gingy is driving a choo-choo train with the gingerbread people. He ends by saying "No one's gonna eat you this year!"
Swamp Talk
His only appearance in the series was "Gingerbread Man vs. Humpty Dumpty". Shrek and Donkey debate on who'd win in a fight, with Shrek ending with a dark joke about how his stomach would be the winner.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
Gingy makes a cameo in the flashback of Puss' seventh death. Gingy can be seen inside Drury Lane (according to the junior novel) watching Puss in Boots baking what appears to be bread. He says that Puss had set the oven too high and Puss claims that he is the "master of the baking", but ends up getting blasted by the oven's fire.
Video Game Appearances
Gingy is one of the playable characters in the Shrek 2 video game. He is playable in "Shrek's Swamp", "Ogre Killer", "Walking The Path", "Jack and Jill's Farm", "Prison Break", "The Mines" and "Cookie, Cookie". His special ability allows him to throw sweet-smelling cookies which have the ability to distract enemies and animals.
Gingy appeared in Shrek Super Slam as one of the 10 starting characters. His Super Slam has him spin around while throwing candy. He also stars in two chapters in the game's story mode, those being Crumb Guns and Cookie Style. In both, he downs unique outfits, those being a cowboy outfit and pimp outfit respectively.
He also appeared in Shrek Smash and Crash Racing as one of the four racers that are unlocked from the start. Gingy's kart is the Cupcake Horse that Donkey created from a picnic basket with the Fairy Godmother's magic wand. Gingy's personal item is a candy cane.
Trivia
- In the Scared Shrekless segment, "The Bride of Gingy", the Muffin Man's process in creating sentient sweets is fully revealed. This could hint that Gingy is not a creation of magic, but of science. It can also be assumed in Shrek 2 with the creation of his brother Mongo, and him yelling "It's alive!", a line from the 1931 horror classic Frankenstein.
- As mentioned above, Gingy has Santaphobia because his former significant other Suzy was eaten alive by Santa Claus.
- He seems to be best friends with Pinocchio, whom he has a similar voice to (although Gingy’s is more high pitched).
- In the Latin Spanish dub of the movie, the scene where Gingy said “Eat Me” right before spitting in Farquaad’s face, he called Farquaad a pig.
- It is unknown how he got his other leg replaced by the events of the second movie due to the other leg being grinded up into pieces.
- It is implied that the Muffin Man patched him a new pair of legs some time after Shrek and Fiona's honeymoon.
- In the Latin Spanish dub, Gingy was voiced by Jesús Barrero, who passed away in February 16th, 2016. For his cameo in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Gingy was voiced by his nephew, José Gilberto Vilchis.